Simple Compost Ingredients List -Browns and Greens

[rainbowgardener]

I'm just your average home gardener, not a soil scientist, so I tend to go by several times as much brown (by volume) as green, as a general rule of thumb. But IMHO it's not rocket science. If it isn't heating up, try more greens and more moisture. If it is getting slimy or smelly or nasty, add more browns... It will compost, pretty much whatever you do.

Here's an article about it, that suggests anywhere from 5:1 to 8:1 brown to green ratio by volume:

http://www.plowhearth.com/magazine/compost_how_to.asp

[mjweber54]

I don't spend a lot of time deciding if sometime is green or brown. I just put grass clippings, weeds,leaves and garden waist in my compost pile and leave it sit for 6 months. I get a lot of compost every six months.

Sometimes we can spend took much time trying to figure what potion of green or brown to add to the pile.

One of the most important things is keep your pile about 4'x4'x4' high. Too big and the center of the pile will not break down. Too small and it will not heat up enough.

My compost pile has two bins, one for new material and one for finish compost. After 6 six months I start removing the material that did not compose to the other bin. You will get to the finish compost at some point.

Mike

[sickles]

I thought that adding grass clipping and leaves could transfer weeds into your garden. What are the chances of this happening and how big of a deal can it really be? Does anyone know of a relatively inexpensive bin that has an ample amount of storage space to accomodate a garden of 2000 sq. ft?

[rainbowgardener]

I have applied my compost to my garden for many years now. I routinely get volunteer tomatoes sprouting where ever I planted with compost and occasionally get volunteer squash. That's not all bad, sometimes I let them grow. I have never had any problems with any weed seeds sprouting from the compost, even though weed seeds do go into the compost pile at times. I try to be sure to pull the weeds before they go to seed, but it doesn't always happen. I put lots of fall leaves into the pile (the grass clippings usually stay on the lawn). The lack of weeds is despite the fact that my compost pile doesn't run real hot most of the time.

[sickles]

This idea scares me to death... the rogue tomato plants that is. I am hooked on growing all heirloom tomtaoes, and from what I have been told, these rogue plants can cross pollinate my heirlooms, transforming them to another "hybrid" variety. I do not have a huge compost pile, but I NEVER add any of my tomato guts to the mix. They hit the bottom of the trash can. I do not know how serious this threat of cross pollination might be, but with all I invest (work and financially) I do not want to risk it. Are there any veggie scraps that can be detrimental to the success of my pile? What about ones that can be extrremely good for it?

[rainbowgardener]

The cross pollination is only a threat if you save the seeds. The tomatoes that grow on any of your heirloom plants will be true to the variety. If they got cross pollinated, the seeds in those tomatoes will be for some hybrid variety for next year.

No there's nothing particular in the way of veggie scraps that would be detrimental. Citrus peels can be harmful to some of the compost pile biology if over done (if they become a large percentage of what is in your pile), but are fine otherwise. What is beneficial is just a good variety of different stuff including greens and browns. Adding a bit of molasses in water can help feed all the bacteria that are breaking stuff down. Other things that are good for the pile is breaking things down into smaller bits, comfrey leaves, grass clippings, baby weeds, coffee grounds, watering the pile if it might not be moist, being sure you have enough volume of materials in the pile, adding a handful of good garden dirt now and then, turning it occasionally.

[applestar]

TZ described in some detail how to prevent cross pollination of tomatoes when saving heirloom seeds in this postand subsequent posts in the same thread. Note that, without due precaution, a % of your heirlooms can cross pollinate each other and affect the resulting seeds.

As for the volunteers, they are easily recognized and can be weeded out or be allowed to grow, depending on location and your preference. Like Rainbowgardener said, letting them grow in your garden in of itself will not be a problem as long as you understand the process.

