North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[rick valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

> 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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