compost - Knowledgebase Question

Fruits and Vegetables
itasca, Il
Question by lamplady719
October 7, 2010
I purchased a small compost unit and have been adding fruit and vegtable scraps, coffee grounds,egg shells, ect. During the winter do i stop adding to it until spring? I read that it has to be 1/3 brown, 1/3 green and 1/3 veg ect.Thanks, Kathy Vorhies


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Answer from NGA
October 7, 2010

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 You can continue to add material to your compost unit all winter long. The key is to turn or tumble the unit to mix things up and to incorporate fresh air. Do this once a week and the material inside the unit will generate heat as it decomposes. There's no reliable recipe for what to add to a composter. You need both green (nitrogen) and brown (carbon) materials in order to promote fast decomposition. You can also add a shoveful of garden soil to the compost to help kick-start the decomposition process. Garden soil contains all kinds of beneficial microbes to help your compost. Your green materials include veggie and fruit scraps, garden prunings, even some grass clippings. Brown materials include egg shells, dried leaves, straw, newspaper, cardboard, etc. A reasonably balanced mixture of carbon and nitrogen materials will produce a reasonably good compost.

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