Compost Intensive Course
Learn how to make living, biology-rich compost with expert guidance from Soil Food Web School.
The Soil Food Web School’s Compost Intensive Course is a hands-on, 10-week online training designed to help you understand, build, manage, troubleshoot, and assess innoculant-quality compost.
Starts Monday, August 17
Ends Sunday, October 25th
The Time Is Now... And Here's Why
When made correctly, compost becomes a living biological resource that supports soil health and can improve plant resilience to pests and environmental stressors, increase yields and nutrient content, and enhance human health, all while supporting regenerative growing systems that transform and utilize organic waste products.
Mastering the art of BioComplete™ Compost production takes dedication, practice, and, often, the guidance of a trained professional. This composting process is the cornerstone of the Soil Food Web Approach, which is being used around the world to regenerate degraded soils quickly and effectively
The Soil Food Web School’s Compost Intensive Course aims to take anyone, regardless of educational background, skill level, or experience, and help them produce their own BioComplete™ Compost within 10 weeks.
About the Course
The Compost Intensive Course is a hands-on, 10-week online training designed to guide you through the process from beginning to end alongside a global cohort of peers.
There are NO prerequisites!
And it counts toward your consultant pathway*
Why It's Worth Your Time
More than 80% of the people who took our pilot version of this course walked away with successful thermophilic piles that achieved BioComplete™ biological potency.
We have designed this for maximum learning, with minimum time commitment, while optimizing for long-term impact.
Who Is This Course For?
Gardeners
You are the grassroots advocates, feeding your families and neighbors with home or market gardens.
Farmers
Large-scale producers are looking to exit the chemical system and need a plan that doesn't leave them addicted to yet another system charging high dollars for inputs or requiring decades to see results.
Composters
You're already in the game, but you know your compost can reach a higher level of biological activity and your process could be streamlined to become more reliable and duplicable.
Consultants & Agronomists
As a professional 'plant and soil doctor,' you already understand the power of biology in the land you're hired to protect. Learning the skills to create your own BioComplete™ compost on-site will help you more reliably achieve the results you and your clients desire, and create a pathway to design a closed loop to transform any organic waste materials generated in other parts of the process.
What You Will Learn
During the Compost Intensive Course, you will learn:
Feedstock for Thermal Composting
Learn how to choose and understand the materials that go into a thermophilic compost pile.
Compost Recipe, Tools, Equipment & Build Preparation
Prepare your compost recipe, gather the correct tools, and understand what is needed before building.
Pile Building and Management Methods
Learn how to build compost piles and manage them correctly from the start.
The 3 T’s of Managing a Pile
Understand the key management factors that influence compost pile performance.
Troubleshooting Compost Piles
Learn how to identify common problems and make practical corrections.
Advanced Techniques
Go deeper into compost management methods and practical improvements.
USDA Thermal Composting
Understand USDA thermal composting requirements, including management around heating cycles.
Vermicompost
Learn vermicompost methods as one important part of a complete compost education.
Cooling and Maturation Management Practices
Understand what happens after the active heating phase and how to manage compost as it matures.
Large-Scale Composting
Explore a large-scale composting approach using windrows, which can support larger production systems.
Why do I Need a Course on Composting?
Many people make compost. Fewer people understand how to intentionally, reliably, and regularly create a compost system that produces living, biology-rich material suitable for the regenerative support most of our land requires.
In this course, you will learn how to move beyond “rotting organic matter” and understand what makes compost alive, active, balanced, and useful.
You will learn how to choose feedstocks, build compost recipes, manage temperature and moisture, troubleshoot pile problems, understand the difference between thermophilic compost and vermicompost, and assess compost quality using practical field observations such as look, feel, smell, structure, and maturity.
No Microscopy Skills Needed!
Why this course? Why now?
- Master the Soil Food Web Approach to composting
- Learn on your schedule through guided video lessons on our new online portal
- Master guidance from people who worked extensively alongside Dr. Elaine Ingham
- Every question answered during the weekly live virtual classroom sessions
- Network with global peers in our dedicated online community
- Build 2 piles during the 10-week course
- Accelerate your journey to producing your own inoculant-quality compost
Course Outcome
By the end of the Compost Intensive Course, you will have a practical understanding of compost as a living system.
You will know how to build, manage, observe, troubleshoot, and improve compost piles. You will understand the difference between living compost and dead organic material. You will also have tools, worksheets, manuals, and community support to continue improving your composting practice after the course ends.
This is a lifelong skill for gardeners, growers, farmers, and anyone working with soil.
What Is Included
Your enrollment includes:
- 10 weeks of online step-by-step compost instruction.
- Live support as you produce your first 2 piles.
- 24/7 access to a dedicated community where you can network with instructors as well as peers
- Weekly video lessons.
- Weekly knowledge checks.
- Weekly live online Q&A sessions.
- Access to session recordings.
- Guided hands-on composting practice.
- Expert support during the course.
- A dedicated online community with instructors and fellow students.
- A comprehensive thermophilic compost manual.
- A vermicompost manual.
- Training on windrows for large-scale production
- A user-friendly compost worksheet with built-in calculations.
- Practical recipe and data tracking tools you can continue using after the course.
- Support with compost recipes, logs, and assignments.
- A structured path to help you build real composting skills.
