Using Sawdust in Compost.

Since trees are plants and plants make good compost, the logical question is “Can I compost sawdust?” The quick answer is yes, you can compost any kind of sawdust.

When composting sawdust, you will want to treat the sawdust just as you would dry leaves, meaning that you will want to add it in an approximately 4:1 ratio of brown to green materials.

Sawdust actually makes a great amendment for your compost pile, as it will add a filler that is somewhat absorptive and will wick up water from rain and juices from the green material, which help with the composting process.

It does not matter what kind of wood your sawdust is from. Sawdust from all types of trees, soft or hard, can be used in your compost pile.

The one thing to be mindful of is if you will be composting sawdust from chemically treated wood.

In this case, you will want to take a few extra steps to ensure that these chemicals work their way out of the compost before you use it in your vegetable garden. The best way to do this is to just douse your compost pile with water a few extra times.

This, along with normal rainfall, should leech any harmful chemicals out of your compost pile and will dilute the chemicals being leeched out to levels that will not harm the surrounding area.

Composing sawdust is an excellent way to reclaim some value from what otherwise would be a waste product. Yours in the garden Farm2Markt.