Disposing of saw dust??

[Rick Thom]

Some of you must be creating mountains of saw dust and on a regualar basis. How are you disposing of it?

[Jamie Buxton]

I have several gardeners who consume all I can make. They use it in compost piles.

[Tom Drake]

Mine goes to a secluded pile at the back of my property.

[tod evans]

i pay to have a dumpster dumped.

[Doug Shepard]

Back when I was actually doing some gardening, I used it as mulch and compost. I found out later that some plants have an aversion to the tannin in some woods. Don't recall at the moment which plants have problems with it though. A lot of folks use jointer/planer chips and shavings as animal bedding too, although one species (walnut I think?) is apparently toxic to horses.

[Frank Pellow]

I use sawdust and chips as mulch in our vegetable garden. But, I am increasing my woodworking and cutting back a bit on the gardening so, next summer, supply might exceed demand.

[John Bailey]

This may sound a bit off center, but does anyone know if you can use sawdust to grow mushrooms?

John

[Fred Voorhees]

I had a neighbor who used to take it for his mulch pile, though he slacked off on that. Nowadays, I use it to cover the bare ground around my firewood shed where the grass simply doesn't want to grow or I toss it in my woods and let nature take its course. Ashes to ashes.

[Jim Hager]

I blow all of mine outside into a pile, I don't use a collector the way they were meant to be used. I take my front end loader and move the pile out into flower beds for mulch and scatter it around the place here and there for bermuda grass to grow in. For some reason bermuda grass just loves sawdust. I also give it away to anyone who wants some for animal bedding and gardening. It hasn't become a big problem as of now. My wife is wanting me to put up some sort of a fence around the pile so it doesn't show up from the highway. :rolleyes:

[John Timberlake]

I use mine for mulch in the flower beds. Doesn't last very long, but that gives me reason to create more saw dust. Figure if the plants can't take it, I'll get new plants.

[Keith Christopher]

Like most compost/mulch what's left over gets given away or bagged and tossed in normal trash day.

[Jim Becker]

We compost all but the Walnut which I dump elsewhere on our property.

[Russ Massery]

Lately I've been planning and joining alot lately enough to fill the dust collector drum in a day or two. So I use it to start fires in my woodburning stove. In the summer the SWMBO and the neighbors use it in there flower beds and gardens.

John, I think you can use them to grow mushrooms they seem to grow pretty well on the pile I have in back.

[Charlie Plesums]

Walnut shavings/dust contains a chemical that prevents seeds from germinating. If you put it on a vegetable garden, you will be sorry. But if you put it on a rose garden (or anything growning from plants rather than seeds) you will have a wonderful mulch. From experience (under our shrubs) it lasts several years.

I keep my walnut shavings separate, and often have a waiting list for it.

I have heard that horse urine on walnut shavings creates a toxic chemical that can be absorbed through hooves. I don't have any extra walnut shavings to waste on horses, so I don't know.

[Jim Becker]

Walnut shavings can be deadly to horses.

[Mark Rios]

When I was making alot of sawdust ( alot for me anyway) I used alot of walnut. I used the sawdust for weed control

[Frank Hagan]

This may sound a bit off center, but does anyone know if you can use sawdust to grow mushrooms?

John

It would probably work as part of the mix. The mushroom compost I am famililar with, which is sold by the mushroom farms here after they have grown mushrooms in it, is aged horse manure and alfalfa hay. Other times I have seen quite a bit of what looks to me like regular old straw in it.

[Rick Thom]

I understand about the walnut issue because I have a bunch of walnut and butternut trees now and one does have to find plant species that can co-exist. 1 walnut is @ 80' tall with a straight trunk @3' dia up to @ 30'. Hmmmm.
Thanks for all your solutions. For me, looks like the composting is the most practical, with the downside being that my wife will expect me to plant flowers, shrubs etc.

[Larry Fox]

Dump it in a pile at the back of my property. Knock the pile down and spread it around a bit when it gets to high and becomes unsightly.

[Andy Hoyt]

I take mine into the woods out back and generally spread it around. On the return trip I usually lug in a chunk of something on the ground if it looks turnable. Can't waste those steps!

[Steve Clardy]

Like Jim. Mines all blowed outside in a pile or the pickup bed trailer.
Then dumped in a pile in the graden. Let it rot for a while, then spread and plow it in.

[Hank Knight]

The city provides weekly trash and refuse pick-up in addition to regular garbage colleciton. I put my sawdust and shop trash on the curb and the city whisks it away every Tuesday. It's magic!

[Matt Meiser]

I was taking mine next door for the neighbor to use for his horses. He didn't care what I brought over, including walnut since I don't generate much walnut dust and he has so much other sawdust trucked in. I've started spreading it on the trails we are creating in the rear of our property. Since I have probably 3/8 mi of trails 8-10' wide, I don't think I'll ever run out of space to spread it.

[Randy Moore]

I give mine to the city for recycling. They take yard waste and other wood chips and make mulch that we can get for free. :)
Russ, I would be careful starting fires with your sawdust, I have heard that it is explosive:eek: , like grain dust.

Randy