Compost conundrum

Community Community No dig gardening Preparing the ground Compost conundrum

This topic contains 4 replies, has 3 voices, and was last updated by  Al Kaline 5 years, 8 months ago.

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  • #48519

    Al Kaline
    Participant

    Acquired some of this compost from the side of a large old horse poo pile, smells nice, crumbles nice, only thing is it’s got alot of wood shavings in there, ALOT. Maybe 50 50 woodshavings to horse poo. Way too much to separate. I really need to top up some beds for my ready module raised plants. You think Can I use it?

    Thanks!

    #48521

    Wellies
    Participant

    Do you know what wood the shavings are?
    A friend of mine has a saw mill and saws mostly larch and some oak.
    The oak saw dust is very acidic.
    The larch sawdust is somewhat acidic and stays around a long time and doesn’t decompose quickly.

    We use it in our compost toilet.
    It sort of rots down a bit but it does have a nice crumbly texture.
    The first builders bag (1tonne bag) of compost toilet emptyings is at the top of our field “maturing”. It doesn’t smell and has grass growing in it (Sorry Charles… I should weed that).

    If the wood is pale soft wood shavings I would have thought they would be beneficial in compost.

    #48522

    Wellies
    Participant

    I wanted to edit my reply but editing doesn’t work on my wifes phone. It also gives me a headache using it.

    I wanted to change that last sentence to….beneficial in compost if you have lots of other “green” stuff to balance out the “brown” shavings.

    #48524

    charles
    Moderator

    Al Kaline it will be fine to use as surface mulch, then the wood will hang around on the surface & decompose in air.
    Yes you could plant into that. say no more than 3-5cm/1-2in deep.
    I would not use it to make a new bed of say 15cm/6in because then there is wood in the rooting zone, where it takes nitrogen to break down, to the detriment of growing plants.

    #48527

    Al Kaline
    Participant

    Ah, thanks for your replies! acidic it may be, as the only clue I have to the identity of the wood type was a small twig I found in it from a Christmas tree. Although there are so many shavings, they potentially could be made up from all sorts.

    If it is acidic, would using it as a 1-2 inch top mulch cause problems with the ph balance for the already established lovely no dig soil below?

    Attached some photos 🙂

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