Compost Wood Chips Quickly - Add Nitrogen, No Turn - TRIAL START
Вставка
- Опубліковано 30 вер 2024
- Can we speed up the decomposition of wood chips and create compost faster? I am doing several trials to attempt to achieve this goal. The first trial begins in this video. Woodchips, blood meal, and sugar are layered into a drum. The wood chips were also inoculated with already decomposing wood chips. The drum will then sit. More blood meal will be added if needed. We will compare the results to a control drum and see how long it takes for the wood chips to break down.
✔️ Follow Diego on IG / diegofooter
Growing in Vista, CA (Zone 10a) - Elevation 397ft - Latitude 33N
Podcasts by Diego Footer:
▶️ Soil Science & Compost: bit.ly/soilpod...
▶️ Microgreens: apple.co/2m1QXmW
▶️ Vegetable Farming: apple.co/2lCuv3m
▶️ Livestock Farming: apple.co/2m75EVG
▶️ Modern Farming: apple.co/2kxj39i
My Online Courses:
🌱Learn how to start a Profitable Microgreens Business bit.ly/learntog...
🐔Learn how to raise Pastured Poultry, Pigs, and Cattle as a business in the Pastured Profits Course - farm-business-...
🛠 Small Farm Tools www.paperpot.co/
✔️ Follow PaperpotCo on IG / paperpot
🎙Learn more on the podcast apple.co/2lCuv3m 🎙
🛒 Support my content while you shop at Amazon: amzn.to/32FYCqW
Cheaper option: add urine into the wood chips
Does the urine help brake down the wood chips ? Will it stink after a few days?
Where I grew up there was a sawmill that generated about 350 tons of pine bark each day. After mulling over what to do with it, the company invented a thing called Cascade Soil Aid: The bark was ground and then composted with anhydrous ammonia for 90 days. The stuff that came out of that process was amazing! When delivered it was still hot, and the smell was one of the favorite smells of my life - kind of like human catnip. :)
"We love fungi!" You are a fun guy. :)
too bad his name was not Gus. He's a fun Gus
I don't know what peoples obsession with making compost quickly is. If you start now and it takes 1 year instead of 2 months, and you are constantly making new compost then after the first year, you will have exactly the same amount of compost ready every month going forward, except you didn't have to worry about water, aerating, the mixture or turning it or adding fungi to it. Why make it so hard, just put the stuff in a pile come back in a year and you have compost.
I don’t disagree. I think you’re 100% spot on. But maybe there are times when someone wants to make compost quickly and hasn’t prepared ahead and that’s what these experiments are trying to help with. Yes the best plan is to plan ahead. 😉
I would agree except for us with very little space. I can't keep 12 compost piles so I have a fresh one every month. So I keep 1 worm bin, 1 "quick" compost pile, and 2 "slow" piles.
@@DiegoFooter You don't need to compost everything 100%. It is just people's false mind set to make it look like dirt before they have the confidence to plant anything in it. Half composted tree leaves are actually better than fully composted tree leaves. Try it!
That’s true in the right scenario, but it’s not true and all scenarios.
@@DiegoFooter Most seeds will germinate on 1/4 composted or even very little composted moist tree leaves. If you grow tomatoes, tomato seeds will germinate on freshly cut grass clippings as long as it is still moist. Tomato seeds will also germinate in most composting material. Wheat seeds can even germinate in fresh chicken manure cause wheat grass can tolerate an extremely high level of ammonia. If you see seeds germinating in moist meat moss, you should realize moist tree leaves are actually a better germination medium. Don't follow what other people are doing. Observe nature.
I mixed sawdust and lawn clippings at about a 2 to 1 ratio last year. The pile is broken down and full of worms this year so I consider it a success.
Oh yeah; sawdust is the fastest carbon to break down, and it's about the only way I know of to actually do a true 18 day compost pile. I wish I was gardening when my dad was still turning bowls on the lathe. Maple and cherry shavings break down super quick too.
