TJ asks about composting violent storm dust :
“ I ’ve got a lot of detritus from the storm still , plus I ’ll be cutting down some trees soon . What do you think is the best way to avoid export those nutrients and to reincorporate them into the land ? I was thinking on doing some hugelkultur bed , but I ’ve never done one and might have too much material . Any testimonial on the hugel beds and other way to make use of these textile ? ”
Yes – I certainly have some suggestions .
Method #1 for Composting Storm Debris: Throw it on the Ground
In Chapter 11 ofCompost Everything : The Good Guide to Extreme CompostingI wrote :
“ My papa and I started a food wood in his shady and infertile south Florida backyard . One weekend we pile up palm tree trunks , branches , log , hedge passementerie , leaves , skunk snip and whatever else the neighbors were throwing out . The resulting hatful of biomass was probably two foot marvellous and covered over a hundred square substructure . In the center and around the edges we found yield trees and comestible perennial . Within a couple of month you could dig into the muckle and find rich black soil , worms , and a wide variety show of insects working together to apace commute that pile of “ waste ” into soil . ”
This was what that mass of plant debris did :
Just piling up all the proboscis and leaves and dust will finally give you racy results .
Stack them someplace out of the path or put them in rough heaps in good order around trees or anywhere .
This pile broke down wonderfully in a petty more than a yr .
When the sticks got unannealed , I stomped on them . Just do n’t do that if you ’re in poisonous Hydra country .
Method #2 for Composting Storm Debris: Use Logs for Boundaries
I ’ve also taken felled trees and chunks of trunk and used them to delimitate way in food for thought forests .
It ’s not always the prettiest method , but those hunks of logs keep the ground moist beneath them , harbor a variety of useful species , plus host fungus , which are an entire part of wood life .
A year after throwing down piles of tree trunks and rip up tree company mulch , I was so amazed to see the many varieties of mushrooms which come along thatI did a Wiley Post with 39 pictorial matter document them .
Method #3 for Composting Storm Debris: Hugelkultur
TJ also take about hugelkultur as a method for compost storm debris .
I must confess , I have never build up a proper hugelkultur bed . I fuck it ’s one of those A-one - pop things that permaculture gardeners do but I have n’t done one .
I did immerse tree diagram clump and plant a jaboticaba on top :
That led to sinking filth and the pauperism to replant the tree within a year .
I frankly do n’t experience how hugelkultur beds will work in Florida overall . Organic material deteriorates at a frightening pace and sandy ground is probable to moisten away from the top of the mounds . It ’s credibly deserving build one as an experiment but I would n’t wager heavily on a method acting which fall from a cold mood with clay soils .
And hugelkultur may not even be what many recall it is .
As Jack Spirko writesin a very interesting article for Permaculture News :
“ The intention of this mound is twofold .
1.Break down organic affair and build soil
2.Grow annual production while bit one happens and/or growing short term perennial and nanny trees for later planting in other locating .
How do I know this ? When I met Sepp in Montana in 2012 and see him build about 4 linear klick of hugels , he told me so and I consider him .
I hear cries of heresy and blasphemy , but I am just telling you the way this system is actually used successfully . So strap in if you are disturb now , indeed it gets worse from here . The self-aggrandising shocker is what happens next . One of them you may have a hard time consider …
1.The mounds over time sort of flatten out and are leave . At this period , the succession go into long full term perennial yield . The key though is that a few season of annual cropping and short term perennial are used first . Generally in this case they remain bush , shrub , small tree , herbaceous and yearly crop producer .
2.More often than above , gasp ! The heap is at some full point spread out and full on recurrent organization are established or even shaving systems are boosted . This can produce astounding sum of soil , the value of which if truck in would be measure out in 10 ’s of grand of dollars per acre .
The primary purpose of hugels is building territory , output is of secondary business concern . Getting output out of hugels makes the method hardheaded but none the less , still secondary to the original intent . Very few decree to the concept are even aware of why Sepp Holzer did hugels in the first place . Quite simply it was done because he had a net ton of low value tree around and take out them was more costly than their value . ”
If the elementary design is building dirt , the same can be done with much less Labour Party than digging mound ask . Throw the material in adult piles and let it rot , then subsequently diffuse it around . Florida ’s hot and humid climate chew through most fall trees in a couple of years , release them into crumbly humus . If you build mounds , they are go to sink . tight .
Method #4 for Composting Storm Debris: Biochar
Biochar is just charcoal qualification .
Charcoal has the capacity to hold onto nutrition and potentially act like humus in the ground . In sandy soils with high leaching , this is knock-down . Humus vanish very cursorily in Florida , and less quickly in colder mood , but oxford grey is practically immortal .
I now add it to many of my compost piles for that very reason :
It will sit in the pile and soak up the good stuff , then later be propagate around my garden and trees .
If you have a lot of tempest dust , just do something like this :
Then expend that fusain everywhere . Just do n’t burn the trees into nothing – be sure you quench the fire and get the charcoal , as most of the good stuff will leave your property for the air if you let the fire go too long .
So – to respond the doubt “ what ’s the good method acting for composting storm debris ? ”
Any way that keeps the material on your land . Do n’t give in to the convenience of rent the county take it or just burn it to ashes .
Sir Herbert Beerbohm Tree are rich in carbon copy and other mineral that they ’ve produced and mined from the soil , sometimes for generations . Do n’t scourge them . Even making island of tree trunk chunks , leaves and branches around your yield tree will greatly benefit the trees .
As has been said before “ timber grow on the remains of forests . ”
habituate fallen trees to feed in keep ones and you ’ll be surprised how they react .
