How To Get Rid Of Your Sawdust

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:30:08 -0500, [email protected] (J T)
wrote:

>http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/3wdev/VITAHTML/SUBLEV/EN1/SAWDSTOV.HTM
>
> If you don't want to look, it's another type of sawdust stove.

We use it in our chicken house (converted stable) to absorb the
chicken poo. After a week or so it gets put on the compost heap and
then onto the land to grow our spuds :)
Regards, Jeff.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:12:39 -0500, "George" <george@least> wrote:

>Less the part that you took out of the carbon cycle by making furniture out
>of it.

There's also how long it takes to release that carbon and how much of
it comes off as carbon dioxide, as distinct from solid carbon
(charcoal) that stays in the soils for centuries. Fire releases CO2
all at once. Natural breakdowns take decades in temperate climates.

Rain forests are differnt, of course. For one thing you've got all
those termites eating wood and farting methane.

--RC
>
>"Dave Hinz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> On 19 Nov 2004 11:22:34 -0800, Daniel Martin <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>> > If burning the saw dust is considered as a way of protecting the
>> > environment then you are better off throwing it away. Or use it as
>> > compost.
>>
>> Um, it'll give off the same amount of CO2 when it rots, Daniel, as when
>> you burn it. Amazingly enough, that's the same amount of CO2 that the
>> tree absorbed into that same wood when it was growing.
>>
>>
>

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 08:27:55 -0500, "George" <george@least> wrote:

>Or an interim measure until the trucks can be modified.

I wouldn't be surprised if that is what the city intended,
but the clear plastic bag rule's been in place for quite
a while, at least a few years.

On 19 Nov 2004 11:22:34 -0800, Daniel Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
> If burning the saw dust is considered as a way of protecting the
> environment then you are better off throwing it away. Or use it as
> compost.

Um, it'll give off the same amount of CO2 when it rots, Daniel, as when
you burn it. Amazingly enough, that's the same amount of CO2 that the
tree absorbed into that same wood when it was growing.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]> wrote:
> CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
> ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
> clippings.

It depends on what kind of sawdust you're talking about, though. Walnut
would be unwise, and many of the exotics/jungle woods may actually be
toxic in a compost situation.

> If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
> for the trash man, then forget I said anything.

Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
is allowed into the trash collection stream?

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:33:35 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]> wrote:
> Yes and no. Same guys. Marked bags indicating yard waste. Two
> different streams where we live. (Plymouth, MN)

Ah, right. Around here, if you want to get rid of yard waste, you take it
to the local compost yard. You can also get topsoil from the same place,
coincidentally enough. Maybe the hassle of hauling it, combined with the
"you're gonna compost it anyway, so you might as well do it yourself" might
help to educate people. Then again, probably not.

> Mine goes into the
> compost pile with the contents of my dust collector garbage can. Walnut
> is toxic to a few plants but most not and I think composting takes most
> of the sting out of it anyway. I don't use a lot of walnut but what I
> do use, I've never notices any soil sterilizing effect.

I'm not willing to risk it, with the walnut especially. I tend to use a
lot of it, since I have that big stack in the basement - 500 or so BF left
from an auction a few years back (already gloated here so this mention
doesn't count, I think). If I could burn it for heat, I think I'd prefer
to do so. Far as the environmental effects of the smoke or whatever,
well, I'm up 10,000 trees or so in my planted-vs-cut score, so I pretty
much don't care.

Dave Hinz

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 13:42:08 -0700, Charles Spitzer <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> sure. when i demo'd my bathroom; concrete, tiles, wallboard. palm tree
> cuttings when i bothered to trim them, etc all went into the weekly pickup.
> granted they have weight limits, but i bent those pretty heavily (no pun
> intended) when i disposed of the concrete bed that was under the wall tiles.

Well, most of that is trash, after all. I remember when we remodeled our
upstairs bedroom when I was a teen; the limit was 2 bags of construction
waste per week, per house. Operative phrase there was "per house...".