The fastest way I know to break down wood chip is to use it as a deep litter layer in my chicken coop - I spread it about 50cm thick all through the chicken pen and it breaks down and becomes soil-like in only a few months. It makes amazing compost with basically no work involved. The only downside when you use it as compost is you tend to get a lot of wheat and stuff coming up in it from grain the chickens missed
Put a layer of wood over the garden and let it burn util it's red hot, then throw the compost on top. You'll end up with biochar underneath it and the seeds will be burned.
I’ve saw where you do that with the coop, but wood cutting. And then they remove them I think weekly or monthly and create a compost pile, which will heat up if you have the correct amount and kill any seeds in it. Geoff L. on green the desert was doing this.
You seriously do not need to compost anything 100%. I can use freshly cut grass clippings to mulch and fertilize my potatoes and tomatoes. This way I will not lose any nitrogen content from them and they decompose slowly to feed my potatoes and tomatoes servicing as "slow releasing" fertilizer. I can use half composted tree leaves to grow any brassica green and they grow happily. I also use half composted tree leaves as potting soil. Everything grows happily.
You aren’t wrong. But you would need accomplish something more if you wanted to use that soil in a seed starting mix
Shredding the leaves (e.g. rake/blow into a pile and mow over with a mulching mower) dramatically reduces the composting time for leaves from 3-5 years to about a year. And, as you say, you don't have to wait until they are fully composted to be useful. For me, shredding the leaves in place was always easier and faster than bagging. Without shredding, they pile up to much and become a nuisance.
I had some coconut oil that had gone rancid so I added it to my winter woodchip compost that was at 30C it went up to 50C . 250 ml to the middle of 1.5 m2. I add apples that have fallen off my apple tree in the autumn for the simple sugar. I use a heavy narrow spike to put fresh air holes every week and water at the same time. I find wood chip rejects water initially the more rotted it becomes the more it holds water . So using mature compost to seed the new wood chip would also help from that aspect.
Easy add alfalfa pellets. Make it hot.
I love your sign off. Thanks for making this. I have tree guys leaving me mountains of chips. I get the feeling usa will be in utter anarchy before my chips are ready for some gardening action. Haha
Not only was this informative, dude, your voice is awesome as well! Really relaxing!
Instead of spending money on bone meal, why can’t we use urine for nitrogen?
So how did this work out? Didn't know if you had another video showing the results or not. Did they break down any quicker?
After being kindly gifted a literal ton of wood chips this year, I've inoculated them with king stropharia & oyster spawn. Also added molasses, but going to add some sugar as well to give the mycelium more food & speed things up.
Also filled empty burlap coffee bean sacks with fermented wood chips & more mycelium. Bokashi, which I made 50 pounds of the year before, has also been added.
Have done the same with the wheat straw bales I purchased, 6 inoculated with oyster spawn, about to add some bokashi to them as well. Should have some phenomenal mushroom compost next year, the year after & possibly longer. Should have a ton of mushrooms as well.
let me suggest something: stop filming stuff not tried yet
A mushroom goes into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender says, “sorry we don’t serve mushrooms here”.The mushroom says, “ come on, I’m a fun guy”.
😆
Even simpler: just add 20-20-20 granular fertilizer
Well if we are going to Monsanto everything, just skip the wood chips entirely.
I like these experiments, very well thought out and potentially very helpful. Also, after seeing another of your videos I dug out foot deep walkways that I filled with woodchips. Just wanted to say thanks for that idea, it has helped with my tremendous weed pressure, and captures water in a great way that I definitely needed in this sandy California valley. Great job Mr Diego sir, keep up the great work.
I like this idea, and I found it in a timely manner. I’ll be digging those paths in the next week. 😁👍🏻
@@sweetsue4204 I love the pathways. It's like walking on pillows compared to the rest of the ground, which is great if you get foot or joint pain while weeding and pruning.
Sorry wouldn't it be faster if you kept a bigger pile instead of just a barrel so it heats up more?
Good luck with the tests Diago. I found coffee grounds and urine the best in the past. I look forward to the results. Frank in Ireland
If one takes into account the Hugelculture method of putting wood/logs into the ground and filling up the soil on top of it and growing things on the soil while letting the logs rot with time to provide nutrients for the plants, one can apply the same concept to the wood chips by laying it in the hole and piling soil on top of it, but before that one can add manure such as animal poo or urine on to the woodchips . In due time nature will take its course and turn the wood chips into natural fertilizers.
