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nafex - Re: [NAFEX] Fresh woodchips are fine

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  • From: Caren Kirk <quirky@videotron.ca>
  • To: North American Fruit Explorers <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fresh woodchips are fine
  • Date: Thu, 25 Mar 2010 11:04:29 -0400

With regards to the fresh wood chips debate, I had a huge maple at the front of my property that died and I decided to plant a flower bed surrounded by fruit trees ( I am into edible landscaping). The stump was huge and we gouged out what we could but there was a lot of chips, even with me hauling off a whole bunch to the back where I have heavy clay (the front is all sand, I have a full range of soil textures to deal with!).

I had heard about nitrogen depletion, but I also heard that it wasn't as significant or lasted for as long as some sources indicated. For good measure I mixed the chips and soil really well, added some corn gluten to balance out any nitrogen depletion and left it for about a month. When I planted I mixed in good quality soil, compost and a balanced slow release fertilizer.

Anyway we're coming out of the winter, eager to see how everything has survived. Last summer nothing showed any particular signs of suffering. So fingers crossed, it will have worked.

But if I wasn't so lazy as to have left a large quantity of chips there I would definity have used it as mulch!

Caren Kirk
St. Jerome QC
----- Original Message ----- From: "William C. Garthright" <billg@inebraska.com>
To: "North American Fruit Explorers" <nafex@lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, March 25, 2010 10:51 AM
Subject: Re: [NAFEX] Fresh woodchips are fine



Fresh wood chips as landscape cover is fine. But as an additive to
enrich garden soil or soil for tree planting I'd submit they should be
well rotted.


Would you want to use wood chips as a soil additive anyway? I'm
certainly no expert, but I thought I've heard they'd deplete the
nitrogen in the soil as they continued to rot. (As a layer on top,
they'd do the same, but only at the surface.)

Just wondering. I've been using a lot of wood chips for mulch (landscape
cover, as you say), but nothing else. For that matter, I only put leaves
and other plant debris on top of the soil, too, not mixed into it.

Bill
Lincoln, NE (zone 5)

http://garthright.blogspot.com/

--
Look, there has always been something like terror in the world;
anarchists, liberationists of various stripes, revolutionaries, and of
course just plain criminals, like the ones that explode bombs among the
general population because they have some grievance with the world. And
yet, we had liberties for a while, which we gained while terror was
around. How did we deal with it? We used the law, and good old police
work. - John Wilkins
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