adding nitrogen to hardwood shavings compost?
coatfetish
4 years ago
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coatfetish
4 years agoRelated Discussions
Question about adding "compost"
Comments (5)Chicken manure is a most nitrogen rich one. I wouldn't put it directly in the garden for few reasons. Nitrogen goes away fast. Added to soil in fall, it will be almost gone by spring. So it is kind of waste of good nitrogen. But what it can actually do, it can help to compost a lot of carbon materials to create organic matter. You soil needs good organics probably more then nitrogen itself. So I second shayneca25 - compost it. If turning it every week seems too much of work - you can leave it as is, it will take about a year to decompose. What also you can do - you can dry some of the staff, better without wood. In summer you can dissolve it in water(Google the proportions!) and use as a great organic fertilizer....See MoreUsing Sawdust/Shaving as primary compost ingred.
Comments (11)Wood shavings/sawdust are my primary carbon ingredient mainly because they're readily available and free. I can get a pick-up load whenever I feel like shoveling it. It requires large amounts of nitrogen material to break down the wood tho which is why I use mine as mulch and rarely mix it with the soil. My 'mix' is usually grass clippings, sometimes shredded leaves, alfalfa pellets, my small amount of 'real' compost from kitchen trimmings, and whatever other soil amendment I may have such as soy meal, along with the shavings. I no longer use bone meal or blood meal as I try to avoid animal by-products. Depending on the pH of your soil you may need to add lime if you use seed or blood meals. My soil is alkaline so I haven't thus far. I also occasionally use a very small amount of wood ash. I often mix all this stuff up in my cement mixer with water to make a damp mulch material and pile it until I'm ready to use it as mulch. Don't need to turn it and it heats a bit but I don't wait for it to fully decompose - it does that in the garden over a few months. I usually apply it twice a year, spring and fall. The worms seem to thrive on it. If you aren't concerned about being organic you could buy straight nitrogen fertilizer to mix with it - keep it moist and mix a rough organic material in to keep it from compacting. I've sometimes picked yarrow and layered that as well as weeds and plant trimmings. The greater the variety of ingredients in compost the more likely it is that there will be many plant nutrients. Since I live in a dry area a pile of straight sawdust will take decades, or longer, to break down. There are large piles in some areas in the back woods on old lumber mill sites that are still there, a bit discolored, but not decomposed. Nitrogen and moisture are required. Here are some links on the subject: http://www.ehow.com/how_4486379_recycle-sawdust-compost-pile.html http://www.gardeningknowhow.com/composting-basics/using-sawdust-in-your-compost-pile.htm The link below may help you figure out what to use and how much you will need to make compost using sawdust/shavings. Here is a link that might be useful: Compost Mix Calculator...See MoreNitrogen Enriched compost?
Comments (16)Skoot Cat said: "The costs of grains are going through the roof and itÂs getting expensive to feed my entire lawn/landscape with feed grains." From the link provided above: "Rhizobia are not capable of being active in compost piles, but another class of microbes is. Called azobacteria, these free-living soil dwellers also make nitrate nitrogen~ ~Once a compost heap has cooled, azobacteria will proliferate and begin to manufacture significant amounts of nitrates, steadily lowering the C/N. And carbon never stops being digested, further dropping the C/N. The rapid phase of composting may be over in a few months, but ripening can be allowed to go on for many more months if necessary." This is the whole point of letting the compost "cure", so the azobacteria can manufacture nitrogen from the air. There is no need to buy nitrogen (feed meals) for the lawn when there are bacteria that are creating said nitrogen in your compost pile. And too, the C:N ratio continues to be lowered during the curing process, thus allowing for a more potent compost to be spread when deployed. All in all this is a win/win situation for the owner of the compost pile; the only price paid being some moisture (in the form of sweat) and time. Again, this is but one variety of composting that can give dynamic results for the effort. I too must share there is another price to be paid for using such powerful compost on ones lawn. That is the fact that someone is going to have to maintain this lawn once this pile of dynamite is spread over ones landscape. All I can suggest is to keep your lawnmower blades sharp, for you are surely going to be cutting that grass on a very regular basis. Other than that, the endeavor is well worth the results Blutranes...See MorePine wood shavings with Synthetic Urea for clay soil mix
Comments (20)Hi toxcrusadr, yup, thats what I suspect when I sense the ammonia... I know sawdust take quite a fair bit of time to get decomposed but I didnt expect no change at all after 1 month of composting. Even the colour of the sawdust remain the same. Now, I wont be suprise if anyone were to tell me that sawdust could take years to be decompost. rgreen48, yes, I have been turning the compost every 3 days for the 1st 2 weeks but the pile does'nt heat up so I turn the pile once a week instead from 3rd week onwards. On 4th week, that is when I start to smell the ammonia. I guess I need to turn to twice weekly turning of the sawdust pile from now and wait for another 2 month. I will also cut down the Urea mix to 1/2. by then, I should have added 8kg worth of Urea into the sawdust pile. The sawdust should have absorb sufficient nitrogen and I will start to mix it with my claysoil. From this lesson, I will keep my test raise bed small... perhaps a 1' x 1' raise bed. Just In case if anything went wrong, I can reverse it easily., unlike now, I dont know what to do with the sawdust pile if it really take years to compost.....See Morecoatfetish
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