* Already a Soil Food Web School Student? Learn How This Fits Into Your Education Journey.
The Compost Intensive Course is for everyone! Learn how it impacts your overall Soil Food Web learning journey below.
For custom questions, please reach out to us at [email protected] with the specifics of your situation.
Soil Food Web AP Students
For students pursuing the Soil Food Web School’s Consultant pathway, this course provides focused, practical compost training to support your wider soil biology education. You will gain hands-on experience with compost recipes, pile building, biological compost management, and practical quality assessment.
It also satisfies the same requirements covered by the AP BioComplete™ Compost one-on-one mentorship course.
Stand-Alone Compost Students
This course is also a complete stand-alone training for people who are new to the Soil Food Web School. You do not need to be enrolled in another SFW program to take this course. It is ideal for backyard gardeners, homesteaders, permaculture enthusiasts, farmers, market gardeners, community garden organizers, ecologists, biologists, environmentalists, compost makers, regenerative agriculture practitioners, and anyone who wants to learn how to make better compost whether or not they seek to become a Soil Food Web Consultant.
Frequently Asked Questions
No. The course is designed for everyone!
Join if you are new to the Soil Food Web School and have never participated in any of our other programs
Students in any stage of our other programs are also welcome to join.
Yes. The course is structured step by step and is suitable for motivated beginners, gardeners, homesteaders, farmers, and regenerative agriculture practitioners.
Advanced composters will also benefit from this course as we cover 3 types of composting (Thermophilic, vermicompost, and USDA thermal composting, as well as large-scale windrow management) to help broaden your skills and ability to create compost solutions for various scenarios and needs.
Yes. The course includes thermophilic pile management, windrows, USDA thermal composting, and large-scale composting concepts.
Yes, the goal is to provide hands-on practice and make two piles by the completion of the 10-week course.
Yes, to receive a certificate of completion and be considered a graduate of this course, you must attend at least 8 of the 10 weeks of sessions.
While recordings will be available, your live attendance is what is recorded toward completion of the course.
Even if you have no questions, you will learn from the conversation and learning that occurs while others ask questions.
Multiple classroom days and times will be made available each week to accommodate the cohort participants. We ask that you attend on the same day and time each week whenever possible, but you may switch to a different day and time in any given week if you cannot attend your regular cohort selection.
Seats are limited to maintain a high-quality learning experience and allow for student support during the course.
At this time, we will cap enrollment at 60, but may change this number depending on need.
For this cohort beginning August 17th, 2026 and ending October 25th, 2026 the cost of enrollment is $900 USD*
*Taxes not included
Education:
The course consists of educational videos that are pre-loaded into the student library that you can access at any time.
You can watch these at your leisure and rewatch as many times as you want.
We DO recommend you stay up to date with each week's lessons so that you can participate fully in the live classroom sessions, but within each week you can watch them any time that works for your personal schedule.
Self Assessments/Quizzes/Knowledge Checks:
Each week will come with a knowledge check that you take to help you discover if you have retained the necessary learning from that week's lessons.
You can take these any time after you complete that lesson section, and are allowed to re-take them as needed.
Live Classroom Sessions:
We aim to provide multiple day and time options for the live session portion of this course. We work with each cohort to determine the best time to accommodate the needs of our diverse and dispersed global student base. You will be given these options prior to the classroom start date and asked to commit to one of the slots.
Graduation depends on completing all course materials and participating in at least 8 of the 10 live sessions.
MAKE-UP SESSIONS:
If you miss one of your regular weekly sessions, you can make it up by joining one of the other sessions that week. Just communicate with your instructor ahead of time.
Graduation of this course requires you to attend a live session at least 8 of the 10 weeks
MAKE-UP SESSIONS:
If you miss one of your regular weekly sessions, you can make it up by joining one of the other sessions that week. Just communicate with your instructor ahead of time.
Yes, we plan on offering new cohorts regularly. If you want to be notified of these future cohorts, please go here and indicate your interest in the CIC: https://school.soilfoodweb.com/pages/course-interest
Yes!
The typical SFW Consultant pathway in the past followed this path with courses designed to be delivered through one-on-one mentorship:
AP Microcopy -> AP BioComplete™ Compost -> AP Liquid Amendments -> AP Field Trial
This Compost Intensive Course meets the same requirements as our AP BioComplete™ Course in that pathway and provides a cohort-based group experience more similar to a traditional virtual classroom.
So if you graduate from this CIC and are seeking to become a consultant, you no longer need to graduate from the AP BioComplete™ Compost course as part of your SFW Consultant path.
Yes, of course! None of our programs block any of our students from enrolling in another of our programs. Should you wish to seek additional support and skill-building by participating in any of our courses, you are welcome to enroll as all others do.
Our Compost Intensive Course requires no prerequisites to enroll. All are welcome.
Yes. Should you feel unsatisfied with this program, you have 30 days from purchase, or attendance in up to 3 of our live sessions (whichever comes first), to request a refund.
Beyond that, no refund requests can be considered.
We will work with enrolled students to confirm the best times to accommodate our global student base.
But for now, these are the proposed times:
- Monday 5pm EST/2pm Pacific
- Wednesday 8pm EST/5pm Pacific
- Noon Eastern Friday/9am Pacific
THESE TIMES AND DAYS MAY CHANGE