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Indiana

My main supply of manure also contains alot of sawdust/fine wood shavings. Should I add more nitrogen: urea or calcium nitrate to the mix or should I do somthing else to help break the sawdust down??
Steve

11/29/2003 12:28:40 PM

Covington, WA

The wood will bind up nitrogen for a while making it unavailable until it breaks down more. It would depend on how well composted the manure it, (along with the shavings). At this time of year I wouldn't add any nitrogen, temps will be too low for much microbial activity. Keep the stuff in a pile if you can so it can keep breaking down, then add it to the patch in the spring. If you soil test tells you you need more N add it at that time. If N seems OK, but your wood isn't broken down much yet, then go ahead and add the N at that time so you have some available to the plants.

11/29/2003 12:56:25 PM

Brillion Wisconsin

My experience with manure and wood bedding is that it breaks down pretty good just by itself. You may want to find out which type of wood it is. Stay away from cedar. Dean o

11/29/2003 12:56:34 PM

Ctpumpkin@optonline.net

Depends how long it's been composted prior to use. If the sawdust is turning dark, it should be OK by spring/early summer when the nitrogen draft is most likely to occur.

But if the stuff is very fresh a shot of N would help. Lime is always a good companion to organic additives to offset the inevitable pH drop as the Organic Material decays.

Steve

11/29/2003 12:58:13 PM

Deer Park WA

Tiller is correct, keep the manure/shavings piled up and add compost to it. This will speed the process of decay for spring spreading. I add a healthy shot of Urea to get the pile smoking, but you may not need to if the manure is fresh enough. Don't forget to turn the pile every couple of weeks.

11/30/2003 1:06:50 AM

Montoursville, PA

One of the best bio-boosters you can create inexpensively is a fish/kelp/molasses witches brew. It is not rocket science. Mix one up and introduce it to the patch and or the compost pile to speed up the maturing process. It will usually perform better than urea because it contains lots and lots of living elements that are not in urea.

In fact to much urea...and that does not take much, will hurt the biological ballance in your compost and fry the living worms that are already working for you.

12/20/2003 7:50:42 PM