What to do with Compost, wood chips and beer grain

I bought some land next to me that was cleared twice in 40 years and then allowed to grow back.  I cleared it the third time and used a forestry mulcher and then covered with a lot of wood chips (10 to 12 inches). Live next to a forest also.

I have about 3 cubic yards of finished compost and maybe 5 more that needs to be mixed.  I have well composted horse manure that has (in the past) passed a green bean test and had live worms in it.

I have access to all the wood chips I can handle and a good amount of spent beer grain.

Any guidance on how to best proceed to turn the heavy clay at 6 inches to better soil?  Any methods stand out, given the resources I have?  

I would like to convert the clay to soil using biodynamics or Natural Farming methods.  

 

Dennis,

I am envious of all your wood chips!

That being said, my personal suggestion is to break that wood down with mushrooms.  Two come to mind and I can offer specific information on one.  You might try either Wine Cap mushrooms (I have had good success with these) or Oyster mushrooms (I really want to try these).  Just don’t use both in the same bed or they will fight to the death.

Wine Caps make a great starter mushroom and in about a year can turn a bunch of chips into fine mushroom compost.  If you like, you could grow in these beds while the wine caps are doing their work.

I honestly don’t know what to do with the spent Brewer’s yeast.  I think that is only going to work on something sugar to starchy, not like the lingin in  your chips, but if you had something starchy to decompose, maybe it would work (have a big pile of grain sitting around?).

If you are interested in more information about the mushrooms, I will offer whatever I can, just ask.

Eric

how much land do you have? with that much wood chips plus beer grain you could make lots of compost. what ive seen done is organic matter placed in windrows and then turned with a compost turner. a commercial size compost turner looks a lot like a roto tiller. on smaller scale less than dozens of acres
it can be done with a tractor with a loader on it and a 3 point roto tiller.
if you had a source for good clean animal manure it would speed up composting process.
or you could plant a whole lot of fungi, like wine caps  in the wood chips mixed with beer grain and just let nature do its thing

I am trying to get away from doing the heavy work since I have come down with heart problems.  So it is light(er) duty for me.  

I have a small tractor but hope to minimize how much I use it so I don't compact the soil too much.

Would like to try something easy like Youngsang Cho recommends in his JADAM methods.  

Mushrooms grow like crazy here but never the ones you want, unless you do totems or log plugging and over inoculate.  I tried Blue Oyster a couple years ago.
I can just lay wood chips down and at the end of summer there are white and orange strands of mycelium.

From what I understand from Dr. Redhawk is the biodynamic methods are best for adding materials on top and JADAM is best for irrigation type methods.
Was hoping there was an easy way to convert the large amount of Compost into something my biologically active and then I can pile wood chips on top.

Dennis,

I understand the desire for light work and good that you have the tractor.  I would think that you could use it without compacting your soil too much.

Were it me, I would start by piling the chips up high onto a bed and maybe let them sit over winter.  Maybe even add in some compost just to get some biology going.  By spring the soil beneath will hopefully start to merge with the pile and the pile into the soil.  I did this with wood chips on dense, hard, brown clay and by spring the “clay” was already looking much better.

If you were still feeling ambitious, I would think about knocking that pile down to about 1’ and planting something that will cast shade (I use tomatoes) in fertile holes filled with some of that wonderful compost you already have.  From there I would inoculate with wine caps and let them digest the wood into fine mushroom compost.  Even if you don’t get actual mushrooms, the fungus should really break down the wood.

These may sound like a lot of steps but physically none are terribly hard to do.  And while this has worked wonders for me (and with your compost I bet it would work even better) you have to decide for yourself what is best.

Good luck on your decision and if you want any help with the wine caps, just ask.

Eric

Given that the ground is covered with lots of wood chips and there is an abundance of fungi planting crops that have 2 to 1 or 5 to 1 fungal to bacteria ratio would thrive with no weeds and little bit notes. For a little work I would suggest making a passive compost pile or a forced air. In both of these you will have to layer or mixed materials quite well. The beer grains are a great energy source for composting they can help bring up the heat big time adding some green material such as hey along with soaking the wood chips some manure and honestly as much diversity of material that you can. A comment trial compost is 50 Parts carbon 35 Parts green and 15 nitrogen

Update.  I recently found out I have aspergillis in my lungs.  From moving so many chips using my tractor.  After a couple months of antibiotics and asthma meds my lungs are mostly cleared.  A little more to go.  
I will use a mask from now on.

Dennis,

Glad to hear that you are OK!  Good warning and good to know that you are going to use a mask from now on.

Eric

Clearing a forest to grow a garden is not how I read Mollison’s recommendations for Earth Care, but I hope you get and stay well.