I've been dumping my sawdust in a low area in the woods on my property for about a year now. Is there any problem or danger in doing this? Could it catch of fire from spontaneous combustion? :)
R.T.
You're probably leaching lignin into the soil and surrounding areas. Lignin is that dark brown stuff that pools in water with a piece of wood in it. Oak is probably the worst.
You can get sawdust to catch on fire, but it depends on how high your pile is. I've seen bark piles catch on fire, especially when they drive loaders on them.
A sawdust pile is a good place to get your feet warm when its cold out. Also a good place to find snakes.
Thanks Ron,
So how do you guys get rid of your sawdust? When I first started milling I just put it in garbage bags and set it out for the trash pickup. But now theres just to much of it! Guess I could just dig a big hole, let it pile up and then bury it, hey? Thanks!
R.T.
My sawdust is a little more coarse than you band mill folks have, and we make use of it in the horse stalls. (No Black Walnut!!) After that, it gets composted with the rest of the wastes. Makes some pretty good material in about 18 months, quicker if I turn it regularly.
Captain
We blow ours in trailers and sell it to farmers. We have poultry houses, dairy farmers and horse owners that are just about killing each other to get sawdust. We sell one load per week to a riding club for big bucks.
We also let people come in and clean up the mill for free. They just have to be dependable.
I've heard of people putting it on fields to loosen up soil. Wood uses up nitrogen in the decomposing stages, so that can be a factor.
There are also sawdust stoves that can be built to use for heat in a shop. Here's a Mother Earth News link:
http://www.motherearthnews.com/menarch/archive/issues/030/030-028-01.htm
I give my sawdust to my brother in law who uses it for bedding in the cow barn. The cows like it better than the ground up hay he makes for bedding.
I also put a bit in my compost but recently read you should not be doing that. I was wondering why but I think Ron just answered my question, thanks.
I have also thrown a little sawdust on the driveway to replace the dirt that washes away. Hmmm now if the heat in the sawdust could make the ice melt in winter that would be great.
Sawdust in holes or low places to fill a road isn't the best use. When it decomposes and gets wet, it makes a muck hole.
It makes good compost but needs to have nitrogen and lime added to it before it is used.
It is good for a garden in sandy soil and will loosen clay.
Some of the fella's have been experimenting with making fireplace logs out of it by pressing it in a cylinder. I don't how successful they are on a small scale.
I spread what little bit I have here at home, in the woods. After all , that's where it came from. I figure it is probably better accepted by the environment than the log would have been. Well, except for critter houses.
Butcher shops used to use it on the floors. I wonder if they still do?
QuoteThe cows like it better than the ground up hay
How do we know this?
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Kevin its easy to tell the cows like it just look at the smiles on their faces :)
Tom,
I agree too much sawdust makes a mess. I only use an inch or so. Mostly I use woodchips. I found that fresh cut and chipped up hemlock branches work well to hold sand in place. Same thing though only an inch or two no more.
Thanks for the info on the compost.
So how do you spread sawdust in the woods. Do you have one of those helicopter rigs that spread it out while you fly over ;D
front-end loader and my little tractor. :D
Ok thanks everyone, I almost forgot I posted this. Not because it wasn't important to me either, I think maybe I've been breathing to much saw dust and it's clouded my memory! ;D
R.T.
I mix mine in with the topsoil that I push off roads and sawing and stacking spots. Turn it with the shovel dozer after a few months and you can't even tell.
Isnt there a market for sawdust?..I mean cant it be mixed with liquid was for cleansweep or use for spills insted of kitty litter......there has to be a way to market it if even you were to bag or put it in 5 gal pales and sell it for 3 bucks a bucket...I have always hated just tossin it and have wondered if there is ANY kind of way to market it.....I had contacted clean sweep manufacturers and they DO use sawdust for that....How bout it Ron....be a GREAT way to recycle....
ummm I ment liquid WAX
My wife uses the Douglas Fir sawdust from the MD for potting in her landscape tree nursery.The mix is 60% sawdust, 20 and 20 of peat moss and vermiculite.Ideally there would be some coarser barkmulch added,but good results so far.
The trees spend a year or more in one gallon pots,then 2 gallon until the roots have filled the pot.Nutrient is added twice during the growing season.
Sawdust also works well for mulching around the ball&burlap stock to protect from heat or frost.
Eventually we would like to try composting some for the nursery and for sales.
Anybody have any info on composting sawdust?(about 5 gravel truck loads at a time)
I run mine into a manure spreader and spread it on my hay fields or woods roads or wherever I feel like. ;D ;D
One of my customers shovels it into his livestock trailer for bedding. Doesn't bunch up like straw and doesn't get slippery.
I guess if you were really hard up, you could grow mushrooms on sawdust. I know that Campbell's soup was growing shitake on white oak firewood. I imagine you could do that with sawdust and have another income stream.
For the mushrooms it is best to use Oak or our here many are now using Western Red Alder. I cannot keep enough sawdus around long enough to fill a wheel borrow. Most of mine goes for horse stalls or dog kennels. I have been seling some chips for contractors to stayout of the mud during early construction. I delivered 30 yeards a few weeks ago for $320/ Ron, how much is that a board foot? ;D