North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Lee Reich <lreich@hvc.rr.com>]

Wood chips have many benefits -- nutritional, biological, and physical -- in 
the orchard. Generally, the type of chips is not important. I've read the 
literature about ramial wood chips from Canadian researchers and from Michael 
Phillips and don't see much sense in it. The research, if read carefully, 
does not seem to support its use over any old wood chips. I put a sign out 
"Wood Chips Wanted" and take whatever local arborists give me.

The discussion of wood chips in the orchard from UVM states that the chips 
need to be aged for a year before use. Not so. Just like the need to add 
nitrogen to wood chips to prevent N starvation of plants. None of this is 
necessary when the chips are used as mulch rather than mixed into the soil.

Lee Reich, PhD
http://www.leereich.com/
http://leereich.com/blog.html.

Books by Lee Reich:
A Northeast Gardener's Year
The Pruning Book
Weedless Gardening
Uncommon Fruits for Every Garden
Landscaping with Fruit






On Mar 25, 2011, at 1:32 PM, Hilborn.E@epamail.epa.gov wrote:

> Here is another discussion of wood chips in the orchard from UVM
> 
> http://orchard.uvm.edu/uvmapple/hort/AppleHortBasics/groundcovermanagement.htm
> 
> Betsy Hilborn
> 7a Central NC
> 
> __________________
> nafex mailing list
> nafex@lists.ibiblio.org
> Subscribe, unsubscribe, change your user configuration or find out more 
> about the list here:
> http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/nafex
> NAFEX web site: http://www.nafex.org/