Compost ratio

I'm starting trying start my first compost. I keep seeing a carbon to nitrogen ratio of 30:1. Is that by weight or volume? Most kitchen scrap is nitrogen so that's the one I have plenty of but that's the low part of the 30:1 ratio. Winter just thawed out and I have bunch of dried grass on my lawn. Grass clipping is considered green, but is dried grass considered brown (besides the fact that it looks brown)? Can I dry "green" things out and it turns to brown material? Seems like brown is harder to generate in that quantity than green material since lawn is mulched, but is needed in vastly greater quantities. Even using newspaper, that's a lot of newspaper compared to how much kitchen scrap is generated daily. There's no way I can compost all my kitchen scrap. I know people talk about straw and hay, but those things are bulky and I don't have room to store a bale of hay until kitchen scrap catches up nor do I have a compost bin large enough for that much hay. What are people using for brown material? Maybe I could start spread chopped up kitchen scraps on my lawn and let it do its thing. I kid.

Reply to
cl999
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It is not complex once you get started. Some folks get lost in particulars others in generalities. I favor the latter.

Bill

Reply to
Bill

I drive around the neighborhood and take all the bags of leaves set out very neatly by the neighbors. They are anal retentive and bag the leaves instead of just using a mulching blade. So, that's where I get more than enough brown. If there are no neighbor bags of leaves, spend two dollars and buy a bag of shredded tree mulch and layer it in with the green. No you can't turn green into brown with grass. You can with leaves for some reason, but grass no.

Reply to
Jangchub

I don't know any gardeners who weigh or measure their compost. It's not rocket science. Try to have 50/50 of brown/green. If your pile is not giving off steam and smelling "earthy," something is not right. I havn't had much luck composting newspaper, but I don't buy newspaper anymore since I read online. You can shred newspaper and use as brown material.

Reply to
Phisherman

Following up to the OP thru you as your and jangchub's replies remind me of cat daddy's classic response......

"Spread it on the ground, pile it up, add stuff or not....... Just don't bag it up and throw it away. It's all good." cat daddy

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

All good advices. Two reasons I'm asking about composting the "right" way is because A) I don't want it to start stinking by having too much nitrogen and B) I want to minimize the time so I can start using it this summer. Being an engineer I tend to overthink things. No, it's not rocket science, but I'm sure some ratios are better than others so I'm trying to learn from other's experiences from the start instead of trial and error on my own.

Just so I have an idea, is that 50/50 brown/green by weight? Would make sense since it's the amount of material that would be working with each other. That 30:1 ratio is probably by volume because brown is so much lighter. We probably generate a few pounds of green each day. That's a lot of leaves I have to keep around to keep up with the green since brown is so light...Perhaps once I get the pile going it would regulate itself so I don't have to worry so much about what I'm throwing in.

Reply to
cl999

wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@d45g2000hsc.googlegroups.com...

Any mixture will eventually rot into perfectly good compost given enough time. If there is not enough nitrogen in the pile, it will just take longer because the bacteria population will be limited by the amount of nitrogen available.

It won't get stinky unless it goes anaerobic, so just make sure the pile can breath well enough. There are lots of ways to do this: keeping the pile smaller, adding materials with a lot of "structure" (like hedge or woody shrub trimmings, stalks from last year's sunflowers, etc.), or turning the pile frequently. Big piles of grass clippings or wet leaves tend to mat together and reduce aeration. Mixing a whole bunch of different things together helps avoid that.

During much of the year my pile gets essentially nothing but kitchen scraps added to it, but during that part of the year the pile is small so it still breaths and has never gotten stinky. During other parts of the year I have a huge excess of "browns" (e.g. shrub trimmings, autumn leaves), which just slows the decomposition down a bit, but everything works out in the end. The only thing that would keep it from decomposing entirely was if the pile dried out and stayed dry.

