How would you compost large piles of brush

cowboysheart · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Atoka,OK

How would you compost large piles of brush? I am having several acres logged to open up some pasture. The logger are leaving the tops of the trees and piling the tops together. I have the choice of burning them or letting them decay. I also want to know what the best way to get rid of the stumps. anyone have any suggestion
Ken

Dirt Doctor · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Posts: 582 Location: Dallas,Tx

Don't burn! Toss some molasses on the stumps and cover them with the trimmings. The piles will provide habitat for wildlife in the beginning and will break down into compost over time.

cowboysheart · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Atoka,OK

Ok thank you HG for the information. How long would it take for the stumps to rot. I was also wondering if there was a place to rent a limb muncher and if it would be cost effective. I on a strick budget
KB

cowboysheart · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Atoka,OK

Ok thank you HG for the information. How long would it take for the stumps to rot. I was also wondering if there was a place to rent a limb muncher and if it would be cost effective. I on a strick budget
KB

cowboysheart · Joined: 07 Jun 2004 Posts: 16 Location: Atoka,OK

Ok thank you HG for the information. How long would it take for the stumps to rot. I was also wondering if there was a place to rent a limb muncher and if it would be cost effective. I on a strick budget
KB

Dirt Doctor · Joined: 08 Mar 2003 Posts: 582 Location: Dallas,Tx

Don't worry about the time. Let Nature takehe time. What will the piles or stumps hurt in the meantime?

Dchall_San_Antonio · Joined: 18 Mar 2003 Posts: 2011 Location: San Antonio,TEXAS

Cover the brush with fresh animal manure and that will speed things up.

gnalekim · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Creston B.C. Canada

O.K. cowboy here's my 2 cents.

I have 75 acres here in canada 40 of it is treed. It's been selectively logged twice in the last 30 years once by my father and once 5 years ago by me. those big piles of brush the logger is leaving behind will last a very very long time unless you intervene to speed things up. I have one pile on my property that is still kicking around from 30 years ago granted it was a large pile to begin with. If a brush pile is loose tall and in the open it will decay slowly, to speed things up you want it tight, low to the ground and preferably not in the open but seeing as how your clearing you have little choice but to cover it. Go get yourself a chainsaw- break the piles apart buck the tops and branches up into short pieces 2-4' and repile them only a couple feet high, then start covering them with any organic matter you can get your hands on. High nitrogen stuff is best as wood is mostly carbon. as for the stumps cut them flush with the ground or close to it and they will dissapear much faster.

The basic ideas here are small pieces decay faster than big ones. A pile close to the ground won't dry out as fast as a tall one and a tight pile covered with clippings, manure, leaves, whatever will also retain moisture better therefore aiding decay.

finally, have patience it's still going to take years for it all to disappear

good luck.

Tricky Grama · Posted: Sat Aug 28, 2004 6:50 am Post subject: brush piles

Is it not a good idea to use a 'chipper' & make some mulch?
Patty

Mr. Clean · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 708 Location: Garland, Texas

pjva wrote: Is it not a good idea to use a 'chipper' & make some mulch?
Patty

I think it is a great idea, but it's not cheap and not even cost effective. I just had a Hackberry tree (a 30+ year old tree) removed from my property. The tree company cut the large trunk up and I will burn it in the fireplace over the next several years. The smaller limbs/branches were piled up until I could find a chipper and someone to deliver it. I hired the young man who has been mowing my yard since my accident. He finally tracked one down that was large enough for the job. He had to go to Frisco to get it, which cut into the rental time. He ran out of time on the rental before getting everything mulched. It cost me $200+ for the rental and his time. Think of the yards+ of mulch I could have bought for that amount of money. :? Of course it was waste which wasn't sent to the landfill. Oh and though the brush pile had only been on my property for less than a month, I had already received a notice from the City warning me of fines if the brush was not removed :shock:

I think it would be a great idea for municipalities to provide chipper/shredder services for residents. This would help alleviate some unecessary landfill usage. For residents who didn't want to keep their mulch, the cities could use the mulch for their own planting beds or make the mulch available to other residents for a small fee. Garland does something like this, but only at Christmas time by recycling Christmas trees. That mulch is (or at least was) free for the taking.

jrosto · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 241 Location: Arlington

Would have been cheaper to bring the branches to Soil Building Systems and then fill your truck up with Ceder mulch :D

http://www.soilbuildingsystems.com/Dumping.php

I agree that it would be great for the city to provide a chipping service, if not for free, at least for a very minimum charge.

Mr. Clean · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 708 Location: Garland, Texas

jrosto wrote: Would have been cheaper to bring the branches to Soil Building Systems and then fill your truck up with Ceder mulch :D

http://www.soilbuildingsystems.com/Dumping.php

I agree that it would be great for the city to provide a chipping service, if not for free, at least for a very minimum charge.

Brush/Limbs Dumping fee depends upon load size

I looked over at the link with some anticipation, but frankly I'm offended that they would charge a dumping fee for materials which they would then turn into a product that they would again charge. :( I have delivered them a product at no charge (they charge you a delivery fee when you buy their products). Perhaps this is an oversimplified viewpoint, and would happily entertain a logical opposing view.

gnalekim · Joined: 24 Mar 2004 Posts: 39 Location: Creston B.C. Canada

soil building systems appears to be trying to encourage you to bring easily compostable or valuable "waste" to them rather than use it yourself or throw it out. anything of lesser value that requires additional processing through costly eqiupment is charged a dumping fee. the prices on thier products seems reasonable and I'm sure profitable. SBS is a private bussiness what do you expect?

by the way I've tried chipping some of the brush on my land with a home owner style chipper and for anything other than small, green, straight and limbless stuff it can be quite frustrating. If the wood is dry forget it. you need a larger industrial style chipper to chip large quantities. The smaller (2 1/2"-) green wood did make exellent chips though.

I have to confess the idea of having to pay a dumping fee for brush piles or yard waste is a foriegn concept to me. there is a dumping fee at the local land fill for such things, I've just never done it.

jrosto · Joined: 03 May 2003 Posts: 241 Location: Arlington

I just offered that idea up as a less costly alternative to $200 + labor.

Mr. Clean · Joined: 27 Mar 2003 Posts: 708 Location: Garland, Texas

gnalekim wrote: soil building systems appears to be trying to encourage you to bring easily compostable or valuable "waste" to them rather than use it yourself or throw it out. anything of lesser value that requires additional processing through costly eqiupment is charged a dumping fee. the prices on thier products seems reasonable and I'm sure profitable. SBS is a private bussiness what do you expect?

Yes, I understand that the branches and limbs would have to be processed. But they already have the equipment as it is presumably needed to process the mulch products they sell. By bringing your trimmings to them. You are providing them a free service (delivery) and free raw materials which they will in turn sell (maybe back to you). Just seems to be a one-sided proposition. Now if they charged for a dumping fee, but returned to you the finished product.

gnalekim wrote:
I have to confess the idea of having to pay a dumping fee for brush piles or yard waste is a foriegn concept to me. there is a dumping fee at the local land fill for such things, I've just never done it.

Our landfill doesn’t charge an additional dumping fee for residents.

jrosto wrote: I just offered that idea up as a less costly alternative to $200 + labor.

I appreciate the information, though my statement must have been misleading. The charge was Quote: $200+ for the rental and his time . “His time” included labor and pick up and delivery of the machine. It was somewhat expensive vs the purchase of pre-processed product. Still it would have cost me a delivery fee and dumping fee to get all of that wood to SBS, and I wouldn’t have any mulch. So, there are trade-offs. And all in all, it was a large amount of trimmings that didn’t wind up in our landfill.