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nafex - Re: [nafex] aspen for fertilizer

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  • From: rick valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>
  • To: <nafex@yahoogroups.com>
  • Subject: Re: [nafex] aspen for fertilizer
  • Date: Tue, 19 Jun 01 14:57:52 -0700

> The material is referred to as ramial wood chips or cuttings
>and are harvested from young poplar (aspen), and used as mulch. The value
>is in the size of the young trees that are chipped having different
>properties
>than older wood. There is something about the ratio of young bark to wood
>and the nutrients and (maybe proteins?) included in this material. This
>makes it a nutrient mulch which produced superior growth when compared
>to ordinary mulches.
Doesn't need to be aspen; anything works, doesn't even need to be in leaf.
"Ramial" is the important part- lots of bark and cambium. And don't till it
in. Works for vegetables too. Celine Caron's article was in the summer '94
Pomona, and reprinted in the Permaculture Activist #32 by my initiative. I
was intrigued because so much in the piece backed up my experiences using
fresh tree service chips. Things like "melanization of the soil in the first
season after application"
I have had young bamboos extend rhizome 30 ft. under a tree chip mulch in a
single season. And, yes, people always tell me you can't do it because it
"robs nitrogen from the soil". "With a sixgun, no doubt," I reply as I
harvest....
-Rick Valley

Rick Valley Northern Groves
PO Box 1236, Philomath, OR 97370
Mobile-(541)602-1315, hm.& msg. (541)456-4364 Bamboo catalog $3 or at
<http://www.teleport.com/~dbrooks/bamboo.html>
"Useful Bamboos and other plants‹ Permaculture education‹ Ecological design &
consultation centering on water,landform and horticultural systems"




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