Bill Jones wrote:ALL plant material will compost if you grind it fine and mix in enough manure, but will the result leave "humus", and who has a huge quantity of manure to mix with pine needles? Apparently much less humus results from hot, bacterial composting than with slower fungal methods of composting.
Actually I looked into this question years ago. I wondered if anything can be done with conifer waste, other than spreading it in the paths to kill weeds. And other than whittling and a fun homemade
soap, I found the answer is no. Even if not for the turpentine and rosin, the lignin molecule of conifers cannot be digested by fungi, and doesn't break down into healthy soil. That's why the land under them is barren except for a few specialists.
????? What the heck kind of conifers do you have? From my memory, it
is mostly Douglas Fir and Sitka Spruce out there, and maybe some short
stubby pine that I don't know the name of..grows near the ocean.
Still, Bill, I'm not getting your argument. ALL plant material will
compost, even conifers.
You think Georgia doesn't have pines and otherThe folks at LaVal U. tell us that 20% of softwood materials can be added to the twig chip mixture they recommend for sheet composting. But we have way more than that around here. It does make a good soap...
conifers?? Please. They don't call it Georgia-Pacific for nothing. We
got Yellow Pine and other types of conifers everywhere. There's cedar,
hemlocks and even some Frazier Firs. It all contains turpentine and
resins, and it all composts. It's acidic, sure, but you neutralize the
acidity with other materials.
As for a reason nothing grows under yourIt's green from shrubs, and trees, and in the understory, but just not on cleared spots without groundwater in summer, which is most places not sporting those useless firs.
conifers....it's probably a shading issue or foraging by non-native
species or something like an overpopulation of deer. Oregon, and
especially the Coast Range, is one of the "greenest" places I have ever
seen, and I am just having a hard time understanding your argument over
the soil.
It's too dry for grasses...too many conifers for muchWell, if you can eat wood, or the pinon pine or Italian pine thrives near you, or you own a sawmill, you might find a use for them. I'm already satisfied with the amount of that great commodity known as "shade" that they provide. :)
sylviculture
, and what else....hmmm, I can't remember....oh yeah,That's a good paper. Here's an except:
conifers don't build the soil because of the lignin. You are wrong in
that there is no fungus that produces the right enzymes. Check this
page out:
http://compost.css.cornell.edu/calc/lignin.html
In this same study, the increase in lignin degradation of hemlock pulp with 0.12% supplemental nitrogen was only 2.2% to 3.9%, and additional nitrogen did not provide further benefit. The differences between plant species is likely related to differences in lignin structure, with gymnosperm lignin composed of coniferyl alcohols, angiosperm lignin composed of both coniferyl and sinapyl alcohols, and grass lignin of coniferyl, sinapyl, and p -coumaryl alcohols (Ladisch et al., 1983).
It seems to me, that the problem with the natural conifer forest floor
is that it is basically an anaerobic environment. Aeration is the key.
If it were otherwise then anyone could have a grand
garden just by dumping on fir needles, as I once envisioned.
No one said it would be easy. It's gonna take a lot of work and nothing
is going to happen overnight, but it is possible, I think.
My galfriend places no faith in her barren pasture at all, and gives her sheep a big bowl of Lamb-Gro twice a day each. Fortunately I'm in no such position.
??? Now you've really lost me. :) Are you now saying that you don't
have to feed because you have a green pasture???
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