The natural process takes its course and cannot be rushed but can be speeded up with the right microbes and fungi added to it. That is what I believe will work.
Sotterrare materia legnosa fa sì che i microrganismi per scomporla preleveranno l'azoto direttamente dal terreno che invece dall'atmosfera
Rather than a big wooden stick, I use a 2" piece of schedule 40 PVC with several 3/8" holes drilled in it. Never have to remove it. Just give it a twist every few days. I also drill holes in the sides of my barrel for even more airflow.
I regularly urinate into my compost heap, speeds it up big time
I"m surprised by the sugar. I definitely never thought of it as carbon and have shied away from forms of sugar since watching Elaine Ingham's videos where she says to not add the molasses as it encourages the bad bacteria more than the good. (Now I don't know what to do with all that molasses I bought). As always, excited to see how this turns out and glad that you do these experiments in increments that I can easily reproduce. Very excited abut the wood chip/manure experiment that will be upcoming.... which is an indicator that we don't have cable. LOL
I’m not sure if it’ll help or not, but I had it so I figured why not add it. 😆
@@lunethgardens Thanks. I'll check out Terragenix
I’m not sure EM1 will help with wood chips. I’m not saying it’s a negative but I have my doubts that it’s a positive or at least a big positive in this scenario.
What if you put a tube with holes in it and left it there like you did in a former video? Maybe some testing with different amount of holes too. Looking forward to see the results
Stoked for the barrel inoculate! I would use oyster cause they'll grow no matter what. Drill lots of hole in barrel and in bottom. Soak wood in lime bath , hot tap water, or boiled water before inoculate for guaranteed inoculation.
I am happy to see he is testing the nitrogen and sugar mix. I would have tested urea and dried molasses but I'm glad to see a test of this sort.
Here do u get dried molasses? Thanks
@@SpiritusBythos You can find it at most any feed store. Amazon sells it for $1 a pound but if you shop and pick it up yourself, you can get it for $0.50 a pound or less.
@@lunethgardens It is, though it is far more expensive. Dried molasses is an agricultural product and is intended for applications such as composting and increasing the biological activity of soils. Sucrose by itself is devoid of minerals (C12H22O11), while molasses contains a number of essential minerals such as calcium, magnesium, manganese, potassium, copper, iron, phosphorus, chromium, cobalt, and sodium.
I inoculate 7lbs of oak chainsaw shavings with oyster mushrooms in 5gal buckets and in 2-3 weeks the oak is covered in white mycelium and in another week you're harvesting mushrooms to eat. The spent spawn and composted oak make lovely worm food or make a pile and call it mushroom compost
I have some oysters coming so get excited. 😛
@Ed B you can put spores in the bar oil and it will inoculate as your cutting. Paul stamets for more info on that. But I use chainsaw shavings to grow mushrooms on. Just bigger than saw dust, where saw dust tends to go anaerobic and compacts.
What if you add/mix in some sort of mold to kickstart/catalyze/"infect" the batch?
Could always throw some oyster mushroom grain spawn in the mix and potentially get some food from the whole process.
I'm looking at doing something similar with the several yards of fresh wood chips I have. Currently wrapping up a comparison of a Johnson Su system vs a traditional bulk piled compost which has not been turned, both left over the late summer through till whenever I can get to them (I'm somewhere in a Zone 1 or Zone 2 area), both in a geocloth wrapped IBC tote system, and comparing the best results in terms of defrosting fastest and highest amount of composting once filtered. Once I get around to finishing that experiment, I'll then use the winning method to then compare decomposing wood chips with either synthetic urea applications vs using a bio-bomb of pre-composted materials and a butt load of coffee grounds, and leaving both for a year or so without turning them. Keep the updates coming Diego!
Are you going to get lab test results?
