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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] wood chips

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Chronological Thread  
  • From: Etienne Goyer <etienne.goyer AT outlands.ca>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] wood chips
  • Date: Tue, 16 Feb 2010 07:44:10 -0500

prmsdlndfrm AT aol.com wrote:
>
> Wood chips being all carbon will use up available nitrogen in order to
> break down, but once broke down will release all the nitrogen back to the
> soil. Available nitrogen also regulates the speed at which the carbon
> material decomposes. Many fungi forming mycorrhiza roots can obtain some
> nitrogen from the air, but as with the tree lying in the forest it takes a
> long time to decompose. Chipping wood makes many more surfaces for
> colonization by fungi (whose roots form the mycorrhiza realationships) and
> thus breaks down faster. The best use for wood chips is as an ingredient
> for compost, one part nitrogen to two parts carbon. The resulting heat will
> pasteurize all weed seeds diseases and to an extent neutralize any chemical
> contaminants (though maybe not 100 percent so use caution) The resulting
> compost will be rich with the mycorrhiza and other soil organisms. Also
> with the proper carbon nitrogen balance, moisture, and churning the chips
> can break down in a matter of weeks.


Two observations:

1. Mycorrhizal fungi grows in symbiotic association with the roots, not
on decaying matters (such as wood chips). What's growing on your wood
chips are saprophyte specialized in breaking down lignine; it is good
stuff, but I doubt it colonize living plant's root mass.

2. My understanding is that mycorrhiza are species-specific; that is,
one specific strain of fungi colonize the roots of a specific plant
species (or a handful of related species). As such, the mycorrhizal
fungi you would get from forest soil may not be the appropriate type for
garden vegetables.


I could very much be wrong: I am *far* from expert, the above is just
stuff I picked right and left in my readings. Maybe we have someone who
studied mycology on the list that could shed some light on the question.

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