Forum home The potting shed
This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.

An interesting article about soil

2»

Posts

  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    Pete.8 said:
    A few years ago I put a long, thick 100% wool sock in my compost bin to see if it would break down.
    A couple of years later it was still almost perfect - just the original hole in the heel!
    I did exactly the same. It was perfect for years. In the end I pulled it out of the compost, concluding that it was mis-sold and must contain polyester or some such. The weave hadn’t even started to break. I have put wool fleece in the compost before now, and cotton t shirts. And it all ends up disappearing, but not the sock! 
  • B3B3 Posts: 27,505
    Maybe it was protected from rot by whatever leaked out of your feet.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 19,096
    oi! Keep your nasturtiums.
  • JennyJJennyJ Posts: 10,576
    Were the non-rotting wool socks machine-washable? If so it's probably the processing to make it not shrink or felt that's also made it not rot. See here (it's about knitting wool but I guess it's the same or similar for wool made into garments) https://mountainmeadowwool.com/blogs/the-mmw-blog/the-skinny-on-superwash-and-non-superwash-wool. In particular "To eliminate felting, the superwash process involves exposing the fiber to a chlorine gas that erodes the scales.  After the scales are removed the wool is then coated with a plastic to fill in the places where the scales were removed."


    Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
Sign In or Register to comment.