Dried vs. fresh grass clippings

14 years ago

Forgive me if this has been answered lately, the search link wasn't working, so here goes....

Is there a difference between dried grass clippings and fresh, as far as being a "green" for my compost? I mowed some fairly tall lawn last week intending to use the clippings within a few days and raked the clippings into rows, and now they're kinda dry, although lots of moisture within the mass. They've now been gathered into 3 large trash bags. One website with an article on composting mentions dried clippings as a brown, while "grass clippings" was listed under "green". Is there a rule of thumb to follow. I don't want to be using layers of my clippings (using them for lasagna beds too) along with my dried leaves, just to find that I'm layering brown upon brown.

Also, are peanut shells considered green?

Joyce

Featured Answer

clc70

14 years ago

I often dry grass clippings for later use. Spread thin and left to dry. When I add it to the compost pile I water it down real good and it starts cooking. However, once it's been left in a big pile and started to heat up (black and slimy) I don't think it works as well. What's eveyone elses experience with grass that's been left in piles and turned to slimmy globs?

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Comments (9)

bpgreen
14 years ago
Dried grass clippings may lose a little nitrogen during the drying process, but mostly, they lose water, so they're still a green.

Peanut shells would be a brown.
avajay
Original Author
14 years ago
So, mostly dried, yet damp-inside-piles, due to recent rains, they're still green? At what point do they become a brown?
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I use all of the grass clippings, leaves, etc. that I can get my hands on. I've been known to steal the neighbors' bagged grass clippings out from under the nose of the lawn waste pickup truck driver more than once, believe me. There are few "disadvantages" to doing this, but a couple of things to think about: 1) if the lawn was freshly treated with herbicides, don't use these on herbaceous plants -- there could be some residual contamination. Allow a couple of weeks after a lawn treatment for this to diminish. When I treat my lawn, I use the first few cuttings to mulch around large trees or paths, places where I know this won't be a problem. 2) Athough they're pretty high in nitrogen, like any organic matter, the microbes in there can temporarily suck nitrogen and some other nutrients from the soil during the decomposition process. So, be sure to add a little extra fertilizer to the garden to compensate for this. 3) As they decompose, grass clippings can develop mold which can be a problem for people with mold allergies. So, if this is you, be sure to wear a face mask (the cheap paper disposable type) if you must dig through or disrupt the mulch after its down. 4) IF the lawn is full of weeds, uncomposted clippings may contain weed seeds. You'll have to judge that one for yourself -- if you lawn was white with dandelion seed heads when you mowed, you might want to compost this batch of clippings before using. Green clippings or dried, doesn't really matter a whole lot, either way is fine. Don't let the factors above scare you away from using a fine, free source of mulch and compost, just be aware of them.
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My thinking had been rather like dchall_san_antonio but here, on GW's soil forum we are told Quote:I believe that 2 mechanisms are mineralization and denitrification- although they are normally described in soils or water. In the first- N forms (simple anions, or from proteins) are transformed into NH4+, and NH3 is lost because it is volatile. Normal thermal/ light induced degradation and bacterial action can cause this to happen (going on memory here). In denitrification NO3- is directly converted to N2 as part of the nitrogen cycle. You may remember basic fishtank chemistry where NH4+ --> NO2- --> NO3- . I guess this is the opposite of that. Going on memory there. However- green leaves turning brown, fresh cut green grass drying out and turning brown- both are accompanied by loss of N as a volatile. I'm sure that autocatalytic breakdown of the proteins in the greens would cause loss of a variety of N bearing compounds. Manures and urine often contain urea, which has a very simple pathway to NH3 conversion. Everything in the quotes is consistant with what I recall about from college chemistry.
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Here is the million dollar question. "When do green grass clippings dry enough to become a brown?" Drying grass does not make it "brown." Most of the nitrogen is retained when grass is dried, if it is dried under ideal circumstances. That being warm sunny days and the grass is turned frequently. The grass still retains its green colour and its nutrient value to livestock. If on the other hand, the grass is rained on and stays wet, the bacteria will begin to decompost the grass consuming the nitrogen leaving mostly carbohydrates or "browns" behind. The moist grass is an ideal environment for the bacteria to live and thrive. Just like the moist environment of the compost pile. Although I speak of the nitrogen content of grass, livestock regard it as a protein source. Divide the protein percentage of any animal feed by 6.25 and you get the nitrogen percentage. The organic soy bean meal added to a garden plot is 46.5% protein or 7.5% nitrogen. I will be expecting that million dollar cheque in the mail shortly. Here is a link that might be useful: Coping With Poor Hay Crop Quality
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bpgreen
14 years ago
"At what point do they become a brown?"

They don't.

Grasses will become a brown if you let them grow, produce seed and die, then cut what is left. But that's not what you're doing. You're cutting green grass and drying it.

Drying it removes the water but doesn't affect the C:N ratio. Some nitrogen will be lost to the atmosphere, but not much, so it remains a green. Anything that is lower than 30:1 C:N is a green. Anything that is higher than 30:1 is a brown. Removing water removes H2O so it doesn't change the ratio of Carbon to Nitrogen.
luckygal
14 years ago
"What's eveyone elses experience with grass that's been left in piles and turned to slimmy globs?"

Well, I didn't leave mine quite that long but it *was* pretty smelly. I just added it to browns (wood shavings) and then added more browns when it was still smelly. It started heating very quickly.
Kimmsr
14 years ago
That depends on how those clippings are dried, you can have a high Nitrogen product a or a slimy mess. Some people think that after grass clippings loose that chlorphyl that makes them green they must be a "Brown" but that is no more true than it would be of hay that is cured properly. Any moisture that is still in those grass clippings can cause them to start being digested, so if those clippings are to be stored for any time at all they should be quite dry.
Frankie_in_zone_7
14 years ago
The other thing is that you may need to add more water or other source of moisture, if the clippings are dry, to get a good moisture balance in the pile. For me, my "greens" are usually wet, and browns are dry, so one reason to mix is not just for green-brown combo but to even out moisture content. So, dry grass still adds nitrogen but can help keep my garbage can compost bins (used for kitchen waste)from getting as garbagy-smelling even if I don't have quite enough paper, dry leaves etc to balance out. And sometimes if I have a lot of grass at once, I intentionally spread some of it out to dry so it's easier to work with (no gobby clumps)and not so wet, because I may not have enough other stuff to balance it out right away.

Grass is a pain when it is all smelly, but still useful if you can mix it up or spread it out amongst dry brown stuff.
If it's totally putrefied (which happens quickly in current hot weather) it can be too gross to work with.

When I was an extreme newbie, I had NO idea bags of grass would start to smell, or even that thick layers of fresh green clippings would start to smell (and SO bad, like, what just DIED here?). But now I know to move fast or take measures as above.
chao
14 years ago
Would the dry clippings be better to make a lasagna bed than the fresh grass clippings. Red
bpgreen
14 years ago
"Would the dry clippings be better to make a lasagna bed than the fresh grass clippings. "

They'll work equally well, but the dry clippings won't have as much water in them.

Dried vs. fresh grass clippings

clc70

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bpgreen

avajay
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Dried vs. fresh grass clippings

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avajayOriginal Author

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