[tflabo]

Well thanks for that little education on MDF. Going to have to keep the eyes open to look for where to get it.
Currently on some Friday AM’s I scour the neighborhoods looking for some bags of recently green mowed lawns for mulch and some for the compost—free nearby nitrogen additions.

[Mrs. Don-o]

Well, here's the thing: when you google
MDF Dust garden compost
you run into a lot of opposing viewpoints from gardeners ranging from "Gack! Never never use MDF!" to "OMG, it's like magic dust, it's the hot heart & soul of my compost pile!"

Finally I found an article that says that UT/Knoxville did some experimenting with Medium Density Fiberboard dust on corn, with really good results:

www.epa.gov/oswer/docs/iwg/fiberboard.pdf

· Major findings:

• Applied 8 inches deep one week before planting (tilled in as soil amendment)
• U-F resins decomposed into carbon dioxide, ammonia, and water, and that's all!
• No formaldehyde off-gassing
• The cellulose and urea improved the structural and chemical characteristics of the amended soil
• Improved deep green color, improved yield of corn.

So I'm slowly figuring out how to best use the stuff. I've gone through probably 200 pounds of it already --- and Sam my woodworking friend keeps asking me if I want more! LOL!

You just have to remember to treat it as a high-nitrogen. It's great on corn. I wouldn' want to use any more on my tomatoes, which are already foliage-crazy.

I love free composty mulchy stuff.