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Floor Sanding Dust

Nova

Nova

My beautiful girlfriend picked up two big bags of Cedar IronBark sandings from a place she is painting at the moment. Probably like 150 litres, it's not dust as such rather fine sandings that have a similar texture to cotton wool but the lengths are shorter.

Looked as though it would make a good addition to my mix so i mixed the whole lot through my potting up soil. Probably a ratio of about 15%.
It creates a very light fluffy mix thats looks like it should work awesome with both drainage and water retention.

I want to know if anyone had tried this before and if so did it work out for you?
 
I don't know lumber has chemicals and there's probably polyurethane or varnish, no?
 
Not this stuff. Old hardwood floorboard from a house thats about 100 years old and being renovated.
Probably full of old shoe stuff lol. Was the second sanding so was fresh as a nuns underware.
 
Wood Products

Wood products can tie up nitrogen in the soil and cause nitrogen deficiency in plants. Microorganisms in the soil use nitrogen to break down the wood. Within a few months, the nitrogen is released and again becomes available to plants. This hazard is greatest with sawdust, because it has a greater surface area than wood chips. If you plan to apply wood chips or sawdust, you may need to apply nitrogen fe
If you plan to apply wood chips or sawdust, you may need to apply nitrogen fertilizer at the same time to avoid nitrogen deficiency.
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Do some research!

Cedar is toxic to a lot other plants. We learned this in Agriculture class when I was in Junior High School, oh about 100 years ago.

Seriously, look into it.
 
Newtune said:
Do some research!

Cedar is toxic to a lot other plants. We learned this in Agriculture class when I was in Junior High School, oh about 100 years ago.

Seriously, look into it.
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yep and they use cedar extract to kill bed bugs, cedar chests, closets keep the bugs away......
 
Hmmm aphids are screwed then. :lol: To be honest it could be anything but cedar however i am not sure.
Don't know how i could find out either really. Is there a test i could perform maybe, like smoke it and see if i get really high like 220 feet? Lol
 
I use cedar and pine chips/sawdust in my garden all the time since it is otherwise just an unused byproduct sitting in piles in my yard. You may need some extra nitrogen but cedar and pine break down a lot slower than other types of wood. As for cedar being toxic to some plants, I've heard this too but I believe I've seen this myth busted
 
Yes Cedar is Toxic but Toxic like a bee sting, its not good for some but others don't care. I've got alot of types of plants now and its fun to see what bugs or birds bug them and if moving others away or close helps or not. so far Marigolds not working so well keeping these black bettles from eating up my Balsa, Cocoa, Lychee, Longan and a few more. Lucky thing is the Balsa grows so fast that the bugs are slowing them down and keeping the bettles eating mostly the Balsa and mostly leaving alone the others. But the bettles may kill my Cocoa left as they are eatting the new leaves off. Cedar is posioness to snakes but will not stop them sleeping in it. Only if they can't get away do they get sick
 
Novacastrian said:
Hmmm aphids are screwed then. :lol: To be honest it could be anything but cedar however i am not sure.
Don't know how i could find out either really. Is there a test i could perform maybe, like smoke it and see if i get really high like 220 feet? Lol
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Smell it.
 
Novacastrian said:
To be honest it could be anything but cedar however i am not sure.
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There is a very good chance it is not Cedar. Cedar is a relatively soft wood and is a poor choice for flooring material. It's most likely Oak or Pine. Although, Cypress was also used in older Southern homes. If it's Cedar it will have a sweet, pleasant odor. If it's Oak it will have a slightly sour smell. Pine smells like, well, Pine-sol. Dried Cypress is hard to describe but has very little odor.
 
Could be Trippa, i'm seeing if my girl can find out today.
She was told what it was but can't remember so is going to try and ask the guy that sanded it.
 
Ok found out that it was actually Iron Bark. Sooooo shouln't have any kinds of troubles with it me don't thinks!
 
Novacastrian said:
Ok found out that it was actually Iron Bark. Sooooo shouln't have any kinds of troubles with it me don't thinks!
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Will be very similar to the ceder in terms of taking a long time to break down and also being resistant to rot/bugs because of the natural oils present in it.
 
I am hoping it will take ages to break down. As it is now it makes the mix nice and fluffy, i would imagine that it would hold moisture fairly well too.
Might have to do a side by side test with normal dirt and compare results. If it works good it will be great as is FREE! We all love free! :lol:
 
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