Recycling stems and fan leaves

Greenthumbs256

Greenthumbs256

Well-Known Member
I have been looking around for something to do with the stalks and left over fan leaves from harvest! I know everyone uses trim for multiple things! But what about the stalks and nontricome left overs? I honestly would like to somehow recycle it back into my soil! Maybe through worm bin? What do you guys do with it! I don't like throwing it away bc I don't live in a green state! And keeping big bags of years of harvest in a closet or garage is just asking for trouble!
 
meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
leaves and such i do send to the worm bin dried out ones to the top or i use them to mulch on top of my sips. But the stems and such after harvest are very woody, I have tried to throw them in the worm bin but no dice. The worms done actually eat the stuff they eat the bi products of the decaying and those large stems the trunks if you will just dont seem to break down in my bins.
 
Greenthumbs256

Greenthumbs256

Well-Known Member
meangreengrowinmachine said:
leaves and such i do send to the worm bin dried out ones to the top or i use them to mulch on top of my sips. But the stems and such after harvest are very woody, I have tried to throw them in the worm bin but no dice. The worms done actually eat the stuff they eat the bi products of the decaying and those large stems the trunks if you will just dont seem to break down in my bins.
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Do you shred the bigger branches?
 
J

J-Icky

Well-Known Member
Fortunately I have a small grow so my stems don’t get to big and overly thick. Mine are about the diameter of a nickel maybe more at the most. So for me everything goes to the worms. I let everything dry and the leaves get crumbled into something that resembles kelp meal and the small stems just get ground using a coffee grinder. The thicker ones do too but I smash them up with a hammer and cut into 1in pieces and then toss them in the grinder and then into my worm tote.
Within a month everything is gone, even the woodiest pieces. And well if they aren’t actually gone they are unrecognizable and at least composted enough that you can’t see them.
 
NaturalFarmer

NaturalFarmer

Well-Known Member
I was reading about some techniques used for retting hemp past and present and a technique that was used in the 40's was using potash to break it down. Soaking it in ash although they didn't say how long or if it would take care of the hurd.

Seems there are many chemical ways although not sure how many organic ones. (I would start with hydrogen peroxide and see what you get but adding urea may be needed)


https://www.hempbasics.com/hhusb/hh3fiber.htm

Not even sure how much this will break down the hurd. It was burned in the past and used as potash (16%) for fertilizer on the hemp fields.
 
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meangreengrowinmachine

meangreengrowinmachine

Well-Known Member
NaturalFarmer said:
I thought this may be a good use for the stalks but a few weeks ago, while trying to kill a rat near my chicken coop, the thing broke in half and gave me a right cross to the jaw.
Considering a metal slingshot is like $6, Ill stick with that from now.
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hahah thats awesome, You know you have some strong stems when you can so sht like that.
 
Roger A. Shrubber

Roger A. Shrubber

Well-Known Member
i peel bark off of bigger stalks and keep it in a box, when i get enough, i'm going to soak it, beat the shit out of it, and try to make some hemp paper. if i'm successful, i plan to expand and paint pictures on it, give it as gifts, maybe sell some if there's any interest
 
M

mr. childs

Well-Known Member
Greenthumbs256 said:
I have been looking around for something to do with the stalks and left over fan leaves from harvest! I know everyone uses trim for multiple things! But what about the stalks and nontricome left overs? I honestly would like to somehow recycle it back into my soil! Maybe through worm bin? What do you guys do with it! I don't like throwing it away bc I don't live in a green state! And keeping big bags of years of harvest in a closet or garage is just asking for trouble!
Click to expand...
used in a fermented plant extract concentrated juice a couple years ago
 
Strudelheim

Strudelheim

Well-Known Member
I have a bucket and bin system dedicated to just leaves and stems. I throw into the grow room bucket the leaves as is and stems I cut into 2 inch pieces. When I have a bucket filled up, I empty it into the bin and add a couple inches of compost on top. I then put the lid on top. It will start breaking down and heating up. Every 2 months when I harvest EWC, I use this as my base for the new bin. If you were to add all this stuff fresh to a bin, it would heat it up way too much and would hurt the worms, and worms eat the bacteria breaking this stuff down so it needs to break down for a few weeks to be fully available for worms.

I include all my stems, they are almost 1 inch thick! When I harvest my EWC, I simply run everything through a screen. Big chunks and clumps, and stuff that hasn't broken down yet, along with the worms, stays on the screen, and toss this right into my new bin. This brings all the microbes into the new bin, and even the biggest pieces break down after 2-3 EWC runs. Stems are different then nitrogen high leaves, they are more carbon I think, and its fungi that break these down, so its good to include these to get some more fungi action in the bin, IMHO!

Its nice to use 100% of the plant, In this cycle and have no waste leave my house. Glad you asked!
 
WeedFreak78

WeedFreak78

Well-Known Member
I do something similar to Strudelheim. Every cycle my veg trimmings, leaves and cut up stems get thrown into a 10 gallon tote, then after i harvest they get mixed with about an equal amount of the used soil from that harvest, a big handful of fresh EWC and a watering with fish fert, usually end up with about 5 gallons of material. I run 2 totes and rotate them so they generally cook for around 5 weeks each. When i amend my old soil, one tote gets mixed in and then that mix cooks for another 8-10 weeks. 99% of it is gone by then, I only find larger pieces of stem i didn't cut up enough, and even those are spongy and ready to fall apart. I don't have worms, it's just microbial break down.
 
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