North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Bob Randall <YearRoundGardening@comcast.net>]

Jerry

You might also want to look at the Soil Biology Primer at
 http://soils.usda.gov/sqi/concepts/soil_biology/biology.html
On the left hand side of the page, it details in what most people  
think is a very easy to understand way, what happens in the soil as  
wood chips and other carbon matter is decomposed by organisms and the  
mycorrhizae develop to feed nutrients to the plant roots . Illustrated  
chapter by chapter.

The problem with wood chips on bare soil is that fungi that decompose  
them will remove nitrogen from the soil.  What works best is not chips  
but shreds that have been composted about 6 months.  See the product  
descriptions for native mulch at http://www.natureswayresources.com/products.htm

Assuming you don't have this, in nature, in the woods say, the  
equivalent of wood chips--twigs and branches and logs fall on top of a  
layer of already mainly decomposed leaf mold material. To the extent  
you can put rotten organic matter below the chips, you will do much  
better. Without that you need to compensate with organic nitrogen  
since the chemical form disrupts the decomposition process and no  
nitrogen will hurt your trees.

Bob Randall

"Share What You Grow and What You Know!"

Bob Randall, Ph.D.
YearRoundGardening@comcast.net
http://yearroundgardening.wordpress.com/
713-661-9737




On Mar 24, 2011, at 7:41 PM, Claude Jolicoeur wrote:

Jerry,
If you do a Google search on "Ramial wood chips" you will find a lot of
information on this. In general, if the chips are mostly from hard  
wood of
a diameter no more than 2 inches, they will be good to put around your
fruit trees. Chips from resinous wood is considered as not so good,  
but I
am not too sure of the reason. Some of the early research on this is  
from a
team in Laval University in Quebec about 20 years ago. I know my friend
Celine Caron also wrote things about this for MOFGA a while back.
You may look at this article for a start:
http://www.uvm.edu/vtvegandberry/Pubs/Wood%20Chips%20in%20Vegetable%20Produc
tion.pdf
Claude

A 16:34 11.03.24 -0400, vous avez écrit :
> As a result of the power company doing some trimming around our power
lines, I got a load of really nice clean wood chips.  I will use them on
our path, but will have lots left over.  Is there any problem using  
them as
mulch around my fruit trees?  Jerry in southern Indiana
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