Recycling sawdust

I had a large Atlantic cedar tree stump ground down 18 months ago and have large heap left. Can I use as mulch, or add slowly to compost or leaf piles? Prefer mulch option as compost and leaf bins already full. Will it be too acidic?

 

Hi

you can use as a mulch but as it rots down it will take the nitrogen out of the soil , and yes mix with compost and leaves

 

I'd use it as a mulch, I often use my own chippings for that, its all good stuff.

 

I wouldn't worry about it as a mulch either. You'd have to be loading it on a foot deep for it to be problematic in any way.
I also use sawdust for filling holes in any bits of timber structures - mainly the top edgings of my raised beds or similar. Mixed with Gorilla glue, it works well.

 

I would use it as mulch but wouldn't mix it with compost. If it is on the surface and open to air exchange then there are no real problems but if you mix it into the soil then it may rob nitrogen from the surrounding soil. This might not be a massive problem if used as a mixed mulch with compost but you don't really want it where any plant roots can penetrate as this is where the depletion may cause a problem.
Cedar is rot resistant so takes a while to decay, which is good for a mulch.

I've also read that it takes massive amounts of acidic material to change the soil ph. I think the study I saw was over a decade with constant renewal of mulch and it didn't really change at all.