Lots Of Sawdust On Farm

[Lickey]

My Wifes farm has about 4tons of sawdust laying around the sawmill, some up to 8 years old, of cousre this time of year it appears very dry on top, im thinking of making some silos from wood planks ect layering with waste salad garden stuff, covering totally with black plastic sheeting and giving a few gallons of water every day, hopefully making a type of manure to help new growth in raised salad beds, if you could tell me how long it needs to rot and does it need any additives to make it a good compost, thanks for your advice and help, Alex.

[ozzydom]

My Wifes farm has about 4tons of sawdust laying around the sawmill, some up to 8 years old, of cousre this time of year it appears very dry on top, im thinking of making some silos from wood planks ect layering with waste salad garden stuff, covering totally with black plastic sheeting and giving a few gallons of water every day, hopefully making a type of manure to help new growth in raised salad beds, if you could tell me how long it needs to rot and does it need any additives to make it a good compost, thanks for your advice and help, Alex.

Sawdust is a base for excellent compost,but you will need to add plenty of other "ingredients" like animal manure,foodscraps,straw to open the mix as sawdust packs down ,keep damp as opposed to wet and turn regularly.

The famous OR 90 compost from Tasmania is based on sawmill refuse and Orange Roughy fish waste.

[muzza]

My Wifes farm has about 4tons of sawdust laying around the sawmill, some up to 8 years old, of cousre this time of year it appears very dry on top, im thinking of making some silos from wood planks ect layering with waste salad garden stuff, covering totally with black plastic sheeting and giving a few gallons of water every day, hopefully making a type of manure to help new growth in raised salad beds, if you could tell me how long it needs to rot and does it need any additives to make it a good compost, thanks for your advice and help, Alex.

Sawdust is a base for excellent compost,but you will need to add plenty of other "ingredients" like animal manure,foodscraps,straw to open the mix as sawdust packs down ,keep damp as opposed to wet and turn regularly.

The famous OR 90 compost from Tasmania is based on sawmill refuse and Orange Roughy fish waste.

However it depends on what region your in and what materials are available. The sawdust will make a good base for fertiliser but could be used for mulch as well. If used for fertiliser you will need some enzymes to promote fermentation. Depending on the region your in the Agricultural dept has em and will issue to you free.

[fxm88]

Pykrete boat?

http://jwgibbs.cchem.berkeley.edu/CFGoodeve/habakkuk.html

[lannarebirth]

I suppose it depends on what kind of tree the sawdust comes from, Some types of wood contain toxins which may not break down as you wish if composted. Cedar chips for example are used for weed control. Eucalyptus trees don't seem to be very good for their immediate environment. Don't know what sawdust from such trees might do. So, I'd guess, it requires a bit more research. Good Luck

[chownah]

Lickey,

I'm wondering if there are earthworms around or under the sawdust....especially where it has been for a long time.

Chownah

[Lickey]

Lickey,

I'm wondering if there are earthworms around or under the sawdust....especially where it has been for a long time.

Chownah

Thankyou all for your replies and suggestions, i will look at all possibillities from your information, except making a stramit board battle ship!!!!

Not sure what the wood is, but the latest addition is white with a lovely red grain running through it, a thai man is making some stairs for a new shop, these being the uprights for the staircase,

Chownah, the farm is 2ks north of Namsom, we recently cleared 1rai of waste ground, ie, fallen trees, bushes, dead grass, and 2 ground snakes about 2ft long!! its now growing salad and i sometimes see a black worm, about 6in long and gets along quick when disturbed, my missus asurres me this is a worm and ok, I see in a recent post that you are an organic farmer and wrote a bit about worms, would you be concerned that by adding fertilizer or addittives to the sawdust would kill off the friendly worm if it lives in the sawdust, which in its own way is good to aireate the ground and eat termites ect, Your thoughts on this would be appreciated as i dont like adding fertilizers, Thankyou,

[chownah]

Lickey,

I don't know much about adding chemical fertilizer.

