[atouchofnature]

Sleep apnea has the best of me tonight, so I'm up way late, and when I'm the only one awake in a quiet house my brain starts cranking. This thought came to me, and I couldn't seem to find a good answer online, so I thought I would ask you guys for opinions.

I have no real composting experience so I may be completely off track with this but if I am correct, the rules of composting is to use both "greens" (high nitrogen content) and "browns" (high carbon content) in the compost. When we leave grass clippings on a lawn, our goal is for those clippings to decompose (compost) and enrich the soil. I was thinking that since clippings are high nitrogen/low carbon that spreading a small amount of sawdust on the lawn would add the carbon needed for good decomposition of the clippings, making them decompose faster, which of course would make the fertilizer content of the clippings available faster, and possibly turn them into a better "fertilizer".

Is this a good idea? If so, any suggestions on how much sawdust and how often? Any other thoughts?

Thanks in advance for any comments.

 

[Kiril]

Probably not a good idea ... you should compost it first.

 

[pt03]

I would not add sawdust to a lawn or anything else for that matter. Not much in the way of nutrients and one of the more difficult things to decompose.

While grass clippings are considered a 'green' for composting purposes, their C:N ratio can vary and for the most part are a weak 'green'. Spread out whilst mowing, they decompose just fine by themselves. Pile them up in an airless clump, that's another story.

Lloyd

 

[BostonBull]

What kind of sawdust are we talking about? Sawdust from a skillsaw from kiln dried lumber? Or fresh sawdust from a chainsaw, which is essentially small wood chips?

I think that composting them is best, but dont see the harm in putting down a dusting of sawdust from a chainsaw every now and then. Nothing more than 1/8 of an inch I would say though.

What do you more experienced guys say?

 

[atouchofnature]

What kind of sawdust are we talking about? Sawdust from a skillsaw from kiln dried lumber? Or fresh sawdust from a chainsaw, which is essentially small wood chips?

I think that composting them is best, but dont see the harm in putting down a dusting of sawdust from a chainsaw every now and then. Nothing more than 1/8 of an inch I would say though.

What do you more experienced guys say?

Similar to what you would get from a skilsaw. There are several lumber mills in the area that use large bandsaws or circular saws. There would be some dust from bark in there, and they would not be completely dry. These are the guys who turn logs into lumber, so there would be combination of different woods in there, mostly poplar and oak.

Thanks for the input from the other posters. I knew that there would be little NPK in the dust, but was thinking that the added organic matter might improve the soil a bit and that the carbon may speed up decomposition of clippings. I was thinking it probably wasn't the best idea, but it might be worth asking for other opinions.