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.
On Apr 10, 7:04*am, Pat Kiewicz wrote:
said:
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?
C:N ratio is by (dry) weight, typically
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.
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!
What are people using for brown material?
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:
http://www.css.cornell.edu/compost/O...apa.taba1.html
--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)
Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)