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Basic questions?

Posted by stan6 TN (My Page) on
Thu, Mar 24, 11 at 23:42

A few really basic questions: Are grains, e.g. bread, cereal, flour, etc greens or browns? What is the C:N ratio? Also, are clippings from grass/shrubs/flowers that have dried for a few week or overwinter still green? Finally,is compost made from grass clippings and a variety of yard scraps from shrubs and spent flowers, etc, as beneficial as fruits, veggies and other edible kitchen scraps?


Follow-Up Postings:

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RE: Basic questions?

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>Are grains, e.g. bread, cereal, flour, etc greens or browns?<
I don't have anything that addresses whole grains except maybe brewery waste which is green. Hulls are brown. I assumed the old bread I chucked was brown. Not sure anymore.

>What is the C:N ratio?<
The link below is the best list I've found for C:N ratios.

>Also, are clippings from grass/shrubs/flowers that have dried for a few week or overwinter still green?<
On the green side yes. Not as green as fresh. I expect the nitrogen value to degrade with time.

>Finally,is compost made from grass clippings and a variety of yard scraps from shrubs and spent flowers, etc, as beneficial as fruits, veggies and other edible kitchen scraps?<
The greater the variety of ingredients that go into the compost bin, the greater the variety of nutrition that comes out.

two cents
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Here is a link that might be useful: Cornell list of ingredients


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RE: Basic questions?

The best possible compost,imho, is probably made of humanure, a composted or aged human waste(that was the solid waste coming out from a seafood-eater, strictly not from vegetarian, which could cause a mal-nutrient of soil cycle).....


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RE: Basic questions?

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I don't know about humanure being the best possible compost ingredient when you consider the kerrap people eat these days. Somehow I don't see that corn fed meal I just had at the local fast food place returning a lot of nutrition.

Food for thought though.

two cents
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RE: Basic questions?

"Finally,is compost made from grass clippings and a variety of yard scraps from shrubs and spent flowers, etc, as beneficial as fruits, veggies and other edible kitchen scraps?"

Hi Stan! Shrub scraps with branches may be hard to compost, but most other plant debris is good. Most people advise leaving your grass clippings on the ground to nourish your lawn, but using other people's grass clippings is a bit controversial - it is hard to know what chemicals may have been recently applied to others' grass.

As to the grains, are you talking just what might be wasted from your own kitchen, or on a larger scale (ie bakery)?

Rachel


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RE: Basic questions?

The best compost is made from a wide variety of materials, not from any one type of input. Grains have a relativey high level of protein so should have a failry good C/N ratio. One source I have seen before states that would be around 20 to 30 to 1.
The longer grass clippings lay around the more protein they loose, if not properly cured (like hay would be) to conserve that protein.


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RE: Basic questions?

  • Posted by jolj 7b/8a-S.C.,USA (My Page) on
    Fri, Mar 25, 11 at 10:35

Grass clipping of some grasses are bad for the lawn. They are fine for the lawn after composted.Check with your Extension agent, cool-season clippings are fine, the woody stems of warm-season grasses that contribute to thatch.
Centipdegrass kill of 1/3 of it growth as a mulch.
I would think grains are a brown, like all dried seeds.


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