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  • From: Lawrence London <lfljvenaura@gmail.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: [permaculture] Composting sawdust, shavings or bark with added nitrogen.
  • Date: Sat, 26 Sep 2015 13:06:06 -0400

Attn: Darren.

I can get ahold of dump truck loads of sawdust for my cost of hauling. I
> have my own dump truck and the sawmill isn't too far away. Also have a
> bobcat and can turn the pile for cost of my time and fuel.
>
> Any ideas on how to reclaim all the K in that sawdust?
>
> I know the c:n ratio is near 400:1 so would be challenging to compost but
> still has my interests.
>
> I don't have a source for Free N so would have to purchase some to add via
> 28 or 32% liquid N or a dry product like AMS or Urea. I have already
> spread 2tn of colloidal soft rock phosphate on my owned land so I shouldn't
> need any more P applied.


I used to do this for a living only it was raw pine sawdust or shavings at
a horse stable and mixed with raw horse manure cleaned from the stalls. I
used my loader to push it into a mountain then turn it when it began
steaming, year round. Easy. I would also scrape a little manure tea-laden
silt from downhill of the pile and add that into a small crater I created
at the top of the pile, later turning it along with everything else in the
pile. The crater served as a rain catchment allowing gradual percolation
into the pile. When I saw fungi growing in the pile I would wait until the
material "looked right" and had stopped steaming, then load it into my dump
truck to deliver to customers. This always worked flawlessly and was safe
to use in gardens and landscaping without nitrogen deprivation or harmful
pathogens.
I would suggest using my method and adding horse, cow, poultry or pig
manure in that order of preference. A small amount should do the job though
a pile with the correct C/N ration would work off faster and be more useful
as fertilizer-compost. The material produced will have many uses from
potting soil to garden soil amendment. If you want to really get fancy use
a prebiotic in addition to the manure you add. That is of course quarry
rock dust which is usually free for the hauling. Get a MSDS to make sure
there are no toxic components in it. Granite, pyrophyllite, basalt are all
excellent dusts to use to amend soil. It works wonders. In the compost pile
it will feed the bacteria and fungi allowing them to propagate more rapidly
and break down the sawdust into garden-ready compost. Stables do not often
use hardwood shavings or sawdust because it has a higher water-holding
capacity than pine, which has microbe-inhibiting (temporarily) resin, and
makes the stall floor soggy, unhealthy for horses and provides a better
breeding environment for parasites. Hardwood would make much better compost
but you will not often find it except directly from sawmills which will
offer shredded bark as well; mix that with sawdust and/or shavings. As for
conserving as much of the potash as possible, making the pile large, on
level ground, with small low berms around the perimeter to contain any
leachate
will go a long way toward conserving potash in the final product. Any
leachate collecting around the base of the pile can be returned to it when
turning. It does no harm to add small amounts of dirt, in this case, silt,
to the pile as the composting process proceeds. - LL

Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/







--
Lawrence F. London
lfljvenaura@gmail.com
https://sites.google.com/site/avantgeared/



  • [permaculture] Composting sawdust, shavings or bark with added nitrogen., Lawrence London, 09/26/2015

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