compost in my ranch

[Jaroslavgreen]

Hi, New here, so please bear with me. I'm having trouble figuring out what is right and wrong for making compost.

I have a ranch with not the best soil. It was an old cotton farm and that may have depleated the soil. In reclaiming the pasture I cut out tens of thousands of mesquite and cedar trees. After burning most of them, I finally bought a 6" chipper for my tractor. It makes fabulous mounds of fairly small chips which I hope will make some good compost someday to apply to my soil.

The question is, when I chip lots of freshly cut down cedar, youpon, mesquite, elm, oak, etc., can a portion of that be considered "greens"? I'm having trouble getting enough cow manure to add to the piles and other greens are in short supply in the winter. When the summer comes, manure is in short supply because the dung beetles cart it off so fast. I added 2 yards of cow manure to 5 yards of green wood chips. Is that enough to make good compost? For a month, the chips by themselves didn't heat up much, so they aren't really greens, I'm guessing. They did start to turn a nice brown color.

Does anyone have experience mulching fresh wood?

[Newt]

Hi Jaroslavgreen,

I think you'll find this helpfull.* From this site which has loads of info.
http://vegweb.com/composting/how-to.shtml

"FOOD
In broad terms, there are two major kinds of food that composting microbes need.

'Browns' are dry and dead plant materials such as straw, dry brown weeds, autumn leaves, and wood chips or sawdust. These materials are mostly made of chemicals that are just long chains of sugar molecules linked together. As such, these items are a source of energy for the compost microbes. Because they tend to be dry, browns often need to be moistened before they are put into a compost system.

'Greens' are fresh (and often green) plant materials such as green weeds from the garden, kitchen fruit and vegetable scraps, green leaves, coffee grounds and tea bags, fresh horse manure, etc. Compared to browns, greens have more nitrogen in them. Nitrogen is a critical element in amino acids and proteins, and can be thought of as a protein source for the billions of multiplying microbes.

A good mix of browns and greens is the best nutritional balance for the microbes. This mix also helps out with the aeration and amount of water in the pile. Browns, for instance, tend to be bulky and promote good aeration. Greens, on the other hand, are typically high in moisture, and balance out the dry nature of the browns. If you'd like specific information on different materials, check the 'What to Compost' section."

If you have a shortage of greens you could ask a local produce market, sandwich shop or restaurant for their kitchen veggie scraps.* Starbucks will give away all their coffee grounds to gardeners and that's a green.* Just bring a heavy duty tub or trash can.* The best mix is a 50/50 mix of browns and greens.* You don't want too much manure to be your green.

More helpful links.
http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk/orga...ng/gh_comp.php
http://www.gardening.cornell.edu/fac...ter/index.html
http://whatcom.wsu.edu/ag/compost/horsecompost4.htm
http://www.plantea.com/manure.htm

Newt