Thread: getting rid of sawdust

I use all my solid wood shavings/dust around the garden, under the trees, top dress the lawn (spread very thinly and only once a yr) chooks when I get them, I do add nitrogen (blood urine hair feathers BB chook poo) in some form or other to the shavings which starts out as paths around the vege patch, I even throw my large branches, twigs, leaves under the trees then level with shavings leave it for a couple of yrs and u have a nicely rotted brew, plenty of rain helps this process along with all the bugs, critters and fungi...which I took a few pics of the other day....the featherduster ones r only 2 or 3mm high...
Any manufactered board dust/shavings gets bagged separately and then in the bin off to the tip.
For wood shavings to hot compost it needs a carbon/nitrogen ratio of ~25:1 and water, I forget which way around it is atm but green sawdust has either 250:1 or 500:1 and dry has either 500:1 or 250:1 if u get my drift so add nitrogen if u want to get it to break down quickly otherwise leave it on the surface of the soil and let time do the work.

Pete

great pic's

so chook poop plus sawdust = the worlds greatest compost

Originally Posted by metricky

My red gum saw dust is used in butchers shops for smoking mettwurst and hams. pine shaving is sold in pet shops for animal bedding or for mulch around the rose gardens at worst just spread out in the paddocks when cutting.

Can send me some of that barossa mettwurst metricky...lol I grew up in s.a. and am now in vic and we dont get mettwurst here, closest is hungarian salami. I stock up every time I am over there. Schulzs in angaston used to do a good one, but the old bloke stopped making it and they have changed hands a couple of times.

Personally I put lots on my garden as mulch and the place I am in is a shipload greener and the soil is a hell of a lot better than when I moved here just over a year ago. I mulch a lot of the bark as well but I also use the bark for totems in the garden (sticks for holding trees and plants up). There was a time when myself and my brothers used to do this for a living cutting the bark off of ironbarks for pot plant totems. I cut them up to 6 ft plus long let them dry and they work great. The 6 ft long ones I cut about 5 or 6 inch wide and when they dry they curl into rounds the shorter ones 3 ft and less I cut up to about 3 inches wide and stack them so they dry flatter with just a bit of a curl. I also leave as much sawdust as I can in the bush. at the moment I reckon I could use about 30 tonnes of it as fill out the back between me and the railway line, no worries, so I have no probs getting rid of it.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

so chook poop plus sawdust = the worlds greatest compost

Wouldn't that be deficient in nitrogen? Would not it need grass clippings or other green matter as well?



.

I think Aurther from Eco saw fame has developed a wood gas generator and uses the saw dust to make electricity.I havent got that far in my research yet but mixed with urea and or septic waste
you should see a bio mass breakdown equal enough gas to run a small gas boiler that can power your own home (wont work in the burbs )

chook poop is verry high in nitrogen.

Originally Posted by itsposs

I think Aurther from Eco saw fame has developed a wood gas generator and uses the saw dust to make electricity.I havent got that far in my research yet but mixed with urea and or septic waste
you should see a bio mass breakdown equal enough gas to run a small gas boiler that can power your own home (wont work in the burbs )

Woodgas generators are great things, but they don't work well with sawdust, since it clogs the works and doesn't allow a proper draft. Generally, they work best with small block and large chips.

Originally Posted by weisyboy

chook poop is verry high in nitrogen.

The mix would be highly acidic though and may need some dolomite to neutralise the ph a bit. If you could keep the breaking down ph between say 5.8 and 6.8 it should be good.

To make a good fast hot compost a variety of nitrogen (chook poo/grass clippings/etc) is always best, it gives a greater range of minerals, the greater the range of compost materials the better end result. Garden trimmings, small twigs,bark, sapwood all have
minerals that just heartwood doesn't have or in lesser quantity.

A hot compost is beneficial as it kills pathogens and seeds.

However there is nothing wrong with just shavings/sawdust mixed with chook poo, it does have to be in the correct quantity of nitrogen (chook poo/graas clippings) for it to heat up and it does need water as well, not dripping but moist, the bacteria that do the breaking down need the water, white powder/fungas means theres not enuff water and not getting hot means not enuff water or not enuff nitrogen or both, too much nitrogen is off gassed as ammonia (or similliar sorts off gasses( not a chemist here)) and is wasted to the atmosphere the ammonia gets you in the eyes and makes em water a bit, a compost pile of 1/2/3m3 sized pile can reach temps of 60° and stay that hot for 3 or 4 weeks then it will slowly cool down, it needs to be turned and watered for quick break down and when you have it right it has a delicious smell that only gets better

The ph I think is best corrected after the pile has cooled down not sure that it is done during

Pete

Water is also important when composting Eucalypts. They contain phenols which are great for preventing other plants growing under the tree but not much good in composts. The water will leach the phenols out. Then compost with injection of organic matter to kick start things, regular turning to ensure plenty of oxygen, make sure it reaches a high temperature, get a copy of the Australian standard for compost, correctly label your bags, then sell it.
Plenty of hoops to jump through but a gratifying way to get rid of sawdust.

cheers
Steve

bugger me , i didn't think there'd be an oz standard for compost

could always compress it and sell it as firewood pellets or them sawdust logs you get at the servo ...lol

Originally Posted by Travis Edwards

Can send me some of that barossa mettwurst metricky...lol I grew up in s.a. and am now in vic and we dont get mettwurst here, closest is hungarian salami. I stock up every time I am over there. Schulzs in angaston used to do a good one, but the old bloke stopped making it and they have changed hands a couple of times.

We still eat Schulz's mettwurst every week and thick that its the best around here at the moment.Don't know if it possible but we could send some but how would be the hard bit, let me know if you could arrange transport!! We are thinking of making are own as we have a bloke working with us that served his apprenticeship at Schulz's, getting the meat and garlic shouldn't be a problem but finding enough saw dust might take some time lol. we shouldn't have trouble finding some good red to wash down with..