Using used pine shavings with manure

[Penpal]

Years ago, when my father-in-law taught at Central Michigan U, he had the students' project be composting. The quickest compost was made of cow manure, sawdust, and a little water. It was done in a large barrel with a small engine that turned it about every minute and a half. 72 hours to be fully composted. Equine manure was slower, needed another 42 hours.

My point is that you could compost those wood shavings with manure much faster than 18 months if you turned it often and made sure there was enough moisture. Those turning compost barrels for your backyard are really too small to do a fast job, but again, it would be faster than 18 months. Of course, you can toss in your food scraps, lawn cuttings, etc.

 

[Sally PB]

The quickest compost was made of cow manure, sawdust, and a little water. It was done in a large barrel with a small engine that turned it about every minute and a half. 72 hours to be fully composted.

I wish they'd done one of chicken manure! That would be interesting.

 

[jreardon1918]

I use pine shavings in the coop, usually 2-3 bales over the course of a year. In the spring, I dig probably 6ish cubic feet of fantastic compost out of the run. Then, I clean all the shavings (and whatever poop that was in there) out of the coop and dump it in the run.

I put a new bale of shavings in the coop and start anew. I add another bale about August, and another in November-December to make the floor nice and soft and comfy for the winter.

This is exactly what I do. The gardens do very well.

 

[Penpal]

Chicken manure is "hot", so you can't put it directly in your garden, like you can cow manure. Because it is hot it decomposes quickly. They didn't have chickens at the university, but they could easily get cow manure.

 

[LynnTXchickenmom]

Also—Jan 4– 57 deg outside — I just had my son fill an 8x4x1 raised garden bed with manure-coated, used pine shaving chicken litter of various ages from piles in the back of the yard. Some is new (bottom) and some over a year old (top). It’s mostly old and a dark brown color. These shavings have nearly filled the bed. I plan to mix some molasses and Texas greensand in it with some cheap bags of soil just to have soil on the top, then plant with inoculated Austrian winter peas as a cover crop to prevent any weeds and add nitrogen. This plant will be chopped and dropped later.

Given this, would I be able to …
1) plant sweet potatoes in May? 4 ish months from now.
2) Or should I wait longer before using it?

Thanks!

(North Texas — winter peas will sprout this week given the forecast; I can replant if frost kills seedlings; mature winter pea plants never die here; sweet potatoes are planted here April to mid-May so long as temps never drop below 55 deg.)