When you're the paperboy, people don't notice you walking around early in
the morning with bags of construction waste, I have found. I'm sure
the garbage men knew what was going on, but as many of the houses were
"participating" in the "share the trash" program, they wouldn't know where
it was really from.

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:12:39 -0500, George <george@least> wrote:
> Less the part that you took out of the carbon cycle by making furniture out
> of it.

Well there ya go. So woodworking is good for the planet. Gotta cut down
the trees to save 'em, here, let me explain how this works...

> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
> is allowed into the trash collection stream?

My home town will take ANYTHING I put out except for huge amounts of
concrete or stone. Anything else is a go.

I haven't tried used motor oil (and won't becuase it is simply stupid) but
I've seen the elderly neighbor do it and cringed... Our local garbage pick
up is amazing. If you have a LOT of stuff like a full house worth of
demolition or old furniture, etc. then you call them before noon the day
prior and they send a separate truck just for you.

And... It's all included in my super-low NJ taxes. <grin>

Regards,
Joe Agro, Jr.
http://www.autodrill.com
http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com

V8013

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:26:30 -0500, "Joe AutoDrill"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
>> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
>> is allowed into the trash collection stream?
>
>My home town will take ANYTHING I put out except for huge amounts of
>concrete or stone. Anything else is a go.
>
>I haven't tried used motor oil (and won't becuase it is simply stupid) but
>I've seen the elderly neighbor do it and cringed... Our local garbage pick
>up is amazing. If you have a LOT of stuff like a full house worth of
>demolition or old furniture, etc. then you call them before noon the day
>prior and they send a separate truck just for you.
>
>And... It's all included in my super-low NJ taxes. <grin>

That's almost a gloat. In my town, if the recycling is not packaged
in precisely the way they like it, the leave the sucker on the curb
with a little note telling you why they didn't pick it up- and the
reason is never very good (IE, one plastic sandwich bag got in with
the plastic bottles, so they leave everything there). At least they
don't seem to care about the contents of the garbage anymore since
they started using trucks with the big mechanical arm to dump the can.

>Regards,
>Joe Agro, Jr.
>http://www.autodrill.com
>http://www.multi-spindle-heads.com
>
>V8013
>

Aut inveniam viam aut faciam

"[email protected]" wrote:

> AYUP, summy So. Calif. coast has separate container colored green for
> yard waste that gets picked up weekly along with the refuse/recycle
> split container. Refuse, kitchen waste mostly, ends up being an
> amazingly small volume compared to the size prior to recycle and yard
> waste being included.

The City Of Buffalo recently sent out letters informing us that we can no longer put
yard waste in with the regular trash. It now has to be put in clear plastic bags and
left along side the tote on pickup day. Violator face a $200 fine.

I bought the clear plastic bags and complied with the change. When the city truck
pulled up the "lifters" grabbed the yard waste in the clear plastic bags, opened the
tote, placed the bags in the tote and then dumped the entire contents in the back of
the compactor?

--
Jack Novak
Buffalo, NY - USA
(Remove "SPAM" from email address to reply)

Less the part that you took out of the carbon cycle by making furniture out
of it.

"Dave Hinz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 19 Nov 2004 11:22:34 -0800, Daniel Martin <[email protected]>
wrote:
> > If burning the saw dust is considered as a way of protecting the
> > environment then you are better off throwing it away. Or use it as
> > compost.
>
> Um, it'll give off the same amount of CO2 when it rots, Daniel, as when
> you burn it. Amazingly enough, that's the same amount of CO2 that the
> tree absorbed into that same wood when it was growing.
>
>

Think about it. Can you "preserve" a thing not dead?

"Andy Dingley" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On 19 Nov 2004 21:17:54 GMT, Dave Hinz <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Gotta cut down
> >the trees to save 'em, here, let me explain how this works...
>
> Cut the trees to save the forest.
>
>
> There's already a bumper sticker for it.
>

Or an interim measure until the trucks can be modified.

