Mulching With Nitrolized Arbor Chip Compost vs Wood Chips
westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
2 months ago
last modified: 2 months ago
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westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
2 months agoRelated Discussions
Pine wood chips vs.Home Depot Bark
Comments (13)Sounds good to me. As what you say I said, I did not, we certainly have a failure of communication. That's true Josh some Bonsai sold do include those items. I never advocated using wood, I think this is the third time I said that. For one it's a better mulch, it breaks down too quick, it appears to tie up nitrogen, I'm just not sure that really is much of a problem? As peat and bark are also organic material breaking down. Do they tie up nitrogen? My whole point was that is wood that big a problem in potting mixes? I would not use it, but I don't think I would go to the trouble of removing all sap wood, or should I say I would not go to any trouble, as it is of little concern. It was a rather small point that seems to have been blown out like I'm suggesting using wood, never did that, please don't say I do, or did. I just found it curious if such a problem, growing in decomposing straw, or the other methods I mention should be a problem too. They count on bacteria to break down the material. Are not those bacteria tying up nitrogen? I do find it confusing. Sorry but I see no difference from pine chip to dead roots, wood is wood and both are throughout the soil, no I do not understand how they could be different? Some roots are much finer than wood chips, and will break down faster. Is that what you mean? This post was edited by Drew51 on Sun, Apr 6, 14 at 15:12...See MoreMaintaining wood chip or rock pathways/areas
Comments (10)I had my horrible silver maple cut down. The helicopters or whirligigs ruled my life for 8 weeks of each year. I hated, hated this tree and used to rue the day that the previous owner didn't do the necessary dirty work, of getting rid of this monster, which kept growing and growing. Simply because trees grow in a certain spot is not a reason to keep them. Yes, this tree was a big sucker but I had to face the fact that it was a huge junk tree, which took over my life, my lawn, my gutters(think-little maple tree shrubs growing all around the roof line). It, that nasty tree, took my time so that I could pick up or peel up those helicopters from anywhere and everywhere. They were just so visible, almost comical, growing in rows in the gutters, as if my gutters were a tree farm. So, I said, who's the boss here? Me, or this stupid tree, who just happened to take root, surface and deep, in front of my house? The answer was clear. I would, and should, and could, be the boss. Let it be known that as the tree cutters were slicing and dicing, some guy from the local newspaper came by and spoke derogatorily to me. And took photos!!! Here's the weird part. I nurtured this humongous tree for 20 years, knowing clearly that it was a crapola tree, with surface roots that, well, you know. But it was mainly those helicopters! Anyway, this alleged neighborhood newspaper reporter, ok, not alleged, but stupid nonetheless, treated me as if I were a serial killer. I will not recount the shouting and insulting words he dumped on me simply b/c I was cutting down a tree. A despised, horrid tree. I kept thinking, "Don't people have more 'sayso' than trees? Merely because tree seeds happened to fall in that place years ago? I am sure no one, human, intentionally, planted that &*^** tree in front of my house, at least, nobody with an IQ over 'soup'. Why would they? Please spare me the 'save the tree' song. It was a crap tree, now politically correctly called a 'junk tree'. Well, yes, both, a crap and a junk tree. What a rant!!!!...See MoreBAck to Eden/wood chips vs no mulch experiment results
Comments (13)Elisa, the premise of BTE is that tilling destroys the soil structure and bio life. Tilling removes the covering; the soil rapidly dries out and top soil erodes. The "magic" in the wood chips is it is a covering that first retains moisture, and secondly feeds the plants as they decompose. It's why a mulch of smaller nutrient rich branches with needles and leaves is necessary and not just chipped trunks or bark chips only. The fungi that develop in the wood chip mulch help feed the plants. The mulch develops a helper system of organisms and other plant life that assists your fruits and veggies. In turn, your plants feed them. If you till composted organic material into your main garden, I'd suggest another experiment. Set aside a small section of your MG (maybe as small as 5x10 feet) for no-till. Still don't use wood chips, but layer your organics on the top (composted manure, yard waste, etc). Paul is very specific that if you don't have wood chips, just use whatever organic materials you have. (You can even use rocks) The most important part is to create a covering and not mix it in. Layer on top. When I tilled, I had virtually no earthworm population. Now, by not tilling, I can't dig a 4 " planting hole anywhere without killing several earthworms. And my soil (mostly red clay) is always damp and soft I destroyed a small tiller in two seasons trying to break up the clay. I then rented bigger tillers that beat me up for 6-8 hours trying to a 12x40 garden in which one half barely produced b/c of the rock hard clay. And it was back just as hard in the fall as it was in the spring. So it wasn't getting easier with time. Now with the wood chips, that area stays moist and soft. Everything grows there and I save the expense of renting, tilling, and fighting the soil every season. The fact that you got 25% more production is huge. You can get that in your MG using BTE principles but without adding wood chips. Paul no longer adds wood chips to his main garden b/c of his difficulty in walking. He uses them everywhere else. But in his MG he uses compost from his chicken pen as the covering....See MoreHugelkultur vs. Wood Chips
Comments (8)Last year, my brother and I built a 50'x28' back to eden garden. Purchased 2 dump trucks full of organic compost and our tomatoes and peppers were awesome. lol Then we learned about double digging, hugelkultur and keyhole gardening. So... this year, we decided to build 8'x4' beds while incorporating everything we've learned about gardening so far. Since we vermicompost, we had plenty of it (about 3 yards) plus all the compost from last year. So we dug a few 8'x4'x2' deep and double diged the bottom. Then we filled with logs, branches, leaves, chicken manure, shredded paper, food (5 gal buckets full for each box) and added plenty of water ("hugelkultur"). We put a 5 gallon bucket (with holes at the bottom) in the middle of these boxes to be at 1" above the gardening boxes to add food as we would normally do for vermicompost ("keyhole"). We them mixed the better soil (top soil mixed with some clay) that we took out and began to add layers of this soil with compost and vermicompost until we reached the surface. We built these beds 12" above ground with big logs (about 6" in diameter) and then another level with old pallets we had. After we reached the top of the boxes, we got lucky with rain and allowed it to get water. Next day the soil gave in about 1 inch, which we then added it back in vermicompost. We have been transplanting and soon will begin to add wood chips to the top, at least 4-6" high (back to eden gardening). I can't wait to see how everything comes out. So far we have done 3 boxes like these but now even my mother (67y/o) wants to dig more boxes. lol The whole family got involved with the system while having a blast. The kids loved digging since they get dirty and don't need to worry about messing anything up. Our chickens/roosters (and dogs) though we were building a new log house for them to play so we had to put a small fence around the box and then a net above it to keep them away. :-)...See Moregardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
2 months agolast modified: 2 months agowestes Zone 9b California SF Bay thanked gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)westes Zone 9b California SF Bay
2 months ago
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