@@greenghost6416 I was mostly looking at the two parameters mentioned, speed of defrost and volume and/or weight of compost after sifting, but I am getting a soil test done yearly on my property as I improve it, so I could integrate the once yearly test I do into this as well. Unfortunately the tests I'll have done won't really compare things like microbial/fungal life or different types of nitrogen forms, it's a very basic test as it's offered free once a year to locals, and I don't care enough to pay for a high end test
@@russellradwanski5771 What do you mean defrost? Are they frozen? I thought David Johnson said not to let the bioreactor freeze because that will kill off most of the bacterial populations along with most/all of the earthworms. Above ground, they have no lower subsurface layers to travel to in order to protect themselves like they would in soil.
@@goodboysongs Yes, they freeze over winter in my Zone1/Zone2 area. I was unaware of David Johnson’s recommendation not to freeze it. I will say that we have a robust soil micro-population, and the piles have both shown tremendous fungal and bacterial growth in the short time they’ve been warm. I suppose it wouldn’t be considered a true Johnson Su reactor since I haven’t yet added a worm population to it, but you’re correct , they wouldn’t survive the winters, or at least not many would. Perhaps those which managed to dive deep enough or some eggs though
My money is on the inoculated pile. Hardwood is broken down by specialized organisms, not the kind you'd find in a typical compost pile...I actually learned that in an interview you did, with an expert on fungi. And even that will only be faster than normal by a fraction. So 25-30 months instead of three full years, or something like that (depending on your criteria on what constitutes "compost").
All the other suggestions are meant to stimulate bacterial activity...or at least microorganisms which thrive in softer, finer materials. They can't penetrate into hardwood. The only thing they will do is paint the chips black.
Which brings me to the other thing I wanted to mention: you gotta define what counts as compost ahead of time. Surely, the size of the pieces comes into it. If the wood chips are basically the same size, you can't count that as "compost" just because they're a different color.
i used to compost oak leaves with some lime and bloodmeal.... I might try your method on all the pine needles i inherited....any recommendations?
Have you ever added a "pure" sythetic nitrogen source, like Ammonium Sulfate? That stuff is dirt cheap by the 50lb sack at country feed stores.
Right on! Cannot wait to see how this series plays out!
I have the patients and can wait to do thing right, what I have no patients for is people not getting to the point and keeps running their mouth because they like to listen to themselves speak like this guy. Get to the point and get to the work. Like my daddy said, if you could attach that tool to your mouth the work would be done already.
30 seconds in, those are softwood chips. Looks like cypress or false cedar
I enjoy your videos and really like that you get me to engage my brain instead of just giving me answers . ✌🏻❤️
Add stump remover .and sugar .. add water and cover it with a plastic drop cloth and turn it every 2=3 days
add water as needed ..
Enjoyable presentation
Cotton seed meal is a cheap source of nitrogen. Feedstore bags of 40 lb around 25 frns.
I really love these experiments. Wish I had the space to play with ideas like this. Thanks for sharing in the meantime.
The quickest way in 3 easy steps:
1. Create a big pile of wood chips
2. Buy a pile of compost.
3. Throw away the wood chips and replace with the compost.
Thank you for a very interesting video. Looking forward to your experiment with the mushroom spawn! What species are you planning to inoculate with?
Oyster mushrooms and king Stropheria.
What happened?
It's in process now. The trial just started.
Can you try on with LAB mix
It will make it hot with lots of bacteria, that’s what I do when I get wood chips dropped. I spray a pile once a week. Then I stopped and now I’m letting it slow cook.
I love your experiments! Thank you for always running some!
Try wood chips and spent brewing grains at a 1:1 ratio. It works!
Any studies on insects ( termites, ants,etc.) to help break down wood chips ?
Would be an interesting topic.
Well Termites break down wood in no time😂
Organic goes out the window when using blood, right?
Loving all the woodchip experiments on your channel, I look forward to the results. I only have two experiences of breaking down woodchip. 1.Using it as a mulch on my pathways in the garden about 8 inches deep - it took approx 3 years for it to break down and look like compost. 2. Adding a wheelbarrow at a time to my Dalek composter, first I filled the wheelbarrow with woodchip, then turned the hose pipe on it till the barrow was full of water. Left it to soak for 5 minutes. Then added it to the Dalek bin until full. On the first of every month I turned it into the next bin. During the times of it not being turned, I covered the bin with a clear plastic sheet with the aim of heating it up to break down quicker. From woodchip to compost that I could sieve, took 6-7 months. I am in the UK, so may take longer to break down for other parts of the world.