"GregP" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:39:53 -0500, Nova <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >The City Of Buffalo recently sent out letters informing us that we can no
longer put
> >yard waste in with the regular trash. It now has to be put in clear
plastic bags and
> >left along side the tote on pickup day. Violator face a $200 fine.
> >
> >I bought the clear plastic bags and complied with the change. When the
city truck
> >pulled up the "lifters" grabbed the yard waste in the clear plastic bags,
opened the
> >tote, placed the bags in the tote and then dumped the entire contents in
the back of
> >the compactor?
>
> I think that thay may have to do with the rule of no more than two
> bags of trash per week (beyond the blue cans), so I took this to
> be a way to let us throw out as many bags of yard waste as we
> need to. We usually do 30 - 40 large bags of leaves each fall.
> Then again, that presumes more thought than we usually see
> from our city gov't :-)

Well, if compacted, as mentioned by the OP, I'd bet they don't. We have
"sheltered workshop" types sorting recyclables in the cities, but they are
not compacted into transportable bricks before they do.

Neat trucks disgorge shape-holding lumps which stack into the big
double-bottom transport types.

<[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I asked the city about a similar situation, something inside bags, and
> got "There are people on the conveyor belt that pull the bags off"
> that made sense to me at the time.

Dave Hinz <[email protected]> writes:

>On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:33:35 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Yes and no. Same guys. Marked bags indicating yard waste. Two
>> different streams where we live. (Plymouth, MN)

>Ah, right. Around here, if you want to get rid of yard waste, you take it
>to the local compost yard. You can also get topsoil from the same place,
>coincidentally enough. Maybe the hassle of hauling it, combined with the
>"you're gonna compost it anyway, so you might as well do it yourself" might
>help to educate people. Then again, probably not.

I have the option of either the local compost pile or curb side pickup for
my yard waste. I mulch my grass clippings and my leaves are put in my
5x10' enclosed trailer for a trip to the compost pile. I can't even
imagine how many bags I would need for curbside pickup of my leaves.

One time, I filled half my garbage can with loose sawdust. The garbage
man had a fit because sawdust blew everywhere when the can was dumped. I
got a nasty call from the company requesting that my sawdust be bagged.

My garbage hauler burns everything, so sawdust just becomes fule to make
electicity.

Brian Elfert

If burning the saw dust is considered as a way of protecting the
environment then you are better off throwing it away. Or use it as
compost.

Daniel


[email protected] (J T) wrote in message news:<[email protected]>...
> http://sleekfreak.ath.cx:81/3wdev/VITAHTML/SUBLEV/EN1/SAWDSTOV.HTM
>
> If you don't want to look, it's another type of sawdust stove.
>
>
>
> JOAT
> Measure twice, cut once, swear repeatedly.

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:35:24 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On 19 Nov 2004 21:17:54 GMT, Dave Hinz <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Gotta cut down
>>the trees to save 'em, here, let me explain how this works...
>
>Cut the trees to save the forest.
>
>
>There's already a bumper sticker for it.

In Arizona you're bloody damn right there is! Because that's exactly
what we need to do. Desperately.

We lost nearly a quarter of a million acres to fire a couple of years
ago and the same thing will happen again and again until we get our
forests back to where they should be. And of course this doesn't
include all those drought-killed and beetle-killed corpses spread
throughout the forest, just waiting to explode into torches.

--RC

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:35:24 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Cut the trees to save the forest.
>
>
>There's already a bumper sticker for it.

My brother-in-law has a forestry degree from Paul Smith College in NY.
According to him, they do this all the time. <G>


Barry

We used to give our sawdust to the stables. They take most kinds but do not
want Walnut. Sometimes they would pick it up and sometimes we would deliver.
We also found that our local lumberyard had a huge Dust Collector and would
allow us to dump our dust in with theirs.
max

> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>> CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>> ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
>> clippings.
>
> It depends on what kind of sawdust you're talking about, though. Walnut
> would be unwise, and many of the exotics/jungle woods may actually be
> toxic in a compost situation.
>
>> If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
>> for the trash man, then forget I said anything.
>
> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
> is allowed into the trash collection stream?
>