[countrygal53]

I'm a relatively new vegetable gardener and find myself constantly looking for elements to add to my pile. In the summertime I run out of brown in particular. It would be a great help to me and probably to other rookies here to have a list on the sight for compost ingredients when I run low. I'll list a few that I know and keep the greens and browns in separate lists for easy reference. Please post any ingredients you use and be sure to state whether they fall in the green or brown category because I wont know. If I put something on the wrong list, let me know and I'll edit the list. Thanks in advanvce for the help.

GREENS

grass clippings, corn husks, tea bags, old flowers, spent bedding plants, veg peelings, salad leaves, fruit scraps, annual weeds, rhubarb leaves.


BROWNS


sawdust, brown paper bags. toilet paper core, paper towel core, bottom (unprinted) half of paper egg carton [shredded],
leaves, corn stalks and cobs, shredded black and white newspaper [not the slick papered advertisements or color print], crushed eggshell, cereal boxes, ashes from wood, paper and charcoal, wood chip, string and cotton thread, feathers (huh!) , old natural fibre clothes, wool, straw , hay.

We have hay from last winter that the cows pooped on and my husband pushed it around with some dirt and it is in a pile, will it be good as compost if I put it in the ground now?

[Charlie MV]

countrygal, I can't answer your question with certainty. Manure contains seeds. It has to be thoroughly cooked for the seeds in the poop to not germinate. I use the hot compost method which kills most if not all seeds.

I run all my spent crops through a chipper. I use lawn clippings, tree trimmings and my neighbor's yard waste. If I used manure and used the hot composting method, I think the seeds in the manure would cook .

Hot composting requires daily or every other day attention [tossing]. By hot composting, you greatly cut the cooking time but you have to pay attention to green to brown ratio and moisture content. If you cold compost, I'd add other organics and let it work for a year or two. You still need to toss it occasionally.

Long story short, I'd not use the manure and hay you describe any sooner than a year or more. Hopefully somebody will see this and give you more help than I did. I would love to have manure to mix in my hot pile.

[LupinePredator]

Haha! Charlie I just noticed you added the 'Huh!' to your expanding list of greens and browns.
I had just not read the list and was a little surprised to see feathers listed, hence the "Huh!". Who has a pile of feathers to add to a compost on a regular basis?! (rhetorical!) I know someone who has chickens could but it just seemed a very strange thing to list.

I can't add to the list, but I'm adding my "Huh" to the thing about feathers, and perhaps give bit of an answer to that question. There are quite a few Abenaki people near me (a native American tribe in this area) and many of them do craft work. One guy I know is constantly picking up roadkill birds if they're reasonably fresh, for the feathers.

Pretty gross to me, but, it's his livelihood, I guess.

[petechapman]

Interesting to view all of these posts on composting. Call me old fashioned as I haven't progressed to adding the brown stuff to my compost heap...need and consider that.

I just use vegetable matter - we eat lots of salad and fresh veg, egg shells etc - and add our chicken manure from our three chickens. Brews up quite nicely. Now and again I add some horse manure to set things off.

Perhaps after all these years I need to look at this approach again!

Thanks for all the great posts!

[Deb_NY]

I'm quite new at composting so "bear" with me - please. Why do you need to separate greens and browns? I had a compost pile last year and threw just left overs and banana peels in it. (no grass clippings) And absolutely no paper products.. This is great news! Less garbage in the kitchen.

What about pine needles?

This is a great thread! Thanks for the answers..

[rainbowgardener]

No one is talking about separating greens and browns. You want them mixed. You just want to be sure that you have both in reasonable balance.

You will get much better compost adding browns, including the paper products, to your kitchen scraps (and presumably yard waste - were you not putting all your pulled weeds and trimmings in there too?)

Pine needles break down VERY slowly and are acidifying. They make good mulch for azaleas and other plants that like acid soil.

[Deb_NY]

Rainbowgardener, I let the weeds dry out and threw them in the fire pit. Now I will use every pulled weed and plant clipping including deadheads for the compost. (Very useful info!) Thank you

Ok, so no pine needles for the compost pile. Are the pine needles also good for the hydrangea?

[applestar]

I use pine needles to mulch the blueberries, so I would think they would be equally useful and good for the hydrangea.