You might want to dilute it by adding a lot of other materials to it. If all you are adding is kitchen scraps, you need some browns anyway. Without browns the kitchen scraps may get smelly from too much nitrogen. The high pH will exacerbate this by driving off ammonia. Mix in dry leaves or other vegetation, shredded paper, sawdust or wood chips. Eventually it should balance out. If you have a lawn, and your soil isn't alkaline already, you can spread a lot of ashes on a lawn and still have a very thin layer. Just sayin'.

Gbig2, Usually alfalfa is used in the compost pile as an emergency addition during the winter months when there is a shortage of greens to be had. From what you have stated you are having a shortage of browns (carbon), not greens (nitrogen). With the proper balance of both there is no need to add anything to the pile except moisture or air. IMO, the alfalfa would be better used on plants, not the compost pile. Contrary to popular opinion, paper is a poor substitute for leaves in the pile IMO. Paper has no nutritional value for plants, however as a weed suppressor they have great value, again IMO. I am not saying to not add paper to the pile, what I am saying is that I donÂt add paper to any of my piles. I put forth great effort in the fall and winter to collect all the leaves I can get my hands on when they are in abundance. I have great empathy for those who live in areas where leaves are hard to come by, yet the extra effort to acquire a "leaf load" is well worth the effort when the time to spread compost comes around. Alfalfa, in any form will make the smoke come out of a compost pile, no doubt about that. However, the use of alfalfa tea or pellets/meal directly in the garden is of greater benefit IMO. The patience needed to create good quality compost cannot be circumvented with super hot additives or quick fix alternatives. The proper mixture of materials, adequate moisture, air, and time will forever get the composting job done. Again, IMO the reward for taking the long road outweighs all those so-called "shortcuts". There is no "right or wrong" way to make compost, just the way we make compost. In the end, the best way to make compost is the way that makes you happy with the results Blutranes

usually the companies here give away their coffee grounds to other people or actually sell them -.-" i mean we don't have many coffee shops to begin with and the very few often run dry on used grounds as im not the only gardener in the state and we live in a small state since it's Hawaii. i often use my own grounds but i am talking about an outside pile i mean 1 cup of coffee does not yield a lot of grounds in general and the pile outside will need over 50 cups that is for sure more likely more due to some of the grounds washing away into the soil. but i have been using my urine to compost this pile 3 months into it been using it about 2 times a week moving into 3. and it's been doing great. the middle is all composted it's rich black and doesn't smell like piss. should be able to get a good yield within a year. would be less but people keep adding browns to it making it hard to harvest in time. it usually rains a lot and my pile can get rained on. im looking only to use the urine until it's composted a decent amount to the fact i can water it down and retain the moisture i'll use diluted urine

Thanks, everyone! Barb, I've collected numerous bags from Starbuck's so far but they don't save it regularly... they throw it all away!!! What a travesty! I did a little research and dbm2009 is right that adding already composted material will provide more of the micro-organisms that break stuff down. tiffy_z5_6_can, I'm in Atlanta... Unfortunately, I'm about four hours to the beach or else I'd be all over the seaweed!!! I did, however, find a horse rescue farm nearby that gives away manure for free!!!! Heading there tomorrow to pick up a few bags of it. My wife is thrilled!!!