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  • From: "Kieran or Donna" <redherring@tnaccess.com>
  • To: <nafex@egroups.com>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] Sawdust
  • Date: Wed, 24 May 2000 14:05:09 -0500

Lucky, The problem with high carb, low N stuff like sawdust is that for
bacteria to work, they need both the carbohydrate for energy AND nitrogen to
build new bodies as they grow and multiply. A pile of sawdust by itself
will work very slowly due to the N shortage, and take a long time to
decompose. When "finished" the carbohydrates in it will have been used up
and you can till it in with no problem. If you mix raw sawdust with soil,
the bacteria will tie up whatever N they can find in the soil till the
carbohydrates are all broken down. IF you can supply enough N to keep your
plants going, you can mix sawdust in the soil with minimal production loss.
E.g., Rodale Press tilled raw leaves in the autumn into a test plot, and had
a 5% reduction in yields the following year (compared to a test plot) but a
50% increase the next year. If your soil is a little iffy on N supply, you
want to keep the sawdust on the surface, and not till it in, and you will
probably not see much of an effect on N levels. I suppose right at the line
where soil and sawdust meet, there will be some reduction in N available for
plants, and in nature you can't really keep anything separate, the sawdust
will wash in a little, and the earthworms will move it. But if you know to
watch for yellowing, and can add N, the benefits of mulching generally far
outweigh the drawbacks. I must confess we have not mulched with sawdust,
but have mulched corn with the coarser splintery stuff from a sawmill, and
saw no problem. Donna
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lucky Pittman" <Lucky.Pittman@murraystate.edu>
To: <nafex@egroups.com>
Sent: Sunday, May 21, 2000 7:11 PM
Subject: Re: [nafex] Sawdust


> At 06:36 AM 05/21/2000 -0500, you wrote:
> >I heard of someone who mulched with sawdust, and it really ate up his
> >nitrogen.
> Donna,
> This has been a recurring thing on one of the other garden lists I
frequent
> - the old saw about woody mulch materials 'stealing' nitrogen. I've
ALWAYS
> had a big problem with that whole idea, but could never get any
> satisfaction from anyone; all I ever got was something like, "THEY say
> sawdust, wood chips, etc., will 'steal' nitrogen."
>
> I'm certain that nitrogen tie-up will occur, if you till sawdust,
> woodchips, etc., INTO your soil - nitrogen is the rate-limiting factor in
> decomposition of woody(lignified) material. However, I've never been able
> to understand, from a scientific standpoint, how surface-applied mulch
> could 'steal' nitrogen from the underlying soil - I'm sure it would tie up
> a significant portion of any nitrogen fertilizer applied over the top of
> the mulch, but 'steal' it from the underlying soil? I just don't see it.
> Care to enlighten me?
>
> Lucky Pittman
> USDA Zone 6
> Hopkinsville, KY
>
>
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  • Re: [nafex] Sawdust, Kieran or Donna, 05/24/2000

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