How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Barry Irby

I have what used to be fish pond behind the house. I have filled it up with saw dust. I also dump grass clippings in the woods and mix saw dust in them. I have so few grass clippings I some times add nitrogen rich fertilizer to speed up the decomposition. The breakdown in the pond is very slow. Need to add more nitrogen or grass.

I mulch with it

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

What do people do besides add it to their soil?

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Clementine

Mostly in the compost, but never in the bin.

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Jim O'Connor

Planer, jointer shavings as well as initial turning shavings go to mulch. Over the years has improved our alkaline soils.

Re: I mulch with it

Jack Guzman from Maine

My neighbor feeds it to his goats. Another neighbor uses it for bedding for chickens. The rest, I compost some and use the rest for fill.

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Barry Irby

Years ago I was seriously into flower gardening and my extension soil improvement. Clay soil, add organic matter, Sandy soil, add organic matter. Adding raw wood chips like sawdust and shavings to soil robs it of nitrogen because the bacteria that breaks down the wood uses nitrogen more aggressively than the roots of plants. Mixing green matter with the sawdust will provide some nitrogen. You can also use nitrogen rich fertilizer. IIRC you may also want to add some lime. Also, once the composting is complete I believe the nitrogen is released and becomes available to the plants again. OTOH, it takes many years for the old sawdust piles to break down.

Re: I mulch with it

jcousins

besides compost and mulching - also use it for the worm bin bedding - but be careful of some exotics that might be toxic

jerry

Not Alone

Mark Mandell - Gone Round In New Jersey

Our friends know what kind of wood I'm turning from the color of the mulch around the landscaping. Sawdust (from the DC) gets blown into the woods to com post with the leaf clutter.

I'm in this category

Yonak

There are lots of horse farms around here and my shavings are in demand because I promise no walnut and I separate out the sawdust, which still gets used up somehow.

Re: Not Alone

Don Wagstaff

Because I don't believe it is compatible with good or improved soil my larger chips from the planer get spread out on the paths, actual sawdust goes in the bin with green waste and hauled away, (getting composted mechanically which is necessary in this instance), but I do keep a gunny sack for spills, (handy at slaughtering time) shavings from the hand work saved up for starting the fire. When I have an over abundance from planing some will go into the stalls, though not too much because I find it makes for a damp feeling and also sparingly by the chickens but by far I prefer the old fashioned way and stick with straw for the most part.

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

JL

I have a large sawdust pile out the door of my basement. I dump the dehumidifier water on it or a regular basis. I turn it once in a while. Every Spring when we do the front flower and herb beds, I take a few buckets from the bottom and incorporate them into the flower and herb beds.

correct

Bill Tindall, E.Tn.

"I believe the nitrogen is released and becomes available to the plants again."

Fungus eats sawdust. Fungus reproduces to make more fungus to eat sawdust. Fungus needs a nitrogen source to make protein required to make more fungus (about 14 weight percent of protein is nitrogen). When fungus eats all the sawdust the fungus dies. Decomposing protein releases nitrogen containing chemicals (probably ammonia) which is then available to plants.

Grass clippings propagate bacteria and fungus so quickly that they can temporarily deplete soil of nitrogen. Sawdust from KD wood decomposes so slowly I doubt nitrogen depletion could be a problem.

Pure sawdust is so deficient of nutrients that it composts slowly. Sawdust piles from abandoned saw mill sites stay around for decades. But mixed into the soil or applied on it as mulch, it decomposes in a year or two.

Re: How many toss sawdust in the yard or compost?

Don Orr

I save and give my clean Northeast American hardwood turning chips to my pottery friends that do Raku firings-the love the effects. I do not put any Walnut or exotics in with them. Other stuff either goes in my brush pile down back or in the trash if it's particularly dirty. I do put some on a path through the hedge row into the next field.