Another thing to consider is that the sawdust sucks nitrogen from the soil
to aid in decomposing. So until the sawdust actually starts breaking down
and releasing nitrogen, you have to add it as an amendment to the soil. I
added extra nitrogen for about two years and then stopped. I have been
adding sawdust to the garden for 10 years now and the soil is a rich black
and the worms love it.
max

> On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:32:16 +0000, Andy Dingley
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>>> ammendment than as fuel.
>>
>> Why ? Surely the mineral content is much the same as wood ash, and
>> that's all the typical gardener is really going to need.
>
> No, for a couple of reasons. First, the pH of ash is considerably
> higher than that of sawdust. With the tendency toward acid soils you
> have over on your side of the pond that might not seem like a big
> deal. In an area where the soil is naturally alkaline it makes a
> considerable difference.
>
> (The rule is: If you want to grow proteas in Arizona, mix a _lot_ of
> sawdust into the soil.)
>
> The second thing is that sawdust has more nutrients than ash because
> the fire breaks down a lot of the compounds.
>
> --RC
> Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?
>

On 19 Nov 2004 21:17:54 GMT, Dave Hinz <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:12:39 -0500, George <george@least> wrote:
>> Less the part that you took out of the carbon cycle by making furniture out
>> of it.
>
>Well there ya go. So woodworking is good for the planet. Gotta cut down
>the trees to save 'em, here, let me explain how this works...

Sarcasm aside Dave, there's actually something to that.

For those folks who are so concerned about global warming, the best
thing you can do is plant trees -- preferably long-lived, fast-growing
species. If you're in a temperate climate, plant lots and lots of
trees.

And if your kids and grandkids can harvest the wood, so much the
better.

--RC

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

I asked the city about a similar situation, something inside bags, and
got "There are people on the conveyor belt that pull the bags off"
that made sense to me at the time.

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:39:53 -0500, Nova <[email protected]>
wrote:

>"[email protected]" wrote:
>
>> AYUP, summy So. Calif. coast has separate container colored green for
>> yard waste that gets picked up weekly along with the refuse/recycle
>> split container. Refuse, kitchen waste mostly, ends up being an
>> amazingly small volume compared to the size prior to recycle and yard
>> waste being included.
>
>The City Of Buffalo recently sent out letters informing us that we can no longer put
>yard waste in with the regular trash. It now has to be put in clear plastic bags and
>left along side the tote on pickup day. Violator face a $200 fine.
>
>I bought the clear plastic bags and complied with the change. When the city truck
>pulled up the "lifters" grabbed the yard waste in the clear plastic bags, opened the
>tote, placed the bags in the tote and then dumped the entire contents in the back of
>the compactor?

If memory serves the question arose early in recycling of greenery
days and the question was sawdust/shavings and my fear of seeing the
stuff flying around the street as it was dumped. First iteration
trucks probably didn't have compactors.

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 22:14:13 -0700, Mark & Juanita
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 09:40:09 -0500, "[email protected]"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>I asked the city about a similar situation, something inside bags, and
>>got "There are people on the conveyor belt that pull the bags off"
>>that made sense to me at the time.
>>
>
> Until you think about the fact that the compactor or the device that
>moves the garbage into the back of the truck, then subsequent dumping from
>said truck is likely to leave very few of those bags intact.

"Dave Hinz" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>> ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
>> clippings.
>
> It depends on what kind of sawdust you're talking about, though. Walnut
> would be unwise, and many of the exotics/jungle woods may actually be
> toxic in a compost situation.
>
>> If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
>> for the trash man, then forget I said anything.
>
> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
> is allowed into the trash collection stream?

sure. when i demo'd my bathroom; concrete, tiles, wallboard. palm tree
cuttings when i bothered to trim them, etc all went into the weekly pickup.
granted they have weight limits, but i bent those pretty heavily (no pun
intended) when i disposed of the concrete bed that was under the wall tiles.

