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creek_side

Mulching

Creek-side
9 years ago

I have a tree trimming company that will give me all the wood chips I want. They dropped off the first load today. I could get a load about any day I want.

I'm wondering if there really is anything I shouldn't mulch. I have several types of raspberries, grapes, fruit trees, asparagus, rhubarb, flower beds.

I grow pretty much every mainstream vegetable you can name.I am dreaming of a year without weeding.

Is there anything I shouldn't mulch the crap out of?

Comments (16)

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    9 years ago

    Wood chips are great for shrubs, trees and perennials, but maybe not so great for veggies. I have a permanent bed garden. I use wood chips in the paths but hay for the beds.

  • laceyvail 6A, WV
    9 years ago

    Wood chips are great for shrubs, trees and perennials, but maybe not so great for veggies. I have a permanent bed garden. I use wood chips in the paths but hay for the beds.

  • digdirt2
    9 years ago

    Is there anything I shouldn't mulch the crap out of?

    In the vegetable garden? Yes, many things when using fresh wood chips. Aged and partially decomposed are not so much of a problem.

    Check out the previous discussions and all the discussions over on the Soil & Mulch forum.

    Dave

    Here is a link that might be useful: Wood chips discussions

  • daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
    9 years ago

    I'm thinking that if by mulch you mean just a top dressing, to retain soil moisture, provide soil insulation, and or cut down on erosion, wood chips are good in just about any circumstances. But if you dig them in, before they are thoroughly composted, they bring almost no nitrogen, and eat what nitrogen is there. Very much less nitrogen than ground up dry leaves, for example. Now, it probably takes more than one season to decompose thoroughly in a top layer, so that means when you turn the soil over in the spring, you're going to get a lot of uncomposted wood chips dug in. That's why shrubs, trees, and perennials go well with wood chips, because you don't do any regular soil turning.

  • Pyewacket
    9 years ago

    I routinely use wood chips/bark as mulch in my garden. I do NOT work the chips into the soil - you don't have to. I lay down a double layer of cardboard first, then lay out my drip irrigation, then cover over with the mulch. I take up the drip stuff to store over winter.

    Since the cardboard generally lasts 2 years or longer, I don't have to mess with the wood chips until I'm ready to replace the cardboard. Then I just rake them back, lay out the cardboard, and cover it all up again (I wet the cardboard before laying it down, btw). More bark/wood chips is easily added on an as-needed basis.

    The cardboard is an effective and organic/soil-building weed block. It also serves to help retain moisture in the soil. The cardboard plus the wood mulch goes a long way towards moderating soil temps in positive ways as well as moisture. It makes absolutely no difference whether the wood chips are fresh, aged, or partially composted - unless you are planning to work them into the soil sooner that 2 or 3 years.

    Works great for raised beds and square foot gardening. Not so great perhaps for row gardening. I quit row gardening decades ago.

    This post was edited by zensojourner on Fri, Dec 19, 14 at 7:07

  • wertach zone 7-B SC
    9 years ago

    You are so lucky!

    I have been begging the tree trimming company for chips and they say they will drop them off. But they never do. I have stopped and asked them 6 or 7 times!

    They have been clearing the sides of the road and around power lines in my area for 4 months now.

    There has to be 1,000's of loads being dumped somewhere!

    They didn't even drop off the stuff that they cleared from my land!

  • seysonn
    9 years ago

    I think wood chips make good mulch for general landscaping around trees, shrubs, bare spots, walkways. But not a good thing to use in vegetable garden. They bind the nutrients, might burn roots, invite insects and pests.

    My most favorite mulch is pine straw. It was in abundant in GA but non existing here in WA.
    The next best mulch is pine/fir barks/nugetts. They are long lasting , stay intact and if mixed into soil are good amendment.
    Wheat and similar straws are good too but you'll get a lot of seeds in it that will grow. The same goes with hay. My current choice here is pine bark mulch.
    NOTE: pine bark not shreded pine wood.

    Seysonn

  • Happy Hill Farm
    9 years ago

    I get wood chips dropped of by tree trimming company. I let them sit a while and use them mixed with straw for winter mulch in garden, use them fresh around trees, but I most like letting them sit in a tall pile all summer, keep them wet, lime them and turn them every six months. In two years they turn to good soil/compost. I've been told not to use them fresh as compost because they leach mineral salts as they decompose.

  • daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
    9 years ago

    I've seen people who absolutely rave about wood chips for gardens, and then posit that one of the worst things you can do in a garden is to till it! That allegedly kills important soil microbes and over-aerates. That is, the wood chips remain on top, providing insulation, moisture protection, and nutrients as they compost. Now, there is a school of no-till gardening, but while my soil is pretty good, it would never work well for me. The disadvantages for deep root structure with dense soil seem to me to dominate any advantages that no-till might give. In my climate, deep roots are a necessity. But if you're going no-till, pile those wood chips on!

