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market-farming - Re: Sawdust as Mulch:

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  • From: Sojourner <sojournr AT missouri.org>
  • To: market farming <market-farming AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Re: Sawdust as Mulch:
  • Date: Mon, 31 Jan 2000 22:41:47 -0600


SCook21809 AT aol.com wrote:
>
> My experience with wood chips and sawdust as a mulch is that they are
> helpful for established perennial plantings. But they can have grave
> consequences on annual crops.

What grave consequences are you concerned about? This is just too vague
to have much effectiveness as a warning. Just what are you warning
against? If its helpful for perenials, what is your concern with it
when using it in the garden on your annuals? Surely any problems it
might cause would be MORE severe for a plant subjected to it year after
year.

> Use discretion, before you mulch your whole
> growing operation with wood chips or sawdust.

Or any other substance, for that matter. I have used straw and hay as
mulch extensively over the years, and have never had a problem with it,
but a friend of mine reports that they tried to use it in a market
garden once and were over run by weeds. I suspect that they may have
spread it too thinly; I can't really say, I'm just making a wild guess
because their experience was so diametrically opposed to my own. On the
other hand, I have to admit its possible I've just been lucky over the
years to somehow miss getting all this weedy straw and hay I keep
hearing about. I don't think so but I can't prove its otherwise.

I'm a big fan of deep mulching. Straw and hay not being an option where
I live now (it's quite expensive) I'm going to move to using plain
sawdust this year, a substance I have heretofore used only when mixed
with grass clippings. I'll happily serve as a test case, since I could
tell you from now to kingdom come that someone I know has used sawdust
and had no problem and none of us would be the wiser. I'm a little too
rushed for time to to a direct half 'n half split, but I'll tell you
what, I'll set aside at least a small section that I'll leave unmulched
and we'll compare the results between the sawdusted sections and the
unmulched. Probably not as scientific as it ought to be, but that's the
best I can do. I'll be lucky if I can manage that much, given that I'm
currently building a house, but hopefully I can at LEAST do that much.
If I manage to get any garden in at all, I'll give it my best shot.

For what its worth, I know a LOT of people who use the sawdust out of
their chicken coops directly on their garden and have never had a
problem. Granted, what you get out of a chicken coop has a whole lot of
high nitrogen chicken manure in it. We'll just have to see.

--
Holly ;-D
Contrary Peasant
sojournr AT missouri.org



  • Re:Sawdust as Mulch:, SCook21809, 01/31/2000
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • Re: Sawdust as Mulch:, Sojourner, 01/31/2000

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