Effect of Bulking Agent Particle Size on Garden Waste–Dairy Manure Composting: Relationship Between Microbial Community Dynamics and Physicochemical Factors

Garden waste is a solid waste produced by plant littering or pruning. Improper disposal can easily pollute the environment. The addition of bulking agents (BAs) can improve the efficiency of organic waste composting. In this study, garden waste and dairy manure were used as raw materials, and easily available and recyclable branches were used as bulking agents to realize the synergistic resource utilization of the two. Three treatments were set up in the experiment, and 10% crushed branches, 1 cm branches, and 3 cm branches were added to the raw materials, respectively. The results showed that compared with the control group (adding crushed branches), the addition of 1 cm branches and 3 cm branches increased the cellulose degradation rate by 13.16–13.33% and the hemicellulose degradation rate by 18.24–23.86%. The monitoring results of CO2 release showed that the cumulative CO2 release of the treatment groups with 1 cm and 3 cm branches was 78.56 L and 102.17 L, respectively, which was significantly higher than that of the crushed branches (67.24 L), indicating that the addition of 1 cm and 3 cm branches increased microbial activity and degradation efficiency. Microbial diversity analysis further showed that in the treatment group with 1 cm branches, the number of nodes in the co-occurrence network increased by 24.11% and 2.84%, respectively, compared with the crushed branches and 3 cm branches, and the number of edges increased by 44.25% and 19.72%, forming the most abundant and complex microbial community, which verified its promotion effect on the composting process from the microbial level. In summary, this study recommends the use of branches with a particle size of 1 cm as BAs for garden waste composting.