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 14:09:16 -0600, Prometheus <[email protected]>
wrote:

>On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 16:26:30 -0500, "Joe AutoDrill"
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
>>> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
>>> is allowed into the trash collection stream?
>>
>>My home town will take ANYTHING I put out except for huge amounts of
>>concrete or stone. Anything else is a go.
>>
>>I haven't tried used motor oil (and won't becuase it is simply stupid) but
>>I've seen the elderly neighbor do it and cringed... Our local garbage pick
>>up is amazing. If you have a LOT of stuff like a full house worth of
>>demolition or old furniture, etc. then you call them before noon the day
>>prior and they send a separate truck just for you.
>>
>>And... It's all included in my super-low NJ taxes. <grin>
>
>That's almost a gloat. In my town, if the recycling is not packaged
>in precisely the way they like it, the leave the sucker on the curb
>with a little note telling you why they didn't pick it up- and the
>reason is never very good (IE, one plastic sandwich bag got in with
>the plastic bottles, so they leave everything there).

... at that point it is time to apply a rule that a rather curmudgeonly
(is that a word) mentor would express in various situations: If you have
spent more than two seconds worrying about that problem, you have wasted
way too much time! In this case he would add, "dump the recycle container
into the trash can and get on with life"

... snip

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:32:16 +0000, Andy Dingley
<[email protected]> wrote:

>On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway
><[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>>ammendment than as fuel.
>
>Why ? Surely the mineral content is much the same as wood ash, and
>that's all the typical gardener is really going to need.

No, for a couple of reasons. First, the pH of ash is considerably
higher than that of sawdust. With the tendency toward acid soils you
have over on your side of the pond that might not seem like a big
deal. In an area where the soil is naturally alkaline it makes a
considerable difference.

(The rule is: If you want to grow proteas in Arizona, mix a _lot_ of
sawdust into the soil.)

The second thing is that sawdust has more nutrients than ash because
the fire breaks down a lot of the compounds.

--RC
Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

On Sun, 21 Nov 2004 09:40:09 -0500, "[email protected]"
<[email protected]> wrote:

>I asked the city about a similar situation, something inside bags, and
>got "There are people on the conveyor belt that pull the bags off"
>that made sense to me at the time.
>

Until you think about the fact that the compactor or the device that
moves the garbage into the back of the truck, then subsequent dumping from
said truck is likely to leave very few of those bags intact.

>On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:39:53 -0500, Nova <[email protected]>
>wrote:
>
>>"[email protected]" wrote:
>>
>>> AYUP, summy So. Calif. coast has separate container colored green for
>>> yard waste that gets picked up weekly along with the refuse/recycle
>>> split container. Refuse, kitchen waste mostly, ends up being an
>>> amazingly small volume compared to the size prior to recycle and yard
>>> waste being included.
>>
>>The City Of Buffalo recently sent out letters informing us that we can no longer put
>>yard waste in with the regular trash. It now has to be put in clear plastic bags and
>>left along side the tote on pickup day. Violator face a $200 fine.
>>
>>I bought the clear plastic bags and complied with the change. When the city truck
>>pulled up the "lifters" grabbed the yard waste in the clear plastic bags, opened the
>>tote, placed the bags in the tote and then dumped the entire contents in the back of
>>the compactor?

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:39:53 -0500, Nova <[email protected]>
wrote:

>The City Of Buffalo recently sent out letters informing us that we can no longer put
>yard waste in with the regular trash. It now has to be put in clear plastic bags and
>left along side the tote on pickup day. Violator face a $200 fine.
>
>I bought the clear plastic bags and complied with the change. When the city truck
>pulled up the "lifters" grabbed the yard waste in the clear plastic bags, opened the
>tote, placed the bags in the tote and then dumped the entire contents in the back of
>the compactor?

I think that thay may have to do with the rule of no more than two
bags of trash per week (beyond the blue cans), so I took this to
be a way to let us throw out as many bags of yard waste as we
need to. We usually do 30 - 40 large bags of leaves each fall.
Then again, that presumes more thought than we usually see
from our city gov't :-)

AYUP, summy So. Calif. coast has separate container colored green for
yard waste that gets picked up weekly along with the refuse/recycle
split container. Refuse, kitchen waste mostly, ends up being an
amazingly small volume compared to the size prior to recycle and yard
waste being included.

