• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • John F Dean
  • Timothy Norton
  • paul wheaton
  • Jay Angler
stewards:
  • Pearl Sutton
  • Anne Miller
  • Tereza Okava
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
gardeners:
  • M Ljin
  • Matt McSpadden
  • Megan Palmer

How to use wool as mulch?

 
Posts: 5
2
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I'm teaching myself how to process raw wool for spinning, and thats resulted in some waste wool. (Lesson 1: learn to recognize scurf before you buy a raw fleece and scour the whole thing...)

I've read you can use wool as mulch, but since what I have are a lot of fluffy bits rather than a connected fleece, I don't really see how this would work and not just blow away.
Anyone have experience with this?

I've also read you can compost the wool, but I'm just a baby permie with a small amount of compost and I'm worried it would be too much wool.

Thanks!
 
steward & author
Posts: 42746
Location: Left Coast Canada
15857
9
art trees books chicken cooking fiber arts
  • Likes 5
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I use wool as mulch around perennials or places I won't be digging for about 3 years as it takes a long time to break down.

Once it gets moist, it stays put pretty easily.  Although birds will steal it at nesting time.

Composting, again, it takes a while to break down, so I usually make a pile, then cover it with bedding from the sheep yard.  Plant squash in it for the first two years, then open up the pile and find lovely soil.

For a small handful or bits, I add it to the regular compost...except if it's a fancy compost with moving parts like the one we spin or an electric one.  I try to disperse the wool so it doesn't clump together.
 
steward
Posts: 17662
Location: USDA Zone 8a
4526
dog hunting food preservation cooking bee greening the desert
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Welcome to the forum.

I have not done this though i have read about doing this.

The wool can be turned into pellets to be used as mulch and for fertilizer:








 
Amelia Tau
Posts: 5
2
  • Likes 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
R - Sounds like it's better suited to mulching my berry bushes than the vegetable garden since it takes a long time to break down.

Anne - I'd heard of wool pellets but assumed it was something industrial, not something I could do myself. These videos all seem to use special equipment but maybe there's a way to approximate it myself.

Thanks to both!
 
out to pasture
Posts: 12832
Location: Portugal
3853
goat dog duck forest garden books wofati bee solar rocket stoves greening the desert
  • Likes 6
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Maybe use it Ruth Stout style and use it as an under-layer with a heavier mulch, like cut grass, on top.
 
pollinator
Posts: 381
Location: Oz; Centre South
90
trees books cooking fiber arts writing
  • Likes 3
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I was advised by the elders that wool fleece as mulch ought to be buried. so the birds can't steal it.  Used as a lining in the nests makes it sound quite cosy, but it upsets the humidity and throws off the hatching percentages, and our birds need all the help they can get.
Quote from the post above: Maybe use it Ruth Stout style and use it as an under-layer with a heavier mulch, like cut grass, on top.
Sounds like sense
 
I agree. Here's the link: http://stoves2.com
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic