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 Post subject: Question about Peat Moss
PostPosted: Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:47 pm 
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Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2004 3:31 pm
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A couple of weeks ago I gained interest in composting (for my vegetable garden) and I built a wooden compost box (2x2x4'). I talked to a couple of aquaintances about it and they recommended that I just fill the box with grass clipping, add some water and fertilizer and turn it occasionally. After reading the composting message boards it looks like I also need to add some brown material.

I really don't have access to leaves, cardboard or newspaper. Even if I had newspaper or cardboard I don't want to make time to shred it! I'm thinking about adding some left-over peat moss to my box. Would peat moss be considered brown or green???


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PostPosted: Sun Jun 27, 2004 1:17 am 
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Joined: Mon May 31, 2004 5:12 pm
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PM is technically a brown but really useless as a major addition to your compost as it is very slow to break down and has little nutrient value. Its only good use in compost is as a top covering to keep flies away.
Are you talking about fresh grass clippings? Adding water to that and letting it rot is a sure recipe for stinky disaster. Can you dry out some of it and mix it with the fresh stuff? Add water with extreme caution.


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 Post subject: peat as brown
PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 2:50 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2004 2:23 pm
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Yeah like he said peat is brown but better off using it in potting soil mixtures. grass will eventually compost itself down, but not down to much. You can add a light layer of soil to it each time you turn or add to it. Also kitchen scraps are good, but do draw flies. The peat can com ein handy there, plus it does ad a good texture to finished product. Grass is nitrogen rich, but also will if applied by itself tend to turn soil acid over time. So while grass is great for the greens in composting it isn't much use on it's own.


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PostPosted: Sat Jul 31, 2004 3:12 pm 
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Joined: Sat Jul 31, 2004 2:23 pm
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Forgot to mention, with kitchen scraps don't use any meats, they take to long to break down and can be the stinkiest thing going. it do work in extremely hot compost piles if shreaded or liquified, but thats a load of work for what benifit it does and the smelly drawback. Best is fruit bits, bannana peels are great, coffee grounds, egg shells also great ,crunch em up a bit first, takes forever for a half a shell to break down and let out its nutrients. always put in your left over salad fixins.. One thing shreaded paper also does is absorb the stinky waste byproducts and lessens the smells emiting from your pile. for slow process piles, IF you have newspaper and are just not prone to take time to shread it, still add it as a layer just one open sheet, it will eventually break down. If your doing maintained quick use 2-3 week composting turners etc, it won't be of much use as a whole sheet, it'll just be a tattered ragged dirty mess.


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