On 19 Nov 2004 20:24:05 GMT, Dave Hinz <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]> wrote:
>> CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>> ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
>> clippings.
>
>It depends on what kind of sawdust you're talking about, though. Walnut
>would be unwise, and many of the exotics/jungle woods may actually be
>toxic in a compost situation.
>
>> If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
>> for the trash man, then forget I said anything.
>
>Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
>two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
>is allowed into the trash collection stream?

On 19 Nov 2004 21:17:54 GMT, Dave Hinz <[email protected]> wrote:

>Gotta cut down
>the trees to save 'em, here, let me explain how this works...

Cut the trees to save the forest.


There's already a bumper sticker for it.

CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
clippings. If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
for the trash man, then forget I said anything.

bob g.

Dave Hinz wrote:
> On 19 Nov 2004 11:22:34 -0800, Daniel Martin <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>If burning the saw dust is considered as a way of protecting the
>>environment then you are better off throwing it away. Or use it as
>>compost.
>
>
> Um, it'll give off the same amount of CO2 when it rots, Daniel, as when
> you burn it. Amazingly enough, that's the same amount of CO2 that the
> tree absorbed into that same wood when it was growing.
>
>

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway
<[email protected]> wrote:

>Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>ammendment than as fuel.

Why ? Surely the mineral content is much the same as wood ash, and
that's all the typical gardener is really going to need.

On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 21:23:57 GMT, max <[email protected]> wrote:

>Another thing to consider is that the sawdust sucks nitrogen from the soil
>to aid in decomposing. So until the sawdust actually starts breaking down
>and releasing nitrogen, you have to add it as an amendment to the soil. I
>added extra nitrogen for about two years and then stopped. I have been
>adding sawdust to the garden for 10 years now and the soil is a rich black
>and the worms love it.
>max

Grass clippings work very well as an amendment to add nitrogen. Almost
any form of 'soft' vegetable matter will work nicely. Algae scooped
from a swimming pool or canal works very well, for example.

--RC
>
>> On Sat, 20 Nov 2004 02:32:16 +0000, Andy Dingley
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>
>>> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>
>>>> Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>>>> ammendment than as fuel.
>>>
>>> Why ? Surely the mineral content is much the same as wood ash, and
>>> that's all the typical gardener is really going to need.
>>
>> No, for a couple of reasons. First, the pH of ash is considerably
>> higher than that of sawdust. With the tendency toward acid soils you
>> have over on your side of the pond that might not seem like a big
>> deal. In an area where the soil is naturally alkaline it makes a
>> considerable difference.
>>
>> (The rule is: If you want to grow proteas in Arizona, mix a _lot_ of
>> sawdust into the soil.)
>>
>> The second thing is that sawdust has more nutrients than ash because
>> the fire breaks down a lot of the compounds.
>>
>> --RC
>> Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?
>>

Sleep? Isn't that a totally inadequate substitute for caffine?

Yes and no. Same guys. Marked bags indicating yard waste. Two
different streams where we live. (Plymouth, MN) Mine goes into the
compost pile with the contents of my dust collector garbage can. Walnut
is toxic to a few plants but most not and I think composting takes most
of the sting out of it anyway. I don't use a lot of walnut but what I
do use, I've never notices any soil sterilizing effect.

bob g.

Dave Hinz wrote:

> On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 14:17:45 -0600, Robert Galloway <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>>CO2 aside. Unless you have a whole lot of it, it's worth more as a soil
>>ammendment than as fuel. Best made into compost with your grass
>>clippings.
>
>
> It depends on what kind of sawdust you're talking about, though. Walnut
> would be unwise, and many of the exotics/jungle woods may actually be
> toxic in a compost situation.
>
>
>>If you're in the habit of putting your grass clippings out
>>for the trash man, then forget I said anything.
>
>
> Grass clippings? Trash man? I see your words but am unclear on how the
> two could be related. You mean there are actually places where yard waste
> is allowed into the trash collection stream?
>