Using Wood Chips From Tree Companies

Discussion in 'Survival and Sustainability' started by Adfundum, Nov 29, 2019.

  1. vman12

    vman12 Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    Yep, don't assume is my advice. The soil where I live is mostly acidic too..... go figure.

    Plus, HOW acidic/alkaline it is will determine how much product you need to bring it up or down. Ya need that number.
     
    Last edited: Jan 7, 2020
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  2. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Left overs from last spring's wood chips in the first two photos. That load stayed warm all summer. I pushed what was left of it to the back and put the new load down. The new stuff was cooking like crazy for a while, then seems to have shut down. When I started turning the pile over, I noticed that about two feet in, the chips were cold, dry and looked like the day the were delivered. Can't figure out why everything shut down. The only difference I can think of is the first load was mostly pine, the second load mostly oak.

    upload_2020-1-17_15-11-16.png upload_2020-1-17_15-13-40.png

    Newest load in the process of turning it over. The top of the pile looked good and dark, but it wasn't doing anything down below that. What did I do wrong?

    upload_2020-1-17_15-25-2.png
     
    Last edited: Jan 17, 2020
  3. Boosewell

    Boosewell Active Member

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    I have a plot about 600 yards square. It was heavy clay so I added a barrow load of wood chip to every square yard, which worked out at a depth of 2 or 3 inches. As you posted, the improvement was amazing. I was warned that it could lead to a shortage of nitrogen but if it did, that was more than compensated by the improvement in texture and drainage

    Wood chip is pretty much like any other form of vegetable matter. Sooner or later it will be used up by the garden beasties and the soil will revert to stone in the form of clay or sand. But my last blitz was ten years ago and the soil is still open so it lasts well. About the only (very minor) problem that I have found is that wood chip gives the soil a moist, loamy look. But it isn't, so I have to remember to add fertiliser.

    I am in the UK and the one thing I know from YouTube is that the plant life and climate in the US is a lot more vigorous than on my side of the pond. So maybe you will have to top up the wood chip more often than I. But it is certainly worth it.
     
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  4. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    There might be a lot of water between us, but it sounds like we have the same issues. I'm really glad to hear that after ten years, you can still see the results. That's the kind of thing I was hoping to hear.

    Like you, I heard that the nitrogen could get tied up in the soil as the chips break down. The very first load I got a couple of years ago went right out as mulch without allowing it to break down. I'd say that yes, it does tie up the nitrogen, but only for a short time and only at the soil surface. I had shrubs already established when I put the chips down as mulch, and there was no problem at all with them. In fact, they seemed to weather the dry spells better. I also had some new plants put in after the mulch went down and they did poorly. There were a few that I used cardboard and paper around under the mulch, and they did fine. Most of the others struggled. Since that time, the soil has done well and is loose has more depth. In some places where it was hard to break the surface without a pick, I can dig down at least four inches with my hands.

    My second load got left in a pile until last fall. I haven't had a chance to really tell how well it's doing, but it's composted quite well so far. One thing I did with the second load was to use a liquid nitrogen fertilizer on it. Can't say one thing caused another, but after I did that, the pile steamed and cooked most of the summer. I also added the nitrogen to my third load of chips, and it too started to steam and cook. It was doing really well until a couple of weeks ago. We have had an unusually rainy couple of weeks and I couldn't get out to turn the pile over. When I did get out there, I noticed it was cold and the inside was dry. Not sure what went wrong, but I decided to split the pile into about five smaller piles and am thinking I might leave one alone and use lots of the liquid nitrogen on the others.

    Thanks for adding some optimism to all this.
     
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  5. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    Could be too dry... or a lack of nitrogen for decomposition.
     
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  6. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Thanks. That's my thought too. The dryness is a bit of a shock given the amount of rain we've had recently. I did add some nitrogen and hosed it down.
     
  7. Boosewell

    Boosewell Active Member

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    I am enjoying this thread.

    Wood chip is like any other vegetable matter in that it sheds water, which is why we thatch roofs. I know you know that but I like to get it in :)

    So any heap has to be turned (for the air) and watered otherwise it will end up dry as a bone inside.
    That said, I am not that bothered about composting. My real aim is to make the soil workable, which wood chip does.
     
