composting thatch
 

Rented a power rake yesterday - unbelievable how much thatch was down there.

Is thatch good for composting?

And, in mixing brown & green: on which side would you count thatch?

Thanks,
Bill

"bill" wrote in
news:bRjme.7954$zb.2356@trndny01:

Rented a power rake yesterday - unbelievable how much thatch was down
there.

Is thatch good for composting?

And, in mixing brown & green: on which side would you count thatch?

Thanks,
Bill




thatch is definetely brown. and I agree, it's always amazing how much comes
up when a lawn has never been dethatched before.

Not to horn in where advice was not asked, but I would recommend
overseeding soon after dethatching-- my experience has been that
dethatching brings to the surface or make sunshine available to zillions of
dormant weed seeds which spring up in the new bare areas. Overseeding will
help crowd out these weed seeds.

--
David J. Bockman, Fairfax, VA (USDA Hardiness Zone 7)
email:
http://beyondgardening.com/Albums

Not sure if I did thing right or wrong. A couple years ago, I tried to
compost thatch. But after one year of having thatch sitting in a
compost pile that I only turn every two weeks or less (and not enough
water), I found that the thatch was not decomposed at all while the
other things like leaves had decomposed. Consequently, I had to remove
all the thatch from the compost piles (to make room for other stuff).
Now, I am selective with what I put into the compost piles -- no
thatch, no tree branches, no bamboo sticks ... no hard to rot stuff.

I am not saying that you cannot compost thatch. But you may not get the
intended result given the amount of effort that you are willing to put
in, or you may need to intensively turn and water the compost piles.

Jay Chan

bill wrote:
Rented a power rake yesterday - unbelievable how much thatch was down there.

Is thatch good for composting?

And, in mixing brown & green: on which side would you count thatch?

Thanks,
Bill

Travis wrote:
wrote:

Not sure if I did thing right or wrong. A couple years ago, I tried
to compost thatch. But after one year of having thatch sitting in a
compost pile that I only turn every two weeks or less (and not
enough water), I found that the thatch was not decomposed at all
while the other things like leaves had decomposed. Consequently, I
had to remove all the thatch from the compost piles (to make room
for other stuff). Now, I am selective with what I put into the
compost piles -- no thatch, no tree branches, no bamboo sticks ...
no hard to rot stuff.

I am not saying that you cannot compost thatch. But you may not get
the intended result given the amount of effort that you are willing
to put in, or you may need to intensively turn and water the
compost piles.

Jay Chan

bill wrote:

Rented a power rake yesterday - unbelievable how much thatch was
down there.

Is thatch good for composting?

And, in mixing brown & green: on which side would you count
thatch?

Thanks,
Bill


If you run over the thatch with a bagging lawn mower before you put it
in the compost pile you might be more successful.

Throw in some dirt.

This may be the key. I didn't run over thatch with a lawn mower because
I thought they were tiny enough. Now I think about this, those thatch
were likely not tiny enough. Hopefully, the OP will find your tip.

Thanks.

Jay Chan


If you run over the thatch with a bagging lawn mower before you put it
in the compost pile you might be more successful.

--

Travis in Shoreline (just North of Seattle) Washington
USDA Zone 8
Sunset Zone 5