Composting sawdust

[Dan Mages]

Hi everyone! I need to clean out my dust collector and i am wondering if I can empty the sawdust/chips into my compost bin. Are there any problems with this?

Thanks,

Dan

[Mark Patoka]

Dan,

I found this site, http://www.gardenopus.com/Sawdust.htm, that address that question. I had also heard that putting sawdust directly into the garden soil will deplete it of nitrogen but you shouldn't have a problem using it in the compost piles first.

[Jim Becker]

We regularly use my cyclone output (sans walnut) in our compost piles. It helps balance the green material and kitchen waste that goes in. (We also compost paper from our shredders...)

[Dennis Peacock]

Everything I output in the shop....goes into the garden spot or around my trees in the yard.

[Doug Shepard]

I don't remember which ones, but I read somewhere in the past that certain plants don't like red oak sawdust due to high tannin levels, while others don't care or even thrive on it.

[Dan Mages]

Thanks for all of the input!


We regularly use my cyclone output (sans walnut) in our compost piles. It helps balance the green material and kitchen waste that goes in. (We also compost paper from our shredders...)

Jim, why do you leave out the walnut?

Dan

[Steve Clardy]

I deposit 4-5 pickup loads a year in ours. Usually pile it up for a year, then spread it out. Also use it as a plant ground cover, then till it under next spring. Everything goes in. Oak, Walnut, etc.
Sure loosens your soil up.
Steve

[Harry Goodwin]

Check I don't think a tomato will grow near a live walnut. I don't know about shavings. Harry

[Jim Becker]

Jim, why do you leave out the walnut?

Although it has less of a presence in the wood than it does in the leaves, fruit and roots, walnut gives off a substance that "prevents competition" from certain kinds of plants...not a good thing when gardens are involved.

It's also important to note that walnut chips and sawdust is also poisonous to certain animials...such as horses...and shouldn't be used for bedding, either.

[Keith Outten]

Walnut sawdust and urine produce a gas that can be deadly, this is why horse stables are extremely carefull where they purchase woodchips and sawdust for stalls.

[Dan Mages]

AH! thanks for the info!

Dan

[Mark Stutz]

Jim,
I wonder how much problem the walnut really is in practice. My son did some field research on this topic. The chemical in question is called juglone. The exact mechanism is not entirely worked out. I asked him about the wood chips, and it was his opinion, FWIW, that once composted it was very unlikely to be of significance since the concentration in the wood is so low to begin with. Walnut husks and leaves have the highest concentration. As it turns out, there has been very little scientific study of this phenomenon.

Mark

[Ken Fitzgerald]

Concerning walnut leaves. When I first moved here I turned under an area 18'X75' for a garden. The first year it yielded great. That fall I took my new rototiller and turned the leaves from my English Walnut tree into the soil. Big mistake! The next year the garden yielded poorly. My neighbor, a science teacher, explained the walnut leaf chemistry to me. I never turned the leaves into the soil again and the garden yielded nice bounties. It's my understanding there is a chemical in the leaves that is a natural plant toxin. That's how the walnut family trees beat back the competition in the wild.

[Joe Mioux]

Be careful with sawdust in the garden.

Keep an eye on the Ph and like someone noted, decomposing waste material in a garden can depleted N from the soil.

As for leaves, I prefer to use only Maple leaves.

Joe

[Steven Wilson]

I avoid composting wood waste that has significant amounts of dust from MDF, treated lumber, plywood, or particle board (that goes into the trash). Dust and chips from natural wood either goes into the compost pile (with a small handful of urea to add a bit of nitrogen) or into the woodchips that make up the base of the kids playset.

[Dan Mages]

I just want to clarify... I am not composting in the garden. I have a separate composting bin for this stuff.

Dan

[Greg Heppeard]

I've found that walnut leaves and husks are a good remedy for fleas. I scatter them behing my shop and haven't have a flea problem with my dogs at all in the last 5 years. It must also keep down ticks, only one tick problem in the same time. Nothing really grows behind my shop now, except some small trees, which the weed eater takes care of.

[Michael Perata]

Found this site about black walnuts and plants
http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/1000/1148.html

Found this site about horses, black walnut and laminitis (very serious and heart wrenching if you are into horses)
http://www.vet.purdue.edu/depts/addl/toxic/plant45.htm

[Dennis McDonaugh]

As I understand it, composted walnut leaves, wood etc are nontoxic, its only the fresh stuff thats bad.