Wood vinegar is not the vinegar that you and I use in cooking adobo. Popularized by the Japanese which is also called Mokusako, wood vinegar is the liquid that is collected from the condensation that takes place in a chimney-like attachment to a fire chamber where wood and other combustible materials are burned.

Wood vinegar has several uses in agriculture, but in this post, we will just confine to its use as a compost activator. One fellow who uses wood vinegar as compost activator is Jeff Laruan, an organic farmer in La Trinidad, Benguet. Wood vinegar can turn materials being composted into organic fertilizer in just 15 days compared to several months without activator.

Here’s how Jeff does it.He sprays wood vinegar to the materials for composting. He mixes four liters of wood vinegar with water to fill a drum that contains 200 liters. This is enough to wet 3,000 kilos of composting materials. The mixture is applied only once to wet the materials for composting. That’s it!