I have never had a large quantity of sawdust to use for compost but I have used it both as a mulch and as an additive to compost. Here's the story about sawdust.....it contains alot of carbon and no nitrogen. To compost sawdust you need to add something that has nitrogen. The things readily available in Thailand are manure and cut green tender grasses. By "cut green tender grasses" I mean grasses that are cut before they get fibrous and tough....tough fibrous grasses are ok too but just not so good. Good manures to use are cow, buffalo, and chicken. Pig manure works good too but most people find it unpleasant to work with because of the smell. I don't know about the practical side of it but in theory you could add chemical fertilizer to add the nitrogen but I've never done this so I can't advise you on this. Adding too much chemical fertilizer will kill many soil creatures but I have no idea how much is too much.

If you have a source of cow manure then I suggest you do the following:

Make some small piles of cow manure and sawdust mixtures but vary the proportions of the two....maybe start with a 1 to 1 ratio in one pile and then maybe 2:1 (more sawdust and less manure) in another and then maybe 3:1 (even more sawdust and even less manure).....like that....get some buckets and use them to measure or just estimate...its not critical at all. Then water the piles so they are wet but don't water so much that a river runs out of the pile because this will just wash some nutrients out of the pile...just make them wet all the way through...make the piles about a half a metre across or there abouts. Then you wait....oh, you might cover the piles loosely to keep the chickens out but don't wrap them in plastic because they need air....anyway wait a couple of days and then feel inside the piles and see if they are getting warm/hot....probably the 1 to 1 will be and maybe some of the other too....this is good...it means that the microbes are very active and are busily breaking down the stuff in to compost. Remix the piles and add some more water...enough so the pile is moist throughout...and wait again a few days and feel the piles again and probably they will not be as hot as the first time you felt them but that's ok....the ones that are still warm are the ones where the ratio of manure to sawdust is what you probably want to use to get compost quickly....the ones that aren't warm might be ok too but they will just take longer.....so then remix them again and add water to moisten them throughout again and wait a few more days....and feel them again and etc...... It should take about 2 weeks for a good mixture of manure and sawdust if mixed every few days to be completely composted and be ready for use in the garden....it should have a texture and smell of rich soil and not really look like manure or sawdust any longer. It would be good for you to compare how all of the piles look at each stage of the process and then you can get a general feel for what is happening and how long it takes for various mixtures and it will help you to be able to tell when compost is ready and when it is not.

You don't really need to follow the intructions above...you can just throw some manure onto the sawdust and mix it around a bit and then sprinkle it and then check it every few days to see how its doing or just do nothing and wait a month with occasional watering and you will find that it has turned into compost all by itself......I gave the instructions because I don't know how much experience you have with these kinds of things and some people are encouraged if they have good instructions and feel more confident...on the other hand some people fine detailed intruction off-putting so for them I say just mix manure, sawdust, and water and wait...that's really all you have to do.

Any other vegetable waste or weeds or straw or whatever you want to add will be good too....just remember that a good rule of thumb is that the bigger the pieces and the harder the pieces the longer they will take decompose. If you get a large amount of something you want to add then try a test batch and see how it goes......things like corn stalks must be chopped or ground to smaller pieces or else it will take several months for them to break down.

By the way....you can put worms in the piles if you want but they are not necessary....it works find without them. If you make your piles on the ground near where worms live already they will almost assuredly find the piles and reproduce there on their own so long as birds, chickens, or burrowing rodents don't find and eat them.

Chownah

Edited February 25, 2007 by chownah

[Lickey]

Lickey,

I don't know much about adding chemical fertilizer.

I have never had a large quantity of sawdust to use for compost but I have used it both as a mulch and as an additive to compost. Here's the story about sawdust.....it contains alot of carbon and no nitrogen. To compost sawdust you need to add something that has nitrogen. The things readily available in Thailand are manure and cut green tender grasses. By "cut green tender grasses" I mean grasses that are cut before they get fibrous and tough....tough fibrous grasses are ok too but just not so good. Good manures to use are cow, buffalo, and chicken. Pig manure works good too but most people find it unpleasant to work with because of the smell. I don't know about the practical side of it but in theory you could add chemical fertilizer to add the nitrogen but I've never done this so I can't advise you on this. Adding too much chemical fertilizer will kill many soil creatures but I have no idea how much is too much.

