Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

In article ,
says...
Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

A few years ago I hired a shredder to clear my back garden and it
composted well when mixed with green stuff and grass cuttings, but I'm
not sure how long it took - I tend to make more compost than I use so it
sits there for a year or three.

Rob Morley wrote:

I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

A few years ago I hired a shredder to clear my back garden and it
composted well when mixed with green stuff and grass cuttings, but I'm
not sure how long it took - I tend to make more compost than I use so it
sits there for a year or three.

Thanks for the advice.
I hadn't looked in the wormery for a couple of years,
and was quite surprised when I opened it to see the little beggars
running around, especially as I had been told
to bring the wormery indoors in winter,
which of course I did not do.

So I'll add my shredder output to the bin.

Incidentally, the one thing that has not rotted at all
in the wormery is the outside of tea bags.
Other paper has rotted well, so I guess tea bags
are not normal paper.
Also egg-shells, which we were encouraged to put in,
remain as egg-shells, as one might perhaps have expected ...


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail (80k only): tim /at/ birdsnest.maths.tcd.ie
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

In article ,
says...
snip
Incidentally, the one thing that has not rotted at all
in the wormery is the outside of tea bags.
Other paper has rotted well, so I guess tea bags
are not normal paper.

They are non-wood vegetable fibre - hemp, flax and cotton are commonly
used in specialist papers.

Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?


Yes!

Peter Crosland

Peter Crosland wrote:
Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?



Yes!

How do you work that out?

I would have thought that it wood have bin 3 shredded wheat too far, for
the worms, myself :-)

Dave

On Sun, 25 Sep 2005 15:46:41 +0100, Timothy Murphy
wrote:

| Following advice at this fount of learning
| I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
| (about 85 pounds),
| and it has been performing very well.
|
| Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
| Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

Maybe not a wormery, but in a compost bin they will be OK. The thick bits
will take longer than the thin bits, give them a year. We do.


--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
The London suicide bombers killed innocent commuters.
Animal rights terrorists and activists kill innocent patients.

Timothy Murphy wrote:
Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

If the original material could have gone in the wormery, yes. If not,
no.

NT

Timothy Murphy wrote:

Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

Yes, it will, and its a good source of fibre, rather than any
particularly good fertilizer.

Best mixed with other stuff.

It does take a year or two to break down, but this is not a big issue if
its mixed.

It makes excellent mulch on beds too. Suppresses weeds well.

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message


I bought a garden shredder can I add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

Anything will compost eventually, even teabag bags. But why not put it
straight on the garden where it will do most good?

When the Dutch closed of the Zuider Zee they found their composters
were eating into the glass shards that got into the recyclers. I have
never heard of any more research on the subject though.

I did hear that garbage put in a swamp, south of New York, was recovered
for research several decades later and even newspapers had survived in
readable format.

So heat, damp and time are not everything to a compost bin, are they?


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 06:26:32 +0000 (UTC), "Michael Mcneil"
wrote:



| So heat, damp and time are not everything to a compost bin, are they?

Air, is essential. Anaerobic conditions inhibit decay as at Vindolanda
http://vindolanda.csad.ox.ac.uk/exhi...etting-2.shtml
The remarkable survival of the tablets is due to the anaerobic
conditions. Clay dumped to seal earlier occupation layers and level up for
rebuilding combined with the wet conditions to deny a supply of oxygen to
the bacteria that would otherwise rot organic materials.

Worms, insects and microorganisms are also essential, along with conditions
necessary for their growth.

--
Dave Fawthrop dave hyphenologist co uk
The London suicide bombers killed innocent commuters.
Animal rights terrorists and activists kill innocent patients.

Michael Mcneil wrote:
"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message


I bought a garden shredder can I add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

Anything will compost eventually, even teabag bags. But why not put it
straight on the garden where it will do most good?

If the shreddings are woody then doing so can rob Nitrogen from the
soil as they decompose. It is always best to compost, at least
partially, any woody shreddings.

