163: Onsite Compost Production Using Vineyard Waste

Like with many projects on a sustainable farm, composting at Niner Wines Estates began with a problem; what could be done with all the pumice from the winemaking operations. Patrick Muran Winemaker at Niner Wine Estates started experimenting with thermal aerobic composting in 2016. With a 200-acre property, the farm has a diverse array of plant material coming from the restaurant garden, cover crops, and vineyards. Patrick explains how they turned a waste stream product into a valuable commodity including what temperature a compost pile must reach, what plant material to include, how to inoculate a new pile, and how long it takes to make top quality compost.

References:

• 1/20/2023 REGISTER: Improving Soil Health with Compost & Vermiculture Tailgate
• 53: Producing Compost and Carbon Sequestration
• 106: What? Bury Charcoal in the Vineyard?
• 151: The Role of the Soil Microbiome in Soil Health
• 153: The Role of Nematodes in Soil Health
• Aerated Compost Tea
• Composting Handbook
• Compost Use for Improved Soil Poster Series
• Improving and Maintaining Compost Quality
• Niner Wine Estates
• SIP Certified
• Testing Composts
• Tipsheet: Compost
• Vineyard Team – Become a Member

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Transcript

Craig Macmillan  0:00 

Our guest today is Patrick Moran, winemaker at Niner Wine Estates in Paso Robles, California. And today we're going to talk about composting. Welcome, Patrick.

 

Patrick Muran  0:07 

Thank you, Craig. Happy to be here. And to talk about some compost today.

 

Craig Macmillan  0:11 

Yes, we are. And in the spirit of full disclosure, I want to let everybody know that Patrick and I work together. So this is not the first time that we've talked about this. So I know about what we do. But we're gonna try to get into the details here and try not to forget anything. It's a really cool project that you, you kind of you founded. Correct. You kind of got this whole thing going, right?

 

Patrick Muran  0:31 

Yeah, it was birthed out of a problem of what do we do with all this pumice waste and ruin to kind of a passion project of figuring out how to unlock the keys and composting all this waste that we had?

 

Craig Macmillan  0:49 

So when did it start? How long have you been doing this?

 

Patrick Muran  0:52 

So this started late 2016, early 2017, we start building piles, Gosh, 5, 6 years now?