RE: [compost_tea] Re: Simple is best

From: Tim Kiphart <kiphart_at_ev1.net>
Date: Thu, 16 Dec 2004 13:39:38 -0600

Wrong wrong wrong!!! Blanket statements.

I have produced excellent compost from grass clippings and oak leaves (Q.
Shumardii). Deep brown, humus laden, earthy-smelling, and full of worms.
Add water, turn...No Big Deal, took about 12 mths. Looked great, worked
well, ALL with little effort.

Ted, you really could treat the ListServe with a tad more respect...your
continual condescending tones, and overly opinionated snipes do get quite
old.

That is, if your intent is to inform.

We are all in the same Compost pile.

Tim

  -----Original Message-----
  From: Ted Peterson [mailto:ted.peterson_at_tcsn.net]
  Sent: Wednesday, December 15, 2004 3:09 PM
  To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
  Subject: Re: [compost_tea] Re: Simple is best


  I hardly know where to begin. . .

  From the way you present this, it would appear that all you need to make
compost is green and brown waste and that the N function of the green would
be enough to compost the rather high C of the brown (and the green by the
way). If you intend to create compost in anything less than a year, I think
this type of information will make a lot of frustrated users. Composting is
a lot of processes and needs a lot of elements to be really successful in a
short time period. If we had the lifetime of the forest it wouldn't be so
important but we tend to operate on shorter cycles than that. One of the
most important is O2. You can pile up all the stuff you want. You can make
big piles of grass and throw leaves in but the chances of that mixture
producing anything like good-quality compost is rather remote.

  I make different kinds of compost. Some use manures and some do not. I
can tell you that it is very difficult to make good quality compost using
plant ingredients only. Yes, green grasses are highly bacterial and are
high in the thermal-type bacteria required for heat. However, the C:N ratio
of most grasses is still in the 12-20:1 range. Their function can be N in
the compost pile but this N is the result of the breakdown process and is
usually given off as a gas. Some is used but not enough is produced, in a
short time range, to account for the amount of C. This is one of the
reasons manures work so well. Manures provide enough N to compensate for
the C in the organic waste.

  Organic compost can be created but it takes much longer than compost using
either a starter compost or manures or another source of N that can be used
by the bacteria.

  Jeff, you may want to look at how you presented the information. It could
lead to a lot of misconceptions when your intent is to inform.

  I can't tell you the number of people who hire me then tell me they have
this great compost. I go an look and what they have is a pile of trash. I
have neighbors who have compost bins that cost quite a lot of money and they
can't figure out why they can't make compost. Some even buy those starter
kits at the nursery and still nothing works. They are amazed when I stack
up some stuff and two to three months later are giving them compost.

  I would suggest a couple of sources:

  Field Guide To On-Farm Composting, NRES Publication, 118pp, (607) 255-7654
  The Rodale Book of Composting, Rodale Press, 1992, 278pp.

  By the way, don't just get the books, actually read them. The Rodale book
has a whole list of ingredients and all their C:N ratios as well as other
materials like ground crab and squid and Timothy and Alfalfa and the
chemical make up of these and how they operate in a compost pile. The Field
Guide is the best single source on composting I have seen.

  Ted Peterson
  SOE/EW

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Received on Thu Dec 16 2004 - 14:58:25 EST

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