The importance of carbon in home composting

We cannot emphasise the importance of carbon in home composting enough! Add at least as much carbon (brown) materials to your worm farm as you do food scraps etc (greens). Preferably more! A lot more if possible. The great thing about carbon rich materials is they are not “putrescible” and so wont stink even if they take awhile to break down

A lack of carbon is probably the number one deficiency we see in worm farms, and without it your system is likely to smell, attract pests and slow down its processing power. Your worms and the microbes they coexist with need a need a carbon (energy) source to exist and thrive. Adding lots of paper products like those shown will help aerate the system by increasing surface area, oxygen and nutrient cycling in the system and reduce smells and pest infestation. For best results mix the paper products loosely with your food scraps and avoid coated paper and waxy cardboard products

Our number one tip – match the volume of food scraps [nitrogen] you are adding to the worm farm with shredded non-shiny paper and cardboard [carbon].  Rip up old envelopes, receipts, toilet rolls, egg cartons, and non-glossy advertising materials and add to the scraps to your kitchen caddy, as well as adding shredded newspaper and cardboard to your worm farm. You can also use old straw, hay, dried leaves (avoid eucalypt and other natives though) and dried lawn clippings as a source of carbon.

Here’s a list of readily available carbon material and its carbon ratio:

• Office/Printer Paper 170:1
• Shredded Newspaper 170:1
• Cardboard 350-550:1
• Aged Sawdust (Weathered)140:1
• Bark 130-1280:1*
• Paper Towels 110:1
• Straw 100:1
• Hay 75:1
• Tissue/Toilet Paper 70:1
• Corn Cobs 55-120:1
• Dried Leaves 40-80:1
• Fresh Leaves 37:1
• Straw 50-150:1
• Paper Products 200-800:1
• Twigs, Branches, and Wood Chips 600:1
• Fresh Sawdust500-600:1

Source: thatbackyard.com