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Who gave the dirtbags a bad name?

Started by ponderosae, October 22, 2019, 07:59:59 PM

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ponderosae

Could nobody find a good use for a bag o' dirt?  I was thinking about using that for something like little sandbags. Maybe sand gave dirt a bad name then...

Short story long, I don't usually think about it because it's unusual to have extra dirt (or sand) for me to find a use for. But it was mentioned briefly as a less preferred alternative to sandbags in the wikipedia article on those. Otherwise there doesn't seem to be an etymology for the literal dirtbag as a predecessor to the sandbag, it's more like slang for useless. What's so appaling about dirt in a bag though? Seriously... people buy "feces" in a bag and rub it all over their garden while smelling the roses. Well there's dirt in there too, which makes it alright to buy a poobag (oddly enough). So I think the word kind of slipped through the cracks, as it were.

I've seen bags of dirt without the fertilizer anyway, but those simply didn't get called dirtbags, ever! It might be too confusing at this point, because the alternative use of the term is its literal definition.

ponderosae

How dirty is a dirtbag though?

Let's see... so the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service of the USDA strictly controlls Soil (aka, dirt), and its bagging. They may require double bagging it to the point that it can withstand heat treatment, for importation especially. A double dirtbag!

Yeah, watch out. There can be things like botulinum spores in there... so I was wondering, if I put some damp dirt in a bag and didn't heat treat it, would it get dirtier, because those bacteria would germinate in this little anaerobic biosphere?

Not likely, a few sources say it takes more decaying matter than mud alone (which practically isn't decaying). On the other hand, a haybag of silage has been known to give horses botulism, and likewise I'd think a bag of sod would become dirtier than a dirtbag, as toxins like that could form inside of it.

Basically, I'd say a plastic bag makes the dirt cleaner to handle, and the soil won't really biodegrade one of those either. So it probably isn't more of a health risk to bag it up, and later be exposed to its contents.  I think they consider the sandbag to be cleaner still, because it isn't classified as having organic matter, except on the outside (like soil, although a bag of fruit will become more soiled inside than a dirtbag if you leave it sitting out long enough).

Maybe it would end up smelling like a swamp in the damp dirtbag, though, they say it smells too earthy for some people to tolerate heating it up in an oven. help_me Could still be a little helpful as a temporary weight on a windy day...

ponderosae

Actually, I found out that something like dirtbags are still in use. The may be called a "soil sack" or "earthbag", for instance. Generally not just topsoil in there though. They say that earthbag buildings are 'earthquake resilient', and may be combined with timber framing, for example. fred_head

ponderosae

Quote from: ponderosae on October 23, 2019, 06:41:06 AM
Could still be a little helpful as a temporary weight on a windy day...
Or a rainy day... I'm happy to report that they can stop some flooding too. I just filled up a few empty 80 lb pea gravel bags that I'd saved with my surplus dirt, and zip tied those after twisting them at the top. I also used some plastic freezer 'soil-sacks' intermittently, and that makes for a good enough little beaver dam at the moment (or should I say those dam dirtbags?)! ;D

Well, I don't think the earthworms like getting stuck in earthbags (I tried to cast them aside as I filled those), but I'll dump them out as soon as practicable, as I do more work with the pea gravel there. Those sacks don't seem to be airtight (or would store more air for being larger), but I'll have to try poking a few holes in the freezer bags, now that I think about the poor little things being buried alive. Yeah, I'll make it a mudbag experiment then... I think they can swim (or crawl out of there at least, worms can dive underground quite fast actually).

Speaking of which, there are also "Sandless Sandbags" that aren't watertight, something I saw at Uline ('Self-activating bags expand on contact with water. No sand needed. Each bag absorbs 4 gallons, swelling to 3 1/2" high. Shrinks down when fully dry')... they must be filled with gummy worms! smiley_idea

ponderosae

So it turns out that I'll have to give the dirtbags a bad name, since a few of the worms died. Merry Christmas... well at least I set the others free on this holy day. There was only one in about twelve of the smaller bags that I'd poked holes in, and it survived (maybe some had crawled out of those too, since all of the larger bags had more than one worm inside, and most were still alive in every bag, but the others must have been stuck between a rock and a hard place). Surprisingly, I found two tiny ones on the concrete underneath the last large bag I picked up, yet they were still alive (even though they may have been stuck there the whole time too). Maybe it's just me, but I think worms are the holiest creatures on earth.

ponderosae

Quote from: ponderosae on December 25, 2019, 07:19:51 PM
Maybe it's just me, but I think worms are the holiest creatures on earth.
Actually it isn't just me, I was reading a little more about them and these tales say something to that effect (as if there's a moral to this dirty story): Want to save the planet? Worry about earthworms... "Darwin spent 39 years studying these animals for a good reason ['Intelligence, Darwin declared, had to be the guiding factor']. In fact, earthworms have even been ranked the number one most influential species in the history of the planet – above dinosaurs and humans"... ['When our civilizations end, and when we as individuals die, we don’t ascend, not physically. We descend. And the earth rises up to meet us'].

Well then, I'll have to give earthworms a good name (if not a mushier one), and refer to them as earth angels. smiley_angel02_wings

ponderosae

They might do okay with a plant in there, by the way; here's a visual of what dirtbags can do that sandbags can't:
Quote"In order to treat and arrest the formation of gullies, the project implemented a bioengineering technique using vetiver, a grass known for its deep roots that can effectively control soil erosion. In this method, soil-filled bags are compacted in gullies to arrest progression of gullies. Vetiver are planted in the top soil-filled bags (filled with fertile soil). The bags will normally deteriorate and breakdown under the sun, but the roots of vetiver keep the soil in place"...

Well I hadn't thought about it this deeply, until reading about how rills can develop into deeper gullies, and they say that vetiver grass can have ten-foot deep roots, which cater to all kinds of earthworms (which occupy different depths). They seem to do okay in confined spaces with plants, as I noticed there was a worm in every boxwood that I transplanted from a nursery, and those had been there for over a year, with the worms curled up around the little roots, even on the bottom of pots. Plants might otherwise be buried in burlap dirtbags, which are said to break down in the earth. Here in the gully they were not buried, so the bags would control erosion until the plants grew deeper.

I guess it could be tricky to turn just any bag into a biosphere though, since I was reading that worms tend to migrate when the soil becomes toxic to them from their own castings, so maybe it's better if the bag breaks down a little faster (in general, depending on the type of plant involved), or has a matrix of holes (like a 'green gabion' with fiber mesh, or rocky soil) for them to migrate through if they must (while other types of worms could move in, which feed on those castings). Well, they weren't talking about worms in their bioengineering with vetiver grass there (and its large roots must go through the bags anyway), but elsewhere they're said to help prevent some erosion from flooding by improving drainage too, besides helping the grass grow for erosion control, so that's what I was talking about.

I mean it would be hard to keep them out of the fill dirt to begin with, so the material might as well accomodate the worms, if possible, for the sake of "bioengineering" a dirtbag!

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