There are three different groups of decomposition bacteria that are maximally active at different temperatures:

psychrophilic -- 32-50 degrees or something like that mesophyllic -- 70-90 degrees thermophilic -- ~140 degrees

I probably have the exact temps wrong but you get the idea. The theory that if you don't have heat and steam, something is wrong, is IMO not true. It just means you are not in the temperature zone of the thermophiles. If you want really fast decomposition, yes then you need to get the thermophiles busy, which means getting enough nitrogen in and a large enough pile so you can have a bacteria population boom and retain the heat. (A book I read on composting recommended animal manure for nitrogen.) The high temperature also helps kill weed seeds and other pathogens. However, if you did not put weedy, diseased inputs into the pile, this is not that important, and this same book claimed that the finished compost that retains the most nutrients is that which is mainly produced by a mesophyllic decomposition. If the pile is small (~less than two cubic yards), it can't retain enough heat to get the thermophiles going and you will get mesophyllic decomposition when the weather is warm enough, and psychrophilic (very slow) when it is colder. Another problem with thermophilic piles is the temperature kills many desirable soil organisms, other decomposition bacteria, and those wonderful decomposition workers known as red worms. Finally, if you have a well-aerated pile that is large and well-insulated enough, it can actually catch on fire from thermophiloc decomposition -- so if you are going for hot, make sure the pile is in a safe place! (If you have a small pile and really want to achieve thermophilic decomposition, the same book recommended covering the entire pile with a six-inch layer of soil to help insulate it. Good soil -- such as soil you have been adding finished compost to for several years -- also contains significant nitrogen and a broad array of decomposition organisms.)

The short of it, in my experience, is just throw whatever you have into the pile and don't worry about it. Turn it once in a while if it needs aeration, and water it once in a while if you have a dry spell. Nature will take care of the rest for you.

Kevin

Reply to
Kevin Cherkauer

C:N ratio is by (dry) weight, typically

Oh, not really. Newsprint has a C:N ratio of somewhere over

400. That means they can balance 5-10 times as much 'green' material as can autumn leaves or straw!

I use leaves which I pick up all around town in the fall, shred and compact into contractor-grade bags, and store way in the back for use in mulching and composting the next year.

I also use shredded paper (if the leaf supply is running low).

Wood chips are also a good (and very 'brown') ingredient. They will make the compost mix a bit 'airier' (less apt to compact).

This table might be useful:

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Reply to
Pat Kiewicz

I over think as well, but compost is not hard. The ratio is not by weight, it's by volulme. I don't think 50/50 is a good ratio by volume UNLESS you will be able to keep the pile relatively dry and turn it every three days or so. The more you turn a pile, the faster it will turn into humus which you can use on the soil.

Volume not weight.

Reply to
Jangchub

Again, thank you for all the good suggestions. This newsgroup has been the most active and helpful I've visited in recent years (after all the spam bot activity got heavy and newsgroup popularity declined). I'm getting more confident now. After I read the first responses, I searched google again using different terms and realized the 30:1 ratio is not volume or weight, but the actual carbon and nitrogen content. I wish the web sites I came across first were more clear. They made it sound like C:N ratio is the same as brown:green ratio (implied by saying that some things are brown and others are green) when in fact there's no brown:green ratio because not all materials are created equal and everything is shades of brown and green. I did come across the Cornell site last night and the light went off in my head. Very exciting stuff (for me at least). Thanks you all again.

Reply to
cl999

I can't believe you said that!

I had a neighborhood cafe that saved their salad/veggie scraps for me, I picked up one or two 5 gallon buckets every night on my way home from work. I dumped this on my compost piles along with my kitchen scraps, it wasn't "too much". I had 3 compost bins; one by the back kitchen door, one in the veggie garden and one behind the garage. They got whatever was at hand in the close proximity tossed on them while I worked in the garden. Just depended on what time of the year it was as to what was tossed on. The only thing I didn't use were lawn clippings. I had eliminated every blade of grass on my property, I personally see no reason for 30 gazillion little high maintenence plants that all look the same, I don't DO lawn. Kitchen scraps, trimmings, prunings, the rubble from garden grooming, leaves, fireplace ash, all tossed on in the random order of appearance, a son occasionally "dampening the pile" (Don't you dare walk through the house with those dirty shoes!) while out doing garden chores, it worked. No recipes, no weights and measures, none of them stunk, they all produced fine garden gold.

Find somebody with a good old compost pile and wheedle a shovelful from that pile and toss it on yours, that will help start yours up. Toss on all those scraps and once in a while sprinkle a shovelful of garden soil over yours if you think it's getting mucky. When you are working in your garden walk over with a pitchfork and give it a few jabs and twists to stir things up a bit and give it a breath of air. Maybe shred up that precise recipe for compost while you're at it and toss that into the pile as well. Loosen up your anally engineered sphincter, man. You said it...this isn't really rocket science. If you really want *immediate* compost go buy a bag and then use what you're making when it's ready. Otherwise just kick back and let it rot, have a beer, relax. A compost pile is never 'done', you just eventually harvest what's ripe and it continues on doing what it's supposed to do. It's alive, it rots, it's compost.

