Organic Hydroseeders Hydrofeeders.

[thauer]

Any one willing to share their stories/ experiances hydroseedeing with a compost based slurrie?

[ICT Bill]

The only experience I have had is with Pogo Organics outside of Washington DC, they did all of the grunt work on the organic turf trials in front of the US Capital (or is it the center of Capitol)

He would put 1 to 1 1/2 yard of screened compost (1/8 inch minus) in a Finn 120, no hydromulch, no fertilizer and go blow it out.

Excellent results

In the time it took you to say "Chia pet" that turf was thick and strong

His compost is highly fungal and comes from mostly tree waste, many of the arborists in the area tip there. He also has cans at many of the big landscapers and they dump their waste and he picks it up

[DUSTYCEDAR]

If you put to much in you shovel it out

[growingdeeprootsorganicly]

use a wheel barrel and rake for your compost apps.

[ICT Bill]

I have also seen where they team 2 different units for stream restoration. typically where 1/4 to 1/3 of a tree is hanging out because a large storm has undermind it.

They use a mulch blower filled with compost 75% of it is not very composted (on purpose), its has been tub ground and small amount of time being composted. You want large particles for this that will breakdown over time

Anyway..... they blow the compost mix and then come back with the slurry to glue it together, you do this in layers and it is very effective to holding things together until mother nature can get a hold of the bank again

Another application for slurries is for LEED sites where the amount of SOM is too low. In the big machines you can blast it out pretty quick

I saw a custom hydroseeder in Florida that was a 5000 gallon machine, it had 2 huge deisel engines in it. It had 4 turrets, one on each corner. It looked like something out of madmax

[Turboguy]

I have done a little hydro feeding using a 500 gallon jet machine and it worked fine.

I have never tried hydroseeding using compost as the mulch instead of hydro seeding mulch but that too should work fine. Actually as I recall the first hydro seeder ever built was a jet unit built by the state of CT in the 1950's and they used compost for their mulch. You do need to use a high quality compost.

[ICT Bill]

I have done a little hydro feeding using a 500 gallon jet machine and it worked fine.

I have never tried hydroseeding using compost as the mulch instead of hydro seeding mulch but that too should work fine. Actually as I recall the first hydro seeder ever built was a jet unit built by the state of CT in the 1950's and they used compost for their mulch. You do need to use a high quality compost.

The key is screening to 1/8 inch minus and as dusty pointed out, too much is too much
It is truely amazing to watch the seed germinate, grow as fast and thickly as it does. On areas where failure is not an option it is the bomb

If you are trying to hold soil in place like in new construction you actually want less composted material, it intertwines better

[Barefoot James]

Turbo guy what size nozzle would you use when blowing compost out of a turbo turf unit? Bigger the better??

[Turboguy]

Yes, the bigger the better. I was using one of our 1" nozzles when I did it. You do need a quality, well screened compost. I was using Soil Secrets product when I tried it which is one of the really good composts. The opening on that 1" nozzle is probably somewhere around 5/8 long by 5/16 or 3/8 wide with a flat fan spray.

Any good well screened compost should work and it was really fast and easy.