Extreme Composting

Any wood chips is better than no wood chips.

That said, I don't think mesquite is quite as resistant to rot as red cedar.

Have at it and let it rot, however long it takes.

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“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Thanx Forerunner.

Didnt think it was a big deal, but a friend said what about the sap. I said I dunno it is still wood. They sure make it nice when we harvest for Mesquite Bean Jelly thou!

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I know someone in Ocala, Fl who says he wants to sell a pto chipper. says it handled 6" material, was red and looked nearly brand new when I briefly saw it in his barn. I think "wood: was in the name, maybe woodmaxx, not sure. He used it to clear his new home lot, so probably not a lot of hours on it.

If you want info, I'll connect you two. I don't know the guy except that the home builder I'm considering built his net zero house so I toured the home to see the technology and build quality.

Ive got quite a few hours on chippers so I could test it and give you an unbiased report.

Mesquite is allelopathic to certain other plants. Main effect is retarding germination. Thus it comes within the "use at your own risk" advice.

Martin

Thanx, but I just scored an almost new echo bear cast 5" for $1,500. Guy bought some property from some older people in their 80s and they left it. He said the older couple tried it one time and scared them to death. I have the invoice from 2005 when they bought it. I greased it up and gave it a whirl. Works great. Doesnt care to much for the dry stuff as far as I can tell. It still has the manuals and all the paint is in place.

Anyways Thanx though.

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We are on our way to being farmers! Our site is always under construction so check back often for updates.

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Never heard of such a thing......Tell me more.

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We are on our way to being farmers! Our site is always under construction so check back often for updates.

http://www.philosophyfarmstyle.com/

I got 10+ tons of wood chips and logs delivered yesterday. A neighbor is clearing a lot so I loaned him my dump trailer in exchange for getting the wood. I wish i could get that much every week.

When I first bought this place, I had the local County Forester out to evaluate my pines for harvest and give me recommendations/critique for my farm development plans. I let slip the phrase approximating, "I want to begin the process of transforming the sand into soil."

The forester said that was impossible. I hate it when people tell me I can't do something.

So my orchard is about ready to plant. It has been amended with 100 tons of sludge, all the wood that was the jungle there previously, plus another 30 tons of wood and chips either compost piled or buried. Where I moved compost piles this week, the soil is magnificently different than the sand that was there. It is full of OM, black, holds water, improved tilth. That's only 2 acres of sand transformation with lots more to go, but I'm happy to see progress being made and that I'm slowly proving the forester wrong.

I still have a bit of leveling to do and next week I'm planting hairy vetch as a ground cover to further prep the soil prior to the trees going in.

This got me thinking about the common complaint I hear from people with sand soil, that the nutrients wash away. Where do they wash to? I assume down. How deep is this sand? What lies deep beneath the sand? Bedrock? Clay? Can you dig down to the layer where all the good stuff washed to? Would you have to dig to China? The soil must be good wherever that stuff went.

How about you bring a dump trailer load of sand to my farm, I'll load you a return load of clay? Good deal?

anywhere from 2 to 5 ft below the sand is a sandy clay. ~30' below the surface is limestone and aquifers alternating back and forth down to 500' or so. I buried all the wood to hold water and catch nutrients and am putting in the hairy vetch and comfrey to harvest the deeper nutrients and bring them to the surface. I also stirred the soil down to about 6 ft by pulling stumps so I brought clay up to the surface to mix with the sand to improve tilth. It will take me a few years to prove whether all the effort has been well spent.

Let's see, I'll bring you free clay if you pay my fuel bill. It costs me about $25/hr to haul a full 7.5 ton load. This ain't gonna be pretty.

Compost question.

I bought 4 yards of green compost. (they said 'green' means it's pure compost, not mixed with top soil)

I added about 2-3 inches of this compost in each of my raised beds.

Do I need to get the tiller out, and till it into my soil, or can I just plant my plants without 'mixing' the compost into the dirt?

Thanks in advance for the help!

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I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

Yikes, I hope I'm wrong about this, but I've never heard of green compost. There are lots of green things that go good in a compost pile, but they come out black if the compost is given half a chance to age and do its composting stuff. If the stuff isn't allowed to age very long, it turns brown.

Maybe someone else will have a different experience than mine.

"Green" could also mean that it hasn't been fully cured. If that were the case, the bacteria and other working forms may be still active and would not distinguish between what one wants to plant or what it wants to eat. I'd mix it in and not plant for a week or 10 days to be certain that the microherd will run out of fuel and become inactive.

Martin

What else did they offer for sale? I am curious, how fine was the material? Was it warm?

Microherd


Love that!

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Yes, that was being "politically correct" for the one or two here who might object if I failed to mention algae, fungi, phages, viruses, etc. which may accompany the usual bacteria at various times during the decomposition process.

Martin

Clearly you are a "macrobe" bigot. What have you got against mites, centipedes, sow bugs, snails, millipedes, springtails, spiders, slugs, beetles, ants, flies, nematodes, flatworms, rotifers, and earthworms?

It is black and crumbly. I didn't notice if it was warm or not? The pile was not 'steaming'.

They also offered pre mixed compost, meaning it was part compost part topsoil.

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__________________
I am sure of two things: There is a God, and I am not Him.
The movie Rudy

It's awful hard telling the value and applicability of a particular batch of compost, especially stuff manufactured for sale, represented in a pitcher online, without all the books and gizmos in Martin's laboratory, but I sure do love the corner shot of that four post bed to the far left in your pitcher.

A big old bed like that, outside, right next to the compost pile (and raised beds, of course)...... now that's the kind of devotion I'm talkin' about !

__________________
“I would remind you that extremism in the defense of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue.” Barry Goldwater.
III

Wet it down. If it gets warm to hot it is green unfinished compost. The finished stuff will not heat up if I am correct. At least mine does not.

All of those consume organic matter and break it down to where it is more readily made into compost or humus by lower forms. The result is the same no matter if it is a sow bug or a sow, an elephant beetle or an elephant. Only the scale of production differs.

Martin