Val

Reply to
Val

That was under the assumption that I needed 30 times the brown material for my kitchen scrap. I have since learned that it is not true. I'm just trying to learn. It might be easy for you because you know how to do it. Last time I tried I thought I could just throw kitchen scrap in a bin outsife. Well, it turned out to be a giant pile of rotten garbage. I guess it was still technically a compost heap, but it's not the way I (or my neighbors) preferred to do it.I didn't know about brown and green or carbon and nitrogen. Even those the composting process is very forgiving and no right or wrong way, there's still good ways and bad ways of doing it.

really rocket

Wouldn't have my sphincter engineered any other way. That part works just fine, unlike my previous attempt at composting.

None of the web sites said anything about beer being part of composting. I like your method much better!

Reply to
cl999

really rocket

Beer is good for compost, just make sure it goes thru you first!

Reply to
Charlie

Just my opinion... I don't worry about it. Compost can be about as simple, or as complicated, as your approach to it. And I like simple.

My only issue is whether the stuff has any nasty chemicals on it. For example, a paper towel with certain cleaners on it, will go in the regular rubbish instead.

But, generally, kitchen scraps, grass clippings, leaves, pulled weeds (with clumps of soil), and some paper... I just dump it all in. Without attempting any mathematical equations.

I use two commercially-sold plastic bins (240 litres each), to alternate filling and aging. I add a bit of water and urine (yes, urine) to the full one. Plus some extra water to the bucket in my kitchen for scraps (dumped in every couple of days.)

I don't even put much effort into turning the contents of either bin.

But, it works out OK for me. In this particular location, the only thing I might change, is buying some worms. Because my soil is clay-ish and compacted, and has a low natural population of them.

Reply to
Coffee's For Closers

really rocket

What about female urine, which can contain the chemicals -- hormones; birth control pills; other "products" excreted by many females -- that are now said to be causing distorted development among marine mammals and fish who live in waters that have received these toilet flushings

Straight question.

Persephone

Reply to
Persephone

Good point. Dammit, I know about the situation with excreted drugs in water supplies,, but didn't *even* extrapolate that to direct application in the garden.

My only excuse was thinking of myself personally and knowing that my urine doesn't contain any drugs, other than herbals. And I guess whatever toxins I unknowingly or unavoidably ingest.

Thanks. Seriously. Your point is a damn good one.

Charlie

Reply to
Charlie

Well, if your cauliflower grows four heads... and your tomatoes are a ghastly white and your green onions are short and purple (etc) ....you have been warned!

Persephone

Persephone

Reply to
Persephone

Oh crap, some of my maters were white last year!!!

Oh, wait.....they were White Tomasils...hehehehe.

Reply to
Charlie

Put the worms in the bins instead of your garden.

Reply to
Father Haskell

Hi

If you run out of composting material or need a specific type of growing medium, try a John Innes mix. You can experiment to see which one suits the plants the best. . Each of these recipes make about one cubic yard of potting compost.

John Innes Base Fertilizer.

2 parts by weight hoof and horn. 2 parts by weight superphosphate of lime 1 part by weight sulphate of potash.

John Innes Potting Compost No 1

7 parts by bulk sterilised loam. 3 parts by bulk granulated peat. 2 parts by bulk coarse sand. To which is added: 5lbs of John Innes base Fertiliser. 1lb of ground limestone or chalk per cubic yard.

John Innes Potting Compost No 2

7 parts by bulk sterilised loam. 3 parts by bulk granulated peat. 2 parts by bulk coarse sand. To which is added. 10lb John Innes Base Fertiliser. 2lb ground limestone or chalk per cubic yard.

John Innes Potting Compost No 3 The same as No 2 but add

15lb of Base fertiliser and 3lb of chalk per cubic yard.

John Innes Seed Compost.

2 parts by bulk sterilised loam. 1 part by bulk granulated peat. 1part by bulk coarse sand. To which is added: 2lb of superphosphate of lime. 1lb ground limestone or chalk per cubic yard.

Cheers

Ian

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Reply to
inishindie

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