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How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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Posted by
achang89 Central NJ Z6b (
My Page) on
Sun, Jun 24, 12 at 10:00
| We have a couple of trees that had various decays. The wood shavings form a pile under the tree and I can find some tiny roots growing in the pile. The shavings is damp and looks a little like peat moss. I do not see any insects in the shavings.
I like to mix the shavings with the outdoor potting soil for outdoor pots. The outdoor soil is mainly old indoor potting mix and nursery potting soil.
My questions are:
1. Are the shavings good to use, rich in nutrients?
2. Would the shavings be low in PH, or like peat moss, more acid?
3. Is the shaving better than regular compost? Or it is already a compost, since it comes from the decay tree?
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Follow-Up Postings:
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| I tried using wood shavings as soil with no success. I had scooped hollows in the shavings, put top soil in the hollows and planted. Plants turned yellow and sickly. Bad experiment. However, in another small flower bed I used a bag of sawdust/chicken manure mixed into the soil. It was wonderful.Several years later the soil is still friable and fertile. Obviously the chicken manure added the needed nitrogen to break down the sawdust. Experimenting in the garden is fun. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| Shavings? Is this wood that has rotted out of the tree on it's own? That would be a decent soil additive. Any chips or shavings made by machine is not good until completely rotted, which can take many years in some cases. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| The wood shavings come from the decayed tree trunk, either natural decay or from insects. I believe the shavings were accumulated over the past several or many years. Under the tree, the shavings were mixed with soil and the mixture is dark. Under the trunk, the mixture is about 3" deep. Inside the decayed trunk, the shavings are up to 6" deep. The good thing is that some tendor fiberious roots grow in the soil mixture, the same way roots grow in my compost/wood chip pile. So I do not think the shavings would hinder plant growth. I just hope that the shavings are just as good as the fulled decayed compost, at least the very old layer. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| achange89, That "forest mix" you described is probably the best mix you can get. This will be my 3rd year using this "mix" to grow peppers and eggplants. It's outproduced any other store bought mix I've tried. However it does only last one season, and then breaks down to a fine compost in the pot. http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg1018482830086.html
http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/contain/msg0823191120542.html
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RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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- Posted by jolj 7b/8a-S.C.USA (My Page) on
Sun, Jun 24, 12 at 19:46
| Great if or when it is composted. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| I just wonder if this is like the medium mushroom growers like to use. I think the shavings are already composted. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| I think so too. I've gotten some gorgeous stuff from beneath and even inside trees (old hollow ones) that was very humus-y. Don't rob too much of it though, because 1) the tree needs it - it's part of the tree's little habitat, and 2) it will not have much in the way of nutrients and will be good only for texture/aeration in your potting mix. Use it sparingly, no more than 1/4 of the mix. Just my opinion. By the way, 'shavings' usually means fresh wood from a woodshop or from stump griding (actually the latter is usually referred to as 'chips'). This sounds more like the topsoil that accumulates in forests, also known as 'duff'. |
Oh, I the other word I was searching for...
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| was 'leaf mould' which is not mold at all but humus from slowly decomposing leaves. The kind of stuff you find under trees. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| The 'duff' I've used for 100% of my container mix, was quite fertile. I still needed to add fertilizer to keep the pepper leaves green, but much less than the containers that had sterile potting mix in them. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| I would suspect that that material is like sawdust and is created by insects digesting the tree and that it most likely contains some frass, insect poo, which is why plants will grow in it. I see that same thing happening out in the woods, behind the house and elsewhere, all the time, plants growing in this sawdust like material falling from a hole in a tree. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| I have all kinds of outdoor containers, and fill them each year with amended, recycled potting soil. I dunno if this is any guide, but I use pine bark from the firewood as a significant filler material, aka hillbilly 'forest products". When the season is over and I empty out the pots, the bark is slowly decomposing, riddled with roots. I assume the plant knows what its after, so there must be some nutrient value there as well. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| david52, "hillbilly forest products" LOL How big are the bark pieces (chunks?) that you put in your containers? I've considered trying this, but haven't gotten around to it yet. Thought about putting very big pieces in the containers to see what happens. Some types of bark are porous, riddled with air holes, other bark seems solid that roots couldn't get into. What does yours look like? |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| Today, when I was cleaning the section of the woodland, I noticed that the garden junk pile I put together over the past 2 years is partially composted. The composted material is just like the wood dust I first mentioned. I think this is just decayed wood, probably helped by some creatures such as wood eating ants, etc. From now on, I'll just use the discarded plants and wood as mulch, instead of piling them up. This is for the land inside the wooded area and onbody can see it. I may get more composted materials this way :-) |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| Hugelpots indeed! 
Here's how the "hugelpots" and "stumppot" are doing so far:
 Interestingly the eggplants in the "stumppot" is the only one where the plants have not wilted at all, even in 100+ heat. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| That wood must be a great sponge for storing water. Cool. |
RE: How Good is Wood Shaving as Soil?
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| emgardener, my bark is from beetle-infested Ponderosa pine, so its pretty much riddled with small holes. I use chunks that range from the size of my fist on down to the size of a dime. As above, I put the bigger pieces in the bottom of the containers, the smaller pieces just mixed in with the rest. But I also use aspen bark, cottonwood, and what ever else comes along, which is a bit denser. |
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