Question About Green & Brown Compost

[bratsmom2]

I am new to the idea of composting and read some of the green and brown composting replies and want to know if they are used on different things or on the same things? Do I store them in separate containers? How do I use them? I am new to gardening and really want to do it right. Thank you in advance....

[Toil]

Hey welcome!

If I were you, I would do a search on this site, check the stickies, and maybe google composting 101. Then just ask specific questions about the stuff that escapes you.

I'm guessing, but are you referring to "regular" v. fungal compost?

[cynthia_h]

Greens and browns are short-hand ways of referring to nitrogen- and carbon-rich ingredients of regular compost. We have a Sticky at the top of the Compost Forum with members' contributions, and there are many .edu and .gov sites on the Internet dedicated to making the composting process as accessible as possible to new gardeners.

Here are a couple of sites, just to get you started:

https://compost.css.cornell.edu/OnFarmHandbook/apa.taba1.html
https://www.plantea.com/compost-materials.htm (list of greens and browns)
https://www.compostinfo.com/ (run by the U. of Florida, not out to get your $)

Happy gardening/composting!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

[gixxerific]

I prefer to mix it all together and let nature sort it out, they now how to do it a lot better than I.

But a more green compost will be more bacterial and better for veggies and the like, a more brown (leaves, paper) will be more fungal which srubs, trees prefer.

[rainbowgardener]

Just to get you started, the basic idea is that you are creating a pile with some balance of greens and browns mixed together. So you don't need to store or pile them separately. I don't much store compostables, just add them to the pile as they come available. I do keep some eye on that balance thing, so if I dump my bucket full of kitchen scraps (green), I cover them with a good layer of fall leaves (brown) (which also keeps down smell and attracting critters). The product you are creating -- compost or humus -- is essentially fertilizer, so you want it to be balanced.

When you get really advanced, you can work on creating different composts for different applications, but most of us ordinary gardeners don't. We just make compost and then put it on EVERYTHING!

[GolfnGardener]

Rainbow gardener said it well. Balance is the key; but, luckily nature isn't as demanding as a bicycle, for example. Too much green material and your compost may smell a bit like garbage; too much brown material, and your composting action will slow down. It's very difficult to have too much brown material; folks usually have too much green material. In addition to the good information on this site, there's a great article on composting ingredients at https://www.thegardenofoz.org/composting101.asp., and some interesting articles at https://compost-twin.com/perfect.asp. Generally, you don't need to store materials, unless you've run out of room for your compost. Note also that if you have two bins or chambers, you can always allow one to "cook" while adding new ingredients to the other. When the first chamber is finished, use or store the compost, and let the other chamber cook while you add new ingredients to the now empty bin or chamber.

[Toil]

Hey words help me, maybe they will help you?

Compost. Composite. If they seem close, they are basically the same.

More similar words - , company, compassion, companion, composer, compatriot, compartment.

[Joyfirst]

Well, I do have to store brown materials, because I keep my kitchen scraps in the buckets with lids untill we bring them to my community garden plot, so I have a lot at once of "greens" and I don't have where easily to get browns. But if you have your own yard, then you can rake up some leaves or dry twigs or something. So it depends on your situation.