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Sawdust
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Beecrofter wrote: "emuir" wrote in message ... I'm told that putting green woodchips onto soil has the effect of drawing out nutrients from the soil as they rot down. Does anybody know if they same happens if sawdust from seasoned wood is added to soil. Has anybody tried this to build up moisture retention in dry areas? Sawdust has a carbon to nitrogen ratio of about 400-1 and it will tie up nitrogen if mixed into the soil. It makes a good mulch for blueberries when laid on the soil surface. It makes a soft place to land when mixed with sand under playsets/swingsets. It ties up enough nitrogen to make a pile of grass clippings rot without stinking. Er, no. I don't know where all the pseudo-science about "greens", "browns", "carbon", "nitrogen" and all that came from, but it really doesn't describe what is going on. Your description of how to use it is fine - it is the explanation that isn't. Grass is not a high-nitrogen material, and the reason that grass clippings make a slimy, smelly mess is because they compact into a wet, ANAEROBIC lump. Longer, more mature grass does not do that on a small scale. Sawdust is less compressible, less decomposable and prevents the smell by maintaining aeration. SOME nitrogen is used by the fungi (not usually bacteria) in breaking down wood, as in sawdust, hedge clippings and so on, but it is all returned as the fungi themselves are broken down by bacteria. This is one cause of the deep green patch just inside the yellowish strip in a fairy ring. The only common high nitrogen materials in compost come from kitchen waste, dead animals and when you throw out a pack of MATURE dried peas, beans etc. Almost everything else is fairly low. And nothing less than putting large lumps of meat or dead animals on the heap is likely to change the decomposition to being one dominated by the protein-reducing organisms - the odd pound or couple of dead rats is neither here nor there. Regards, Nick Maclaren, University of Cambridge Computing Service, New Museums Site, Pembroke Street, Cambridge CB2 3QH, England. Email: Tel.: +44 1223 334761 Fax: +44 1223 334679 |
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