MBQ

"manatbandq" wrote in message
oups.com

If the shreddings are woody then doing so can rob Nitrogen from the
soil as they decompose. It is always best to compost, at least
partially, any woody shreddings.

This is especially true where the people in charge of the land treat it
the way that farmers in the west of europe have been doing since Haber
invented the Haber Process before moving on to a quicker method of
wiping out lots of creation.

In a wild wood or in an orchard that has gone to seed, the soil is full
of all sorts of fungii that is missing in fields and orchards where the
"green revolution" has performed it miracles.

From "A Year At Kew":

There are 50 times more species of fungi than there are species of
vegetation and there are 6 times less scientist studying fungi than
there are studying vegation. (Only the quote used big words and I don't
remember what they were.)

It wouldn't suprise me in the least to find that global warmin/climate
change was down to the amount of water the soil was able or rather not
able to absorb because of this absence of fungus.

The only reason not to put the shredding on neat is that it might
attract rats. If there is that danger then by all means compost - if you
can keep the rats out of the compost.

Once the shreddings have begun to decay they will return the nitrogen
that they had absorbed and increase the ability of the area to deal with
nany more that it may recieve.

On the other hand, not all fungii are good to have, some may kill the
host. Honeydew for one. The hope is that other organisms encouraged by
the mulch will enable the soil to deal with it.

There are farmers that "fallowed" their land by giving up on
it. (Having drained it's ability to support life so badly by over
production and the use of factory made chemicals.) Then the weeds
and worms etc., encourage natural recouperative processes that rekindled
fertility in the soil.

I don't have any links though, as if that would prove much -or change
anything.


--
Posted via Mailgate.ORG Server - http://www.Mailgate.ORG

On Mon, 26 Sep 2005 07:26:32 +0100, Michael Mcneil
wrote:

I did hear that garbage put in a swamp, south of New York, was recovered
for research several decades later and even newspapers had survived in
readable format.

Indeed. about six years ago, I was involved in a landfill borehole, and
orange peel and a newspaper from 1956 (I assume this paper was
contemporary, as combined with the [limited] landfill records this is a
correct date) which were remarkably well preserved. As the landfill was an
old gravel pit and a clay barrier was installed, I can only assume that
that is why no worms approached it. The swamp would have been anaerobic,
another good preservation regime.

So heat, damp and time are not everything to a compost bin, are they?

Air (more specifically oxygen) and the appropriate biota. Avocado skins
and eggshells tend to be difficult.

John Schmitt

--
Using Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/mail/

In message lgate.org,
Michael Mcneil writes
"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message


I bought a garden shredder can I add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

Anything will compost eventually, even teabag bags. But why not put it
straight on the garden where it will do most good?

When the Dutch closed of the Zuider Zee they found their composters
were eating into the glass shards that got into the recyclers. I have
never heard of any more research on the subject though.

I did hear that garbage put in a swamp, south of New York, was recovered
for research several decades later and even newspapers had survived in
readable format.

No oxygen for the aerobic bacteria to break it down


So heat, damp and time are not everything to a compost bin, are they?



--
geoff

Timothy Murphy wrote:

Following advice at this fount of learning
I bought a Bosch garden 1.8kW shredder at B&Q for 130 euro
(about 85 pounds),
and it has been performing very well.

Now I'm wondering if I can add the output to my wormery?
Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

It all depends on the original material. Some material such as Bay
tree wood hardly degrade at all.

--

"Matt" wrote in message


Timothy Murphy wrote:

Will it convert within a finite time to compost?

It all depends on the original material. Some material such as Bay
tree wood hardly degrade at all.

Not even strychnos (—see CURARE, NUX VOMICA, STRYCHNINE) would do a
terrible amount of damage as a mulch though.

And it would at least save the bother of steam sterilisation that is
used on pine bark. And even that rots eventually. If you use fresh lawn
clippings on top it "goes down" faster.

What is the urge that gardeners have to keep their plots sterile and
then compost everything in it? Is it one of those nervous illnesses? An
as yet unstudied (though not rare) accute compulsive disorder/order
disorder?


--
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