Composting wool fleece?

[SandraParticipant]

I have been offered more ‘raw’ fleece than I can shake a stick at. My neighbour has loads on offer and has already delivered a tonne builders bagfull here. Now, can I compost it? I am a bit concerned because it has this pretty hefty level of natural lanolin (?) on it which I am worried might delay the breakdown of the fibre. Am I worrying too much, I usually do.

Any ideas for alternative uses would be much appreciated.

[CleansweepParticipant]

Sandra, search ‘composting wool’ in the forum search box above. Plenty of results from 2016

[MJSJParticipant]

Hi Sandra I have sheep so often use wool it takes a while to break down & on beds weeds can sometimes get tangled up in it but otherwise good around small plants but not 100 % against slugs not really necessary with no dig best put in compost as heats up quite hot & will break down quicker .if you have areas rough & weedy a very thick layer will mulch out weeds & supply slow release nitrogen you could add compost on top to plant into as it would take along time to break up. Hope this helps

[SandraParticipant]

I will do that now Cleansweep, thanks.

MJSJ, yes, I have started to layer it in my compost heap. I do have some no man’s land areas that I want to get control of, so I think that I will be raiding my neighbour’s barn now for the 3 or 4 years worth of fleece that he hasn’t been able to face sending to the tip luckily for me! I have already used the first tonne builders bags full of fleece and it hasn’t blown away as much as I expected it to – a bonus here because we have had lots of gales and rain in the last week. Still, my storage tanks are filling up, though the pond has a way to go to be full still.

Thanks to you both.

[Author]

Posts