Members of the Hots Team, a community of about 30 people who bring their food scraps to the hot compost station across the parking lot from the Springhill Lake Recreation Center, recently sifted their first compost (see August 9, 2018 News Review article “Travis’ Trommel Sifter Shifts To Franklin Park Test Mode” on page 1). As they sifted, one member took sifted compost samples harvested from the top area of the curing bin, then from the middle and later the bottom of the bin, setting them aside in plastic bags labeled Top, Middle, Bottom. The hot composting group had made an agreement with the Springhill Lake Summer Earth Squad children to create a germination test, using the compost samples. Hally Ahearn met with the children to do just that early on Tuesday, August 14.
Each Earth Squad member picked a cup and helped to label each one. The young scientists learned as they filled the cups that they would have two controls in the test: a sample of potting soil and some cured compost from Howard County, called HoCoGro. Then they added the Springhill Lake neighborhood’s hot composting samples to each of three cups. Now to each of the five cups they spaced six radish seeds and watered each cup carefully. How soon would each of the samples sprout? How well would the plants grow?
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