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[Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>]

James, thank you for taking the time and making the effort to write a  
worthwhile post.

To synopsize observations based on my experiences:

Sawdust and shavings or chips rot at different rates and both rot  
rates vary according to moisture and temperature. Oak is preferable to  
pine.

A high pile of sawdust or wood chips will take many years to decompose.

Any form of wood refuse rots far faster when mixed with poop and pee.

Any form of wood refuse placed within inches of garden soil rots by  
next year.

Any form of wood refuse mixed with poop and pee and worked into moist  
soil becomes indistinguishable from the soil within months.

Do not bring home any horse barn cleanings that include Johnson Grass,  
whether from mangers or litter. You may never rid yourself of the  
insidious stuff.

I once wrote a gardening manual wherein I suggested one good way to  
start a new garden was to pile a mix of organic materials--horse stall  
cleanings being the best--a foot or two high and then go take a trip  
around the world studying gardens of other cultures. The next year,  
pull the remaining material aside just enough to plant according to  
the Ruth Stout method.

On Feb 20, 2009, at 8:44 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

> For several years I went by or went to a stable whose manure pile  
> had been
> there for six or eight years undisturbed.  I hauled countless pu- 
> loads onto the
> garden and corn plots.  Then from another horse barn I had the  
> opportunity to
> get one or two loads a week where someone from here was going there  
> anyway.
> In other words, only the extra gas to haul a load over what it would  
> take for
> the empty truck ... no time or dedicated trip involved.  But it was  
> fresh stall
> manure with the bright new wood shavings.
>
> Wisdom had always said that one should leave the manure in a compost  
> heap at
> least a year, and in  order to digest the shavings and chips, maybe  
> three to
> five.  I had a tendency to agree since years ago I got some 25-30  
> tons of
> sawdust delivered (where the sawmill just wanted a place to dump it)  
> and no new
> sawdust has been added in 12 years.  Some of it still looks like  
> fresh wood and
> what I used as mulch would take about three years to decompose.
>
> None the less, I used the raw stable material directly on the garden  
> beds.
> This is what I found.  Owing, I am guessing, to the presence of  
> nitrogen mixed
> copiously in with the wood shavings, a 10" dressing of raw stable  
> gleanings
> decomposes entirely into black duff in four to six months on the  
> garden soil.
> If it is thicker than that, there is a layer in the middle that  
> stays largely
> decomposed.
>
> So during the (hideously dry) fall and winter, I have put the manure  
> 'in
> situ'  on fallowed beds 20" or more thick.  The bottom, in conact  
> with the soil,
> rots into compost in  a very short time.  Some of the beds are  
> turned during
> the winter and so most of the manure rots.  Those that are not  
> turned will have
> the top 10" or so removed in the spring to use as mulch elsewhere  
> and the
> bottom rotted part mixed in lightly with the soil.
>
> Also during the spring and early summer the corn and potatoes that  
> were in
> rows rather than beds or hills had the alley between rows filled  
> with the raw
> manure some six inches or so thick after the corn and potatoes were  
> hoed and
> hilled for the last time.  It greatly boosted yield and by harvest  
> time you could
> not distinguish any of the manure from the soil.
>
> Another trick I used was that when these in situ piles of manure  
> hosted all
> manner of fungus, I'd take a few forkfuls of the actively  
> decomposing manure
> and innoculate the new beds.
>
> So far my conclusion is that manure from horse barns reeking with  
> urea,
> amonia, and all other forms of nitrogen decomposes far faster than  
> sawdust or wood
> shavings without it.
>
> James
> ______

Gene GeRue
www.RURALIZE.com