RalphVa
Super Member
- Joined
- Dec 19, 2003
- Messages
- 7,885
- Location
- Charlottesville, VA, USA
- Tractor
- JD 2025R, previously Gravely 5650 & JD 4010 & JD 1025R
All you need is a little bit (about a 1/4" or so) of compost and work it into 6 or 8" of your clay. You can use sawdust, if you adjust the C:N ratio (carbon to nitrogen).
I get sawdust from my cabinet maker all the time. I've 2 barrels back there now, awaiting my wife to buy some Nitrogen to add to it to allow it to compost more readily. You need a C:N ratio of about 30/1 to make compost. Sawdust is about 300-500/1. It only takes about 2# of nitrogen to adjust 2 barrels of sawdust. That's somewhere around 20-25# of the 18% nitrogen organic Espoma fertilizer that I use. I use 25 # on 2 to 3 barrels.
I don't fully compost it, as it's difficult to get the necessary amount of water into the water-repelling sawdust. So, I just sprinkle the fertilizer over the sawdust and let nature water it. After a few days, I lift it with the FEL and dump it onto my chipped/shredded pile of mostly leaves. Sometimes, I toss the pile afterwards. Most times, I just let it sit littered on top the pile. I normally use my pile as mulch on both shrub and veggie garden beds/rows.
I did fully compost sawdust once. Had to enclose it in a fence with fiberglass screening inside and use a tree lance to get water into it. Dumped it a couple of times over 2 or 3 weeks' time and put it back into the fence surround. Made compost in about a months' time.
Ralph
I get sawdust from my cabinet maker all the time. I've 2 barrels back there now, awaiting my wife to buy some Nitrogen to add to it to allow it to compost more readily. You need a C:N ratio of about 30/1 to make compost. Sawdust is about 300-500/1. It only takes about 2# of nitrogen to adjust 2 barrels of sawdust. That's somewhere around 20-25# of the 18% nitrogen organic Espoma fertilizer that I use. I use 25 # on 2 to 3 barrels.
I don't fully compost it, as it's difficult to get the necessary amount of water into the water-repelling sawdust. So, I just sprinkle the fertilizer over the sawdust and let nature water it. After a few days, I lift it with the FEL and dump it onto my chipped/shredded pile of mostly leaves. Sometimes, I toss the pile afterwards. Most times, I just let it sit littered on top the pile. I normally use my pile as mulch on both shrub and veggie garden beds/rows.
I did fully compost sawdust once. Had to enclose it in a fence with fiberglass screening inside and use a tree lance to get water into it. Dumped it a couple of times over 2 or 3 weeks' time and put it back into the fence surround. Made compost in about a months' time.
Ralph
