Wool socks keep our toes toasty, wool hats and sweaters keep us warm and cozy, and wool is a powerful tool for soil health and plant growth. Wait, what? Yes, wool, which most sheep producers throw away, offers many benefits to farmers and gardeners. What makes it so great? Wool has nutrients for plants. Wool is a sustainable, renewable, natural fertilizer. Analysis of wool shows an average NPK of 9-0-2, which means three times the nitrogen in poultry manure, and no worries of fertilizer burn. Wool also contains micronutrients: Manganese, Boron, Calcium, Magnesium, Sulphur, Copper, Iron and Zinc. In addition, wool has no phosphorus, so it doesn’t contribute to the problem of legacy phosphorus present on many farms from years of manure spreading.
Wool also aerates the soil and feeds soil microbial life. Wool pellets completely biodegrade in 6-12 months, creating air pockets in the soil, helping break up compaction while releasing that valuable nitrogen. Better soil health equals better yield for crops. Synthesized fertilizers decrease soil health and fertility by not feeding the soil microbiota the way natural fertilizers do.
Wool balances the soil moisture. It is both hygroscopic and hydrophobic. That means wool gathers moisture from the environment and holds onto it. Then releases that moisture slowly back into the soil, offering drought protection and reducing watering needs by 25%. Wool can replace peat moss for water retention, providing an inexpensive, eco-friendly alternative to non-sustainable peat for water conservation.
I did an experiment in my vegetable garden last summer. Half the garden was planted with wool mixed into the soil, half was planted as I usually do. I am notoriously lazy about watering; I never even got my drip tape hooked up. I watered the garden maybe 3 times in the severe drought last summer. The half of the garden with wool survived and thrived, giving me a bumper crop of peppers and huckleberries. The half without wool died a tragic death by mid-July.
Wool is a natural protein fiber, made up of 50% carbon. Wool becomes a carbon sink when it is mixed into the ground, sequestering that carbon so it isn’t released into the atmosphere. Peatlands grow back at the rate of 1/16” per year, taking hundreds of years to replace, making its use unsustainable. And since they sequester 1/3 of the world’s soil carbon in just 3% of the earth’s surface, we need to keep them intact. Wool is the answer; it’s renewable and sustainable. Wool sheep grow between 5-15 lbs of wool every year!
Research supports using wool as a fertilizer and soil amendment. Not only can it replace commercial fertilizer in your fields, there are other ways to use wool around the farm and garden. Add a layer of wool to the bottoms of your planters to keep the soil in place and hold moisture. Add wool pellets to houseplants and hanging baskets for fertilizer and water retention. Use raw fleeces to mulch around row crops, perennials, trees and berries. The fibrous, barbed structure of the wool repels slugs and snails. The lanolin in the wool repels deer and rabbits as well. The wool mulch will maintain soil moisture and soil temperature.
Ask any sheep farmer and they will tell you there’s just no market for American wool anymore and most wool ends up in the trash. Our company, Woollets, LLC is changing that. We buy Wisconsin wool at a fair price, shred it, pelletize it with heat and pressure, and repurpose a waste product into a way to enrich and renew the soil. We offer educational seminars about using wool for gardens, and partner up with growers, wholesalers and retailers to create new markets for wool as a soil amendment. Wool is an untapped resource for our soil and an undervalued product from our farms. It’s time for wool to be appreciated for the horticultural treasure it truly is.
— SCWFU member Karen Mayhew is a 4th gen farmer and a shepherd, having grown up in Maryland on a large-scale poultry and market vegetable operation, shipping semi-truck loads of produce to Baltimore, Philadelphia and New York markets. She now has a small 25-acre family farm outside Argyle with a guest rental in the barn loft and a flock of 40 sheep, mostly heritage Clun Forest and Clun crosses. 40 sheep produce a lot of wool and Karen is always looking for new creative ways to use all that fiber. Find out more about Woollets at www.woollets.net.