    I've never heard of decomposing wood chips leaching mineral salts. If they did, they would do that sitting on the surface, and what they leach would end up in the soil below anyway.

    So the bottom line is that yes, wood chips are great as a top dressing mulch, but should not be dug in. They contain virtually no nitrogen, and eat what is there as they compost. The problem with not digging them in is that if you till, you'd have to remove those chips on top before you do so. Sounds like a lot of work.

    If you want to compost wood chips efficiently, throw on a heap of nitrogen like cheap lawn fertilizer or else dig in a lot of green. Probably not something you want to do in situ in the garden while you're trying to grow stuff.

  • Creek-side
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    I appreciate all the input.

    I can't get my head around wood chips consuming nitrogen. Seems to me as though whatever it consumes is given back at some point.

    I am not looking at wood chips as a replacement for the horse manure I use, or to keep in moisture. I have a well and I enjoy watering my garden once or twice a week. I am only looking to keep the weeds down, and as a general to have a net positive flow of organic matter onto my property.

    What am I missing?

  • daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
    9 years ago

    Nitrogen that is available to plants is largely in the form of nitrate, nitrite, and ammonium salts. Those are water soluble. As in, it's sloshing around in the soil. Composting uses that nitrogen for decomposition, and can release it as ammonia gas. As in "poof", it's gone. (Or makes it into other non-soluble forms). So composting "consumes" soil nitrogen by using it, and making it unavailable to plants. A lot of it is still there, but it's being used by the composting microbes while they're active.

    Now, that's not to say that the wood chips will remove all the nitrogen. A lot of it is retained, especially with high C/N mixes. But high C/N stuff, like wood chips, will compost VERY slowly, and while it is composting, it'll compete with plants very effectively for the soil nitrogen.

    If you're just looking to keep the weeds down, you might just lay out some hay, or even cloth, that will allow water to permeate, but shade the soil. At the end of the season, pull it up or just dig it in.

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    I've stuck a poorly colored rhododendron into a fresh pile of wood chips and had it green up nicely. What do you think happens in the woods, why doesn't all that tree debris on the forest floor interfere with plant growth?

    Clean wood chips (I would not use anything cut from the sides of busy roads for edible plant areas due to asbestos and other pollutants) are the best organic mulch you can get by far. But in areas where you want vegetable beds to warm up faster in spring you won't want to have a mulch on them at that time. And wood chips can interfere with herbaceous plants if allowed to move over onto their crowns. As mentioned probably not a good idea to be digging them in either, before they have broken down enough.

  • daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
    9 years ago

    I'm not aware that, in the forest, anyone is out there tilling fallen tree branches into the soil. They're just sitting on top, until they break down.

    But I agree that, as a top dressing for weed mitigation, soil moisture retention, and insulation, wood chips are great. As long as you're not going to do any tilling. In fact, that's exactly what's going on in the forest. I just put in some blackberries in some well-tilled holes, and I'm going the fill the depressions where the bareroots were planted with wood chips. The root stalks will stick up above the wood chip piles. Nope, I'm not planning on doing any more tilling in there for a long time.

  • Embothrium
    9 years ago

    >while it is composting, it'll compete with plants very effectively for the soil nitrogen

    Here is a link that might be useful: The Real Gardener : Mulch Myths with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott - The Real Gardener

    This post was edited by bboy on Fri, Dec 26, 14 at 20:26

  • daninthedirt (USDA 9a, HZ9, CentTX, Sunset z30, Cfa)
    9 years ago

    I don't see see any contradiction, and I guess I'm not sure if you're agreeing or disagreeing.

    Chalker-Scott says that "One of the most frustrating myths is that wood chip mulches rob your soil of nitrogen. Absolutely not true!" That's correct. In fact, the nitrogen retention in compost is highest in high C/N mixes (aka wood chips/sawdust). But the soil microbes are using that soil nitrogen at the same time that your plants are trying to. So indeed they're not robbing the soil of nitrogen, they're robbing the plants of nitrogen.

    She also says that "A mulch is simply a topdressing. An amendment is worked into the soil." So she's not talking about tilling wood chips into the soil. She's saying that woodchips make a fabulous mulch=top dressing, which is exactly what we're all saying.

  • Creek-side
    Original Author
    9 years ago

    bboy, Thanks for the link to the conversation with Dr. Linda Chalker-Scott. I think this year I will do an area with about 10 tomato plants in cages with several inches of wood chips, and see what happens.