[USCC] coffee grounds

[Michael Nevin]

About composting coffee grounds. These tend to be rich in nitrogen so one will need bulking agents to "cut" the nitrogen. When I had a lot of coffee grounds and very little of other material in a small 3-bin I was tending, the resulting mixture would run very hot ( 150+ F ) and I would have a grey ash-like residue. Some composters might find that the heat and ash-like material would suggest that good organic material is being killed off by the great heat that a mass of grounds can generate. My saga happened because basically my only feedstock was coffee grounds. I had very little other material. So, consider the suggestion given elsewhere in this string to add a carbon-rich material such as leaves, sawdust, shredded paper, etc.
  Coffee grounds are all surface area so the composting reaction has all its food right on the surface; hence a very fast and hot reaction occurs compared to composting with food scrap chunks which have much of their mass not all on the surface of the chunk. Good luck. Composting worms are said to like coffee grounds.
  Cheers, Mike in Toronto 

 		
---------------------------------
Share your photos with the people who matter at Yahoo! Canada Photos