I live in the u.s Delaware its very humid. I work for a large tree company and usually get 10 to 12 loads of chip per year. Ive noticed that the piles of chips with the highest concentration of leaf matter break down about three times faster. They seem to stay wetter and i see a lot more fungi.
1) You are lucky it took three years for that mulch was meant to serve as weed deterrent et al. I do spices that can grow under the shade of trees. Pathways are not critical thus.. I lay it between the ginger, turmeric, chili, bush pepper and other (not so successful) spices. I do not add wood chips for I need the compost every Jan for coconut, areca / betel net and nutmeg trees as I start irrigating them. Now am too old to turn over the compost and keep filling it thereon till the rains start in June and then some. Its in a huge dung pit adjoining the buffalo shed which I am too old for. I don't have soak for monsoon suffices from June to October. I don't have to heat for the summers do. I do leaf mold as well but there I cheat with only tamarind and drumstick leaves (not need to shred or break down). Goat piss I use to inoculate charcoal besides a handful or two of leaf mold, compost and stinging nettle tea and vermi tea from the barrels besides. Wood chips I just stack in the lower level land of mine as nothing grows under the cashew, mango and kodampuli trees. Though it sounds great I am not likely to shift the lower layer anywhere else. Am from Kerala
Congratulations on 100k. Its well deserved.
Will you take PH tests of just starting, during, and finished of the wood chip pile? Would be interesting to know.
Congrats on 100k! Love your stuff.
🙏
How about just letting a pile sit on the ground
You can it just takes way too long where I’m at in California.
I love this! I can't wait to see your results
Did it work 😂😂😂 I can not find a followup video
Again, have we gotten a conclusion? I don't see a follow-up video for most of these. It would be interesting to see how this stuff turns out!
no he never did a follow up from the looks of it.. sad
Thank you for making this video.
Have you ever considered adding a tea made with comfrey root to the compost heap, or adding comfrey leaves? Word is the activation is the equivalent of chewing the compost before you start. I know I can’t wait to give it a try in my own compost barrels.
Comfrey is great. Keep your tea always airated and small amounts of food. Simple sugar feed bacteria, complex structures feed fungi.
JADAM JMS will break down fast also
Yes experiments ! Will come back see results
will coffee grounds help ?
I recently got a load of woodchips delivered. It was surprisingly high in leaves so great nitrogen source. I covered it up in tarp and if cooked for a few days but then cooled off. I am going to try filling up a couple of compost bins with this stuff and add some rabbit manure to it to see if I can get it cooking again. Question: are you trying to create a fungally dominant compost pile in this experiment - or does it not matter as long as it breaks down?
You guys say that the best way to compost materials is to make them smaller !! So why not turn wood chips in to ???? SAW DUST !!!!! .... LOL ... wood saw dust should then compost in just a few days !!! ... yea !!! .... lol
Hi Diego, love these experiments! I've seen multiple people say to add yeast and sugar mix. Does this actually do more than just adding sugar like you have?
I have seen adding a beer…
I'm no microbiologist, but I'll wager that bread yeast doesn't really add anything. It would consume the sugar, but I don't think it would move on to cellulose once the sugar was broken down.
I don'tknow if you have addressed it on another video that I wasn't able to find, but have you experimented with spent brewer's grain and woodchips?
I wonder if there is a nitrogen fixing bacteria or fungus which would thrive in woodchips. I have a very large and growing pile of fresh wood chips (over 100 cubic yards) I want to use to create soil over the next couple of years, so I am able to try experiments too. I am open to suggestions.
Interesting experiments. I will look forward to the result. I think you should have used urine instead, freely available worldwide.
Writing you from Argentina, hello there! I'd love to know what happened with this trial... Thanks a lot!
last summer I chipped up some little trees (leaves and all) and tossed them in a pile under a tree with a few dead ground hogs in there... this spring it's like 90% done.
Diego you looking like you dropped some weight looking good bro
Thanks man. Lost a bit. 😉
There is really never a need to inoculate woodchips. They will inoculate themselves. I have never seen woodchips not have fungal activity after a week or so.
Agent 47 doing gardening now?
