Wool in Soil

We’ve been getting into gardening and just learned about the application of wool in it. We have a few sheep and a ton of wool left over from past shearing. I tried to mix the raw wool in with soil but it just clumped together. I learned there’s a way to make wool pellets that don’t have that issue but I don’t have a way to get a machine for that very soon. I also don’t want to go through a huge process to clean it for that machine. Am I able to skip the cleaning process and shred it? And if I shred it, will I be able to apply it straight to the soil, or do I need to make it into pellets?

Welcome to the forum!

I don't have that opportunity so maybe these will help:

https://permies.com/t/278202/Waste-Wool

https://permies.com/t/69012/scrap-wool-retaining-moisture-soil

https://permies.com/t/275981/Experience-sheep-wool-pellets

Welcome to Permies Richard!

My experience is still rather new with wool in the garden but the way I have been utilizing it has been both pelleted and loose wool.

Instead of mixing it into the soil, I have been utilizing it was a mulch on top. It does a good job keeping the moisture underneath and fending off germinating plants that would otherwise crowd out my vegetables.

What are you hoping the wool will do for you added to the soil?

Hi Richard,
Another welcome to Permies!

I'm with Timothy on this. Whenever I am adding something to the soil that needs to be broken down (wood chips, leaves, straw, wool, etc) I always put it on top and let the worms, bugs, and microbes do their thing to incorporate it.

Hi. I tried using alpaca wool (my mom had leftover), and it was not very practical. My problem was that I put it too thin, so when weeds inevitably started growing, the wool would stick to the weeds when I tried to pull them out...
I think it could work if you put on thick layers of it, which would be easier with sheep wool. I have seen an instagram reel (a woman from Ireland) use it in her greenhouse. But if you want to try it, make sure you get it on thick so no light comes through, and maybe in a way it could be easy to just pick up the whole body of wool.

Rikard

Hi Richard,

I had similar thoughts a while ago and was dissuaded by resident soil expert RedHawk.  He told me that hair/wool will take ages to break down and the soil will mat together—almost like reinforced concrete—and become terribly difficult to work.  Perhaps a small amount of very finely chopped wool could somewhat loosen the soil, but I would only want to do this very, very conservatively.  I think the much, much better option is to leave it out of the soil altogether, but use it as a mulch on top of the soil in large amounts.  I think that it would do a wonderful job at helping the soil retain moisture, keeping the soil loose, and lessening the impact of footsteps if it is used as a thick layer on top but kept out of the soil itself.

If you want a soil amendment to loosen soil, consider woodchips, straw or leaves.  These don’t even need to be worked into the soil itself as their decay will bring worms that will do the work of soil incorporation for you.

I hope this helps.


Eric

Rikard Haugen wrote: I have seen an instagram reel (a woman from Ireland) use it in her greenhouse.

I suspect it may be this one?



I'm experimenting with wool pellets this year - they have the advantage for me that my dogs don't eat them! Raw sheep fleece, especially once it gets wet is a bit of a temptation for them to eat unfortunately. I am trying fleece around my beans in my (dog resistant) growing area, just laid thickly around the plants. I suspect it may stop light rain watering the plants.

I've heard people do just clip the fleece into shorter lengths so that it mixes in more quickly, but that would also be quite a lot of work, unless you could make some sort of chopping machine (mind your fingers!).

That's the one!

Nancy Reading wrote: I suspect it may stop light rain watering the plants.

I second this. The wool seemed to hold the rain back a bit. The woman in the movie uses it in her greenhouse, so I guess she would water her plants and not have this problem.

Richard Rios wrote:I also don’t want to go through a huge process to clean it for that machine. Am I able to skip the cleaning process and shred it? And if I shred it, will I be able to apply it straight to the soil, or do I need to make it into pellets?

I've looked into the pelleting a bit, both into having it done (there are a few people near-ish to me that do it) and buying the equipment myself (not cheap). As far as your questions - the only cleaning you need to do is to make sure it's free of rocks and sticks (likely debris from shearing), and large manure tags. Beyond that, it just goes straight through the shredder. The people who are shredding sell it both as shreds (for mulch) and pellets (for mixing into soil in lieu of peat moss), so how processed you need it really depends on how you want to apply it.

I've not had great success with applying the raw fleeces as mulch - it works for a bit, but once the weeds break through weeding is a bear, because it roots into the wool, which is still bound to itself, so pulling stuff up is pulling an entire mat. I want to try the shredded option and see if that works better.