I have been wondering about using this on my Cornus stump. That would be
to accelerate its decomposition, of course, not to kill it as that would
be an unapproved use.

But I just had a look at the Westland Garotta pack in my local garden
centre, and there is absolutely no mention of what it contains. I
thought it might say "Ammonium Sulfamate" somewhere, but there's not
mention of it. However, on the information sheet at
https://www.gardenhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Garotta.pdf it
states that the hazardous ingredients are "Silicone (sic) Dioxide 35 -
40%" and "Limestone 35 - 40%".So it's sand and limestone. No ammonium
sulfamate to be seen.

--

Jeff

On 07/03/19 13:05, Chris Hogg wrote:
On Thu, 7 Mar 2019 12:41:26 +0000, Jeff Layman
wrote:

I have been wondering about using this on my Cornus stump. That would be
to accelerate its decomposition, of course, not to kill it as that would
be an unapproved use.

But I just had a look at the Westland Garotta pack in my local garden
centre, and there is absolutely no mention of what it contains. I
thought it might say "Ammonium Sulfamate" somewhere, but there's not
mention of it. However, on the information sheet at
https://www.gardenhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Garotta.pdf it
states that the hazardous ingredients are "Silicone (sic) Dioxide 35 -
40%" and "Limestone 35 - 40%".So it's sand and limestone. No ammonium
sulfamate to be seen.

There's still 20-30% unaccounted for. Perhaps that's the sulphamate,
although they surely should say so in the MSD sheet.

I wondered about that, but as they consider sand and limestone
"hazardous substances" I would be somewhat surprised if ammonium
sulfamate wasn't considered hazardous.

Why not just buy the sulphamate directly. Plenty on e-bay. I call it
'composting in situ'.

It will probably come to that or some other source. It's just that I was
surprised to see there was no ammonium sulfamate in the Garotta pack I
looked at. I wonder how long it's been like that, as ISTR we've
discussed the "non-approved" use of it for ages here, and Garotta
compost accelerator often got mentioned...

--

Jeff

Jeff Layman wrote:

I was surprised to see there was no ammonium sulfamate in the Garotta
pack I looked at. I wonder how long it's been like that, as ISTR
we've discussed the "non-approved" use of it for ages here, and
Garotta compost accelerator often got mentioned...

Sure it wasn't "Root Out" being discussed?

On 07/03/19 13:39, Andy Burns wrote:

Jeff Layman wrote:

I was surprised to see there was no ammonium sulfamate in the Garotta
pack I looked at. I wonder how long it's been like that, as ISTR
we've discussed the "non-approved" use of it for ages here, and
Garotta compost accelerator often got mentioned...

Sure it wasn't "Root Out" being discussed?

I thought it was Garotta, BICBW. Didn't it contain ammonium sulfamate
before the EU ruling? See the first few posts in this forum from 2009:
https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=207&t=773445&i=20

Mind you, I wonder what this is:
https://www.johnstowngardencentre.ie/p/garotta-compost-maker-granular-35-kg/garotta_compost_maker_granular
"Active ingredients - Nitrogen with ground limestone"

I could have been referring to the wrong product earlier - that pdf I
linked to is for Garotta "Garden Composting Aid". I'm not sure now if
that is their compost accelerator or not. Anyway, as Chris noted, there
are other sources of the compound available.

--

Jeff

On 07/03/2019 12:41, Jeff Layman wrote:
I have been wondering about using this on my Cornus stump. That would be
to accelerate its decomposition, of course, not to kill it as that would
be an unapproved use.

But I just had a look at the Westland Garotta pack in my local garden
centre, and there is absolutely no mention of what it contains. I
thought it might say "Ammonium Sulfamate" somewhere, but there's not
mention of it. However, on the information sheet at
https://www.gardenhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Garotta.pdf it
states that the hazardous ingredients are "Silicone (sic) Dioxide 35 -
40%"Â* and "Limestone 35 - 40%".So it's sand and limestone. No ammonium
sulfamate to be seen.

I have found it effective for starting a smaller cold heap. YMMV
You can cut it with ammonium *sulphate* to make it go further.

It is a mix of inert minerals and freeze dried compost fungi/bacteria.

I can't see it doing anything useful to a tree stump. Loading it with
potassium (or ammonium) nitrate and a copper nail would be my
suggestion. In a dry year you can get it to smoulder away and in a wet
one it rots faster with the added nitrogen and a trace of copper. That
is how I got my former big apple tree root out.

My compost heap is large enough that it runs hot provided that I always
add a decent amount of stuff at one time. Last year was so dry during
late summer that some layers did not properly rot down though

--
Regards,
Martin Brown

On 07/03/19 16:15, Martin Brown wrote:
On 07/03/2019 12:41, Jeff Layman wrote:
I have been wondering about using this on my Cornus stump. That would be
to accelerate its decomposition, of course, not to kill it as that would
be an unapproved use.

But I just had a look at the Westland Garotta pack in my local garden
centre, and there is absolutely no mention of what it contains. I
thought it might say "Ammonium Sulfamate" somewhere, but there's not
mention of it. However, on the information sheet at
https://www.gardenhealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Garotta.pdf it
states that the hazardous ingredients are "Silicone (sic) Dioxide 35 -
40%"Â* and "Limestone 35 - 40%".So it's sand and limestone. No ammonium
sulfamate to be seen.

I have found it effective for starting a smaller cold heap. YMMV
You can cut it with ammonium *sulphate* to make it go further.

It is a mix of inert minerals and freeze dried compost fungi/bacteria.

I can't see it doing anything useful to a tree stump. Loading it with
potassium (or ammonium) nitrate and a copper nail would be my
suggestion. In a dry year you can get it to smoulder away and in a wet
one it rots faster with the added nitrogen and a trace of copper. That
is how I got my former big apple tree root out.

I've had some KNO3 for maybe 30 years as I used to mix my own specialist
low-phosphate fertiliser for proteaceous plants. Although I haven't got
any copper nails, I've got plenty of copper wire. Maybe it'll save me
wasting any money on ammonium sulfamate.

--

Jeff