Few questions on compost?

Question

1. What is a good ratio to mix your compost with soil?

2. I have a lot of "root" like stuffs in my compost. Some are about a foot long. What are they?

3. I save about 7 tablespoons of cofffe grounds every day. Over time is it considered too much to put in the compost pile?

Answer 1

1. Even amounts are best. Consider it nature's layer cake. Compost ingredients can be put into two basic categories. Brown and Green. Brown is dry/dead stuff, ie: dried flowers, small twigs, or straw,etc. Green is stuff that still has some moisture content to it, ie: grass clippings, stuff you've pruned off plants, dead heading plants, etc. You get the idea. Just layer "dry" Brown and "wet" Green remembering to maintain moisture and stir daily if you can and you will have great compost

2. Sometimes stuff grows in compost piles. This would say to me that the pile needs to be turned more (and kept moist). By is nature, a compost pile will kill off such intruders if it is functioning properly.

3.Coffee grounds are fine. Keep in mind that coffee grounds promote acidic soil, so unless your compost will be used on acid loving plants only you might not want to use too much of them. You can sprinkle them directly on top of the soil around specific acid loving plants

Answer 2

The white stuff could be either roots or mycelllium. That amount of coffee grounds is minimal, will be good for your compost. It decomposes quite rapidly. You could actually put it on some of your outdoor plants straight and it would not hurt them.

If I am going to mix soil and compost, I usually put a 2-3" thick layer on my beds and dig it in. Last year, however, I emptied my big compost pile that has been working for about 10 years, and put it straight into a new bed, didn't bother to dig it in, and I had impatiens almost 3 feet tall in the summer.

Add all your vegetable kitchen waste, coffee grounds and all, into your compost and lots of fall leaves and grass clippings, let it work for a few weeks, and keep turning it about once every 8 weeks, and you will have good compost in a short time. Or you can just keep stacking it up like I did and it will still make wonderful stuff in the bottom half.

Answer 3

1) Sometimes I grow things right in my compost, but 50/50 is good or you can use it to top-dress your planting beds by adding a few inches each year and raking it in a little.
2) Roots could by rhyzomes from plants you put in there that can survive the composting process (things like Bermuda grass) or they are just roots from some lucky tree that has found your compost pile and is now putting up some roots into it from the ground to get a little snack - you can just cut those back to the ground (sneaky tree!)
3) If your compost pile is at least 15 cubic feet or so, those coffee grounds will be fine. They are a little acidic, but the bacteria love them.

Answer 4

1. the more the merrier. You can't add too much compost as long as it has been properly composted. You can plant directly into compost so just add however much you like.

2. It could be that something is growing in your compost or it has not cooked long enough and everything has not composed completely. Just give it more time or weed them out. I can't really say what they are without a picture or more information.

3. That's not too much, it's perfectly okay.

Answer 5

2) It's either roots, or fungal mycelia ( the actual body of the fungus)
1) If it's fully composted,with a few exceptions ( Achillea & Artemisia, for ex.) use as much as you want.
3) A few years ago someone ( Cornell , I think) studied the effects of different compost material . With the exception of extremes ( lye, pure sulfur, etc) it all came out the same . pH of ~ 6.5 , and the same consistency . So, as long as it is fully composted , nothing to worry about with the coffee grounds .

Btw, if you have any gardenias put ~ 2TBS/month on them (potted ones) . That from a Brooklyn Botanic Garden houseplant book.