Did you ever do a follow up? I was looking for it and it seems like you never did one. If you did could someone provide the link? thanks a ton
I do something similar to this. I fill a trash can with wood chips and add ammonium nitrate. No holes. I fill with water and let it soak for a few weeks before adding it to my garden. It turns the wood chips into wood pulp that I can mix in the soil.
I'm currently composting with wood chips. I'm using A fine and coarse grind in combination with alfalfa hay. Turning with my tractor once a week. You're right about keeping it moist. Really gets hot!! I've reached 160° then it cooled to 120°. You can't hurry the process. Mother nature has rules we can't break!😉
Im thinking of trying this but in my green houses will it produce methane gas ?
Diego, I had a load of oak chips and leaf matter from a neighbor’s tree trimming dumped on our property last week to use where I can. I was thinking of burying a mass of it deep in a new flower bed filled with neglected and questionable soil as a way to help with water retention in our hot and often dry Mississippi summers. I don’t have any acceptable rotting branches to lay in there and it was suggested those chips may be just the thing. Does this sound plausible? I’ll also be making some foot-deep wood chip paths as another method for keeping the bed from drying out while we work for more worm action beneath the soil line.
Yeah..... you have me planning composting barrels too. 😄
Wouldnt it have been better to put the sugar in the water with the imo and then water over, better coverage would defo speed it up
Where is part 2?
Where do u get the mushroom spawn
I ordered from www.fieldforest.net
What if all I have is pine wood chips? Will that compost fine?
You could have used a pvc pipe with holes drilled in it in the center and just left it in there.
Yep
He's done that on several. I think he was trying to do something that was easier accessible to everyone.
@@conde082 Easier to access than PVC pipe? The stuff is at any hardware store, Lowes, and Home Depot. Heck, even Tractor Supply has some. Rain barrels are much more scarce and difficult to find. If you can't find PVC pipe, odds are you will never even hear of a rain barrel, much less see one.
@@wesbaumguardner8829 i agree 100% but I think he is also thinking of international audiences. Small towns in less developed countries for instance. Based on my many trips to India, it would be easier to find a barrel than pcv.
Diego, i put 20 yards of wood chips into a berm and seeded it with 1 lb of dandelion seeds.I then tossed a super thin layer composted manure on top of the seeds. I have no idea why this composted the wood chips so much faster than my other piles, but the pile shrunk in size by over 3 feet that year and created compost in a year
Composted way more than the other berms/mounds of mulch. It might possibly be to the width and height of the berms but the dandelions all sprouted and had taproots that went all the way to the soil beneath the berm. Some tap roots were 5 foot long. Maybe the roots acted as a means for the soil micro organisms to access the area internal to the berm by way of traveling up the root? Idk 🤷🏻♂️
Glad to see you haven't posted in 9 months :)
Could you do one by shredding the chips up into smaller pieces? Maybe I’ll do that on my own over here. Not sure it would make much difference, but I’ll try it
Yeah smaller chips more surface area
I'm sure the more finely ground the woodchips are, the faster they will break down. More surface area, more air and easier water retention. Using 2 to 3 inches of fine wood mulch in the beds and doing nothing to it, it becomes soil in 1 year.
Is there ever a follow up video on the results?
Could you add urea instead of bloodmeal?
Great video! Thanks
What about milorganite?
Adding some liquid fish imulsion(fertilizer) works great!
Is there a part two with the results?
Would love to see an update!
I love these experiments.
I can appreciate pleasing the masses.
Have a great day Diego.
At 5:15 my point exactly.
Very cool/hot idea! Look forward to following along!
Human urine is a good source of nitrogen to get compost hot. It helps break carbon down like a champ. You can also bury fish in your garden rows in trenches in the fall and then cover up with soil. Then cover with a few inches of shredded leaves and finally about an inch pf straw. Let it sit all winter and come spring you will have the best garden in your zip code.
Deisel exhaust fluid is probably the hottest source of nitrogen that I know of. It urea which is basically pure nitrogen. Pour that on the wood chips and your cooking good in the hood.
OKAY WHERE ARE THE RESULTS?? SEARCHED HIS CHANNEL AND CAN'T FIND RESULTS!