sawdust as bedding

[Todd H]

theres a saw mill about a km from me and i can get as much sawdust as i want.

if i were to soak it in water (maybe some food aswell) for a month first  to rot it faster,then drain and use for bedding?

any ways anythoughts would be great

and yes there would be pine/hard/soft wood all that in there

[The Garbage Guru]

 Todd,what you need to do,is make you a compost heap of it and weather it.Then try it in a small batch of worms and see what happens.Not sure what they mill up your way?Red cedar,redwood,etc.could be toxic.I've sprinkled spruce on top and didn't notice any problems.Aromatic woods can kill worms.Something like Eucalyptus can kill humans from what i see.See if they will tell you all the woods.I got two yellow pine 2x4's that's been submerged in vc 2 years and it still looks good.If they do any exotic woods,the oils may kill all your worms.They do like sawdust though.Just best to have a controlled bed of it,so all the feed is a constant.If the first batch doesn't kill anything,you should be okay.I test worms in my horse manure.You never know if that old farm tractor blew a hydraulic hose.(Think worse case scenarios)

[Ar-Pharazon]

Some wood is "pressure treated", which means it has been impregnated with preservative chemicals.  That can't be good for worms, or compost in general, either.  Link.

[The Garbage Guru]

 Somebody a good while back was worried about pressure treated fencing at their Grandmas with water running off into her edible plants by it.After i posted a link with the copper,arsenic,etc. used,i think they moved the plants.

[Ar-Pharazon]

yuck!  :-)

[Todd H]

everyone that takes wood there cuts it from the wood lot

[Sue]

There is a place with mountains of saw dust 4 km from my home and they load that onto train wagons. I went there to see if I can get a few bags. No such luck. The guy at the gate won't even let me through. He said I have to get a truck load at the least. What an @$$*%#&!!!

So now I go to Petsmart and get their used saw dust pellets from the bird cages which is much safer (I think) than having saw dust from the mill.

[The Garbage Guru]

 Yeah, i asked for some rotten veggies yesterday.The person said they weren't getting fired for anyone.They said hog farmers can't even have it.Landfill bound! I was fixing to tell them i was a hog farmer.LOL!

[Rich Feiller]

the larger grocery stores won't talk to you, i get my from a high end family owned grocery store and it is all fresh cut-offs from the produce section. picked up another 40-50lbs today. it saves them money on dumpster fees. i save them a dumpster bin of fees a month it's a win-win. talk to the owner. good luck!

 

 

[Rich Feiller]

Sue around here the cabinet and woodshops get paid for their sawdust, it goes back into particle board and OSB (flake board)

[ProgressivePete]

I wouldn't think the sawdust would contain the toxic wood preservative.  Just guessing, but it seems like they would treat the wood after it was milled.

Guru, what type of sawdust to you think would be best, or at least good?

Regards,

[The Garbage Guru]

 IMO Pine.Yellow pine is a bit sappy.But the different pines are soft.One of the secrets to horse manure is,they use plenty of wood shavings.Sometimes they even use wood pellets which turns to sawdust.And they don't use any poisonous woods in it,because it is for horses.I think Black Walnut will kill a horse?Not sure about worms?So if it is good for a horse,i use it.If you get wood from a mill,make sure they don't cut black walnut there.Doesn't exist where i live to be going to a mill.

[Sue]

The used sawdust pellets I p/u from PS is pine.  I have used some of that to soak up moisture from under the FT and when I add that to the top, the temp. went up to 90 after a day, with ambient temp being 45. Good thing I added that to only 1 edge of the FT. That's one way to keep a bin warm I'd say.