Curing
and
Drying - The compost must be stabilized completely before it is added to the soil. Otherwise, it will remove the nitrogen, which is available to the plant, from the soil in the final stages of its degradation.
In case of windrow composting, to ensure complete stabilization the compost is cured for a period of two weeks in shallow piles. In mechanical composting, curing periods can range upto three weeks or may be absent.
