The Importance of the Carbon to Nitrogen Ratio in Compost
by John Yazo
The carbon/nitrogen ratio of a compost pile is very important when wanting to keep a hot compost pile working. The ideal ratio of 30:1 is what will keep a compost pile working steady for you and produce a nutrient rich humus material that will greatly benefit your gardens soil.
Composting is all about organisms, the brown, or carbon materials are the source of energy for these microorganisms and the green, or nitrogen material is for building cell structure. All organic material is made up of these two elements, and the balance between them is very important in producing a fertile, sweet-smelling compost.
Now that you know the ideal ratio you will need to know how to achieve it to get you compost pile to the ideal condition to best benefit you. To start out there are dry materials that represent your carbon and wet materials that represent the nitrogen. The dry material are generally somewhere between 40 to 50 percent carbon and the wet material is generally somewhere between 10 to 20 percent nitrogen.
Accomplishing this exactly in the backyard composting system isn't all ways an easy task. There is going to be some trial and error to get a system that will work best for you. There are signs that you can watch for to help you into the right direction and they are fairly basic. When you pile is wet, soggy or starts to smell, this is know as an anaerobic condition. Turning the pile and adding more carbon material to it will help turn the pile into the right direction and the same goes for if the pile is dry, not decomposing you will need to add moisture and some nitrogen to get it to decompose.
Keep in mind the ratio of carbon to nitrogen of your brown and green material to gauge the way you will start your compost pile.
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