Phragmites as Bedding material?

[PotatoChip]

I live on the East Coast(Connecticut), and, as is the case in most areas, phragmites have supplanted cattails as the basic swamp grass. I'm thinking of using dried phragmites as my basic composting bed material. Its hollowness makes it both lightweight and airy. Has anybody tried this? Any potential downside? My wife is allergic to the fluffy heads of the stalks, so I'm leaving them at the swamp.

 

[patandchickens]

That's a really interesting idea. There must be SOMEthing useful to do with the stuff!

I think your major concern would be getting it harvested/stored DRY enough so it doesn't mold/mildew, and it would work a whole lot better if you can chop it up into short pieces rather than using the stalks 'whole'. Harvesting it with a weedwhacker would help somewhat with that, or you could harvest in sheaves/handfulls and then go whackwhackwhackwhackwhack with a machete on a stump.

Good luck, have fun, let us know how it goes!!,

Pat, who has used reed-canarygrass (sort of like "phragmites junior") as run 'bedding' and it's worked quite well