If you have a source of cow manure then I suggest you do the following:

Make some small piles of cow manure and sawdust mixtures but vary the proportions of the two....maybe start with a 1 to 1 ratio in one pile and then maybe 2:1 (more sawdust and less manure) in another and then maybe 3:1 (even more sawdust and even less manure).....like that....get some buckets and use them to measure or just estimate...its not critical at all. Then water the piles so they are wet but don't water so much that a river runs out of the pile because this will just wash some nutrients out of the pile...just make them wet all the way through...make the piles about a half a metre across or there abouts. Then you wait....oh, you might cover the piles loosely to keep the chickens out but don't wrap them in plastic because they need air....anyway wait a couple of days and then feel inside the piles and see if they are getting warm/hot....probably the 1 to 1 will be and maybe some of the other too....this is good...it means that the microbes are very active and are busily breaking down the stuff in to compost. Remix the piles and add some more water...enough so the pile is moist throughout...and wait again a few days and feel the piles again and probably they will not be as hot as the first time you felt them but that's ok....the ones that are still warm are the ones where the ratio of manure to sawdust is what you probably want to use to get compost quickly....the ones that aren't warm might be ok too but they will just take longer.....so then remix them again and add water to moisten them throughout again and wait a few more days....and feel them again and etc...... It should take about 2 weeks for a good mixture of manure and sawdust if mixed every few days to be completely composted and be ready for use in the garden....it should have a texture and smell of rich soil and not really look like manure or sawdust any longer. It would be good for you to compare how all of the piles look at each stage of the process and then you can get a general feel for what is happening and how long it takes for various mixtures and it will help you to be able to tell when compost is ready and when it is not.

You don't really need to follow the intructions above...you can just throw some manure onto the sawdust and mix it around a bit and then sprinkle it and then check it every few days to see how its doing or just do nothing and wait a month with occasional watering and you will find that it has turned into compost all by itself......I gave the instructions because I don't know how much experience you have with these kinds of things and some people are encouraged if they have good instructions and feel more confident...on the other hand some people fine detailed intruction off-putting so for them I say just mix manure, sawdust, and water and wait...that's really all you have to do.

Any other vegetable waste or weeds or straw or whatever you want to add will be good too....just remember that a good rule of thumb is that the bigger the pieces and the harder the pieces the longer they will take decompose. If you get a large amount of something you want to add then try a test batch and see how it goes......things like corn stalks must be chopped or ground to smaller pieces or else it will take several months for them to break down.

By the way....you can put worms in the piles if you want but they are not necessary....it works find without them. If you make your piles on the ground near where worms live already they will almost assuredly find the piles and reproduce there on their own so long as birds, chickens, or burrowing rodents don't find and eat them.

Chownah

Chownah, this is really good advice and fits in with neatly with new plans, unfortunatley the pond brother in law uses for Papaya has dried up, but we still have a submersible working well on other side of farm,so our plans of planting 6/7 rai of banana have been put back, probaly till the rains come, this will give me time to experiment with the sawdust mixes, without man made additives, im all for this!! there is also about 20 rai of tamarind trees, and after the first good rain or two, the grass comes up quick and green in abbundance, no shortage of nitrogen there then!!and thinking about manure, every night when we lock the farm gates there is a herd of about 15 buffalo opposite, no idea what he does with the manure, will get missus to ask him tomorrow, if we can have this manure the plan is to do as you suggest with different mixtures ect, then when time comes to plant banana cloves, want to add the manure in hole first, i understand bananas need nitrogen for a healthy plant.

I come from East Anglia UK, with a farming/transport background, it takes time to adjust from the methods used there, but with help from you and other key members gives me a positive attitude, Thanks Again, Lickey..