compost items by volumn - question???

Thu May 12, 2011 11:16 pm

I did a few searches for this question,.. but didn't have any luck fining anything. Sorry if this has been covered (I figure it has)
Any hoo... I am totally new to composting..
I see the different percentages for greens and browns... (I see some conflicting numbers.. so not sure what to believe)
But just for the sake of my question.. lets assume it's 50/50.Now here's the question.
If we put in 50% greens and 50% browns... is that my volumn of by weight.
Needless to say a bucket (by weight) of leaves (probably weights 1 lb)... is far smaller than a bucket of veggies (could weigh 10 pounds.)
So tell me.. how to I ball park the amounts to add in.
THANKS
I am so excited about getting this going

Fri May 13, 2011 2:23 am

I'm more of a "use what I have" type of composter! I have to really scrounge to come up with any ingredients to put in there so....

Worry less about ratio's and just "do it"!

Fri May 13, 2011 2:48 am

yeah.. I can see what you are saying.
Since I JUST got the compost bin finished today it has nothing in it yet. But I started saving a week ago, and have corn husk, banana peels, apple cores, etc ready to go in
I live out in the country with LOTS of trees, and I piled up a ton of leaves this spring.. so I know that I have plenty of browns.
I saw where someone posted about getting coffee grounds from starBucks... just so happens I was headed to the grocery store, and my local Kroger has a StarBucks inside it... so the gal was more than happen to give me the grounds from the whole day...
So I'll start the process tomorrow

Anyone feel free to chime.. I am so 'green' at this LOL :-)

Fri May 13, 2011 2:57 am

Here's an 8-page Sticky at the top of the Composting Forum on Greens and Browns. There are also links inside it to sources of info like you're seeking. One member who frequently posts the links (which I can't remember right now *rats*) is "rot"--yep, a composter! so...

a Search of the Forum on the term "greens browns" with author "rot" will most likely get the links!

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Fri May 13, 2011 3:04 am

Happy composting

Fri May 13, 2011 3:15 am

ok cool.. thanks for everyones input...
Grass clipping 'greens' I hardly ever have... so I suppose my source of greens is going to be household scraps.
Like I said above.. I think I just found a source to get all the coffee grounds I want. So that could be my main source of greens.
(can you over-do it with coffee grounds... I am wondering if variety is best)

Leaves... I have out the ying-yang. LOL
Lots of trees in the neighborhood, and it seems I am raking leave from fall to spring. Maybe I should make a leaf bin like I saw someone else suggest, and save them ahead of time. Obviously right nows browns are in short supply.
I am kind of lucky that I filled a big hole with leaves over the last six months... so I can use some of those as starter. They probably started to rot already

I guess one main item is... if it stinks... add browns.. lol

Fri May 13, 2011 4:14 am

pickupguy07 wrote:I think I just found a source to get all the coffee grounds I want. So that could be my main source of greens.
(can you over-do it with coffee grounds... I am wondering if variety is best)

Leaves... I have out the ying-yang. LOL
Lots of trees in the neighborhood, and it seems I am raking leave from fall to spring. Maybe I should make a leaf bin like I saw someone else suggest, and save them ahead of time. ...

I guess one main item is... if it stinks... add browns.. lol

I made compost for a long time without any access to leaves. I used shredded newspaper and regular paper instead. So I know that it works! My greens were the usual: immature weeds, kitchen wastes.

Now that I know about...ah..."liberating" leaves, I can make more compost than I previously did, but I still incorporate a lot of paper into my bin. Because...

The tree we have is a coast redwood, Sequoia sempervirens. It takes up the back yard, and it's only 50 years old this year. Redwoods kill their competition; they don't compost. Other trees whose leaves don't "play well with others" are various kinds of walnut, magnolias, sycamores, and acacia. This isn't an exhaustive list, but the ones I personally have run into trouble with or friends have. Nice, helpful trees are fruit trees (apple, pear, etc.), oak, maple, gingko, pecan, almond, and the like. So it depends on *which* trees you have "out the ying-yang"!

Help smoothe along that nice relationship with your coffee-grounds supplier. Send him/her customers whenever possible, purchase what you can, etc. Not all coffee merchants understand that they're helping themselves as well as us, so make the benefits to them very real. (Of course you're helping reduce their solid-waste pick-up bill, but money in the hand, as opposed to money *not leaving the accounts* seems to mean more....)

And, although there are people who will say that there's a "10% rule" about compost, meaning that no more than 10% of the ingredients should be from any one thing, I disagree. If a bounty of X comes into my hands--whether that X be leaves, coffee grounds, or something else--it's going into my bin. Maybe not all at once! Maybe there isn't enough room right now! But it will go in as there's room, without any regard for 10%, 20%, or 50%.

Making compost on a home-gardening scale is not complicated. It can be made into a complicated process, but it doesn't need to be one.

Cynthia

Sat May 14, 2011 8:10 am

cool ...
Thanks Cynthia. SOunds like getting greens is just a matter of being creative. StarBucks for coffee grounds, I am sure several grocery stores will be glad to give away old rotting fruits and veggies, stores like Home depot will probably donoate you drying flowers, etc.

As far as trees,, I have oak, maple, poplar, so it sounds like they would be good leaf types. Man I get so many in the fall I have dumped a bunch in a HUGE ditch over the last 5 years. About 6 feet deep and 12 feet wide.... be nice to get soem of THAt old (I know already composting stuff) out an use it... LOL
Sounds like with a little creativity,.. folks can get most of their browns / greens with little effort.??
Of course news papers will be a great fill-in over the summer when I am waiting on more fall leaves...

Sat May 14, 2011 8:53 pm

This is a neat online Compost Calculator ...
http://www.klickitatcounty.org/solidwaste/fileshtml/organics/compostcalc.htm

They measure the materials by cubic feet, not by weight.

Sat May 14, 2011 10:08 pm

pickupguy07 wrote:cool ...
Thanks Cynthia. SOunds like getting greens is just a matter of being creative. StarBucks for coffee grounds, I am sure several grocery stores will be glad to give away old rotting fruits and veggies, stores like Home depot will probably donoate you drying flowers, etc.

As far as trees,, I have oak, maple, poplar, so it sounds like they would be good leaf types. Man I get so many in the fall I have dumped a bunch in a HUGE ditch over the last 5 years. About 6 feet deep and 12 feet wide.... be nice to get soem of THAt old (I know already composting stuff) out an use it... LOL
Sounds like with a little creativity,.. folks can get most of their browns / greens with little effort.??
Of course news papers will be a great fill-in over the summer when I am waiting on more fall leaves...

Sounds like you have a terrific situation!

You may have created leaf mold, too; a valuable plant booster in its own right. I've never had access to it, but others here have. Just check out "leaf mold" in the Search. You'll know you've created some when you run across long strands of white fungi in the old, damp leaves.

Cynthia

Sun May 15, 2011 5:12 am

pickupguy07 wrote:cool ...

As far as trees,, I have oak, maple, poplar, so it sounds like they would be good leaf types. Man I get so many in the fall I have dumped a bunch in a HUGE ditch over the last 5 years. About 6 feet deep and 12 feet wide.... be nice to get soem of THAt old (I know already composting stuff) out an use it... LOL
..

5 years worth of piled leaves ?