kitty litter composting experiment

topic posted Thu, May 28, 2009 - 9:49 AM by  yadda yadda
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I promised I'd report back and the results are in...

My cats do their business in pine shavings, aka horse bedding. The pine shavings are a by product from lumbermills and furniture making in my part of the country. When I posted about the possibility of composing it I got some good advice...keep the bin far from any food producing beds, mix with generous amounts of lawn clippings to speed up the process, let it cook for two seasons and only use on acid loving ornamentals.

A month ago I broke down the bin, shovelled out the contents and spread the brown crumbly stuff on my azaleas.

Results - azaleas are very happy, putting out new growth and looking green and healthy. Throughout the process there was no bad odors or critter problems. I've made a new bin with green fence stakes and lattice. It'll be easier to break down and the neighbors will be none the wiser. Heh.
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yadda yadda
SF Bay Area
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  • Re: kitty litter composting experiment

    Wed, August 19, 2009 - 2:31 PM
    I've never found worms in a shaving-rich pile, even from freshly felled trees with no poop involved. I use my cat pine leftovers on the dog yard- let me explain that, I have 2 dogs who have a fairly large yard to go pee in (as long as they get their walks, there's very little poop,) now this, of course, burns out the grass. If I spread the used kitty litter (sans poop, I remove chunks and compost separately,) in a thin mulch layer over the grass in spring. At this stage, it still doesn't have enough pee to balance out the nitrogen absorbing qualities of the sawdust, and it seems to last long enough to prevent grass burnout until late summer. The difference if I don't do this is huge bare patches of lawn. Ah, I'm getting used to talking to kids- I used to say urine and feces....sigh.
    My poopy pile takes gross stuff (I mean, more disgusting than usual-redolent fish bits, duck poo, things that are a bit anaerobically decomposed already, etc.) slow composting leaves and chunks (bark bits, dried poo) gets large amounts of nitrogenous, green materials, anything sloppy. It breaks down sweet-smelling, although chunks often go back for further mouldering. It goes on everything, and I haven't succumbed to any strange diseases yet. When using lots of wood in the form of chavings or chips, I never seems to get a black result, more dark or medium brown. And one must be careful not to overheat the pile!

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