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  8. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    If you are going for composting it should be fertilized, turned , and watered. I use mine for weed suppression and then let it decompose on the garden. I don't mix it with the garden soil. It just lays on top. I let the worms turn it under. Am thinking about broccoli and onions already. .... well pretty soon.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
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  9. politicalcenter

    politicalcenter Well-Known Member

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    I also end up with rotten hay from feeding my goats. They pee and poop on it from fall through winter and it just sits there until it is a black slimy mess. I scoop it up in a wheelbarrow and lay it in 2ft. squares and plant melons in it and make sure they get enough water to get started. Or plant long carrots in the stuff piled high in a raised bed.
     
    Last edited: Jan 19, 2020
  10. Boosewell

    Boosewell Active Member

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    I like that.

    I tried keeping chickens but just ended up with a well feed fox. However, I do have the advantage of being old and diabetic, which means I have an almost endless supply of urine. So I have a couple of bath tubs full of wood chip that I grow carrots in.

    Lawrence D Hills, the organic gardening guru, was fond of saying that nature did not exist on a knife edge. So like you I just lay the wood chip and such down as thick as I can to make weeding and planting as easy as possible. The rest I leave to God and the weather
     
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  11. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    I like your approach to all this--my aim as well. As far as being dry, I was taken by surprise on that because it had rained so much for over a week before I started turning the pile. Since then, I've added lots of fertilizer and some kitchen scraps. Factors like the cooler weather and the type of wood are probably quite relevant, and I should have known to keep a closer watch. I never thought it would shut down like it did. It went from boom to bust in about a month.
     
  12. Boosewell

    Boosewell Active Member

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    Something that isn't working is growing potatoes in boxes. I have heard stories about folk growing industrial quantities that way but it never really works for me.
    Last year I made a box about a yard square, put some maincrop seed potatoes inside and slowly topped the box up as the spuds grew. My basic idea is to reduce my gardening to sitting in a deck chair drinking coffee under my favourite apple tree. It does not produce many apples but the shade is fantastic. So I thought that the box idea would make earthing up the potatoes easier. It did but produced no more potatoes than had they been grown in the normal way.
     
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  13. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Gardening from the deck while drinking coffee--I like that approach. 8)

    I'm pretty much hands-off when it comes to gardening. One reason is that it just gets too hot to spend much time messing with everything, and the other reason is that things seem to do quite well if I just leave them alone.

    I planted some cherry and grape tomatoes along the porch last year. They went insane and basically all I did was pick and eat them. I did have some others planted further out in a sunnier area, but they never produced. I think that was a problem with my first load of wood chips, which was used to keep weeds down. Weeds--tomatoes--who knew? Interestingly, I've had some strawberries planted in that same area for years and they produced (although not quite as much).
     
    Last edited: Jan 24, 2020
  14. Adfundum

    Adfundum Moderator Staff Member Donor

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    Update

    I turned the wood chips over again yesterday. The center was still dry and very compacted. Used nitrogen fertilizer before I turned the pile over, then added more on top. I have a bunch of smaller piles rather than one big one so compaction shouldn't be a problem. There has been some activity since the last time I turned the pile over, but it's all cold. I don't know if I can get it hot-composting again.

    @557, The rye grass is insane. We've had more rain than normal this winter, so it's been hard to get out an cut it when it needs it. But after it's cut it looks great. It doesn't take long and it needs cut again. So, you asked previously how the rye responded to cutting and I'd say it doesn't hurt it at all. I'm eager to see if this stuff actually does have an effect on the soil quality.

    My neighbors have all commented on how green it looks compared to other lawns in this area. The neighbor across the street bought some rye grass seed and put it down on his yard too. He'd planted fescue several times, and it died off within a few months each time. Some parts of his property wouldn't grow anything. Seeds would not germinate. The rye grass grew in all those spots (although it seemed to be slow getting started). Our assumption was that after the trees were cleared from his lot (sloping ground) most of the organic stuff in the soil washed away. Two inches of topsoil is considered good in this area, but that two inches doesn't hold up to hot, dry summers and heavy winter rains. At this point, we're giving it a thumbs-up.
     

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