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Wed, Jun 23, 10 at 12:10
| I had two very large eucalyptus removed and the stumps ground. I would like to add the sawdust to horse manure composting. Will the resulting compost retard seeds and plants in the veggie garden? I have heard that euc leaves should be avoided as there may be some retardation. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by toxcrusadr (My Page) on Wed, Jun 23, 10 at 13:14
| Very good question to ask. I don't have a specific answer but there are certainly examples of trees (like the black walnut) that have different levels of such compounds in leaves vs. wood vs. roots. OTOH composting can degrade them at least in some cases. Hopefully someone will chime in with definitive info. |
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| Eucalypt bark and other tree parts are highly suppressive of pathogens (so probably micro-organisms, too), but not particularly allelopathic - especially after composting for 6 weeks or more. Eucalypt sawdust and bark does contain very high levels of manganese, though - up to 3900 ppm, so you can easily induce both manganese toxicities and antagonistic deficiencies (especially Fe) by overusing - particularly partially composted and uncomposted and/or unleached products. Al |
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- Posted by borderbarb San Diego county (My Page) on Wed, Jun 23, 10 at 14:46
| I compost and mulch with trimmings from my own Silver Dollar eucs, and trim/chippings from a neighbor's huge Lemon Eucs. No problems of any kind. The quickest composting/break down of material happens in my garden pathways ... seems to happen in blink of an eye. Also pretty fast in my compost pile. Less rapid in the very thick mulch I put around my roses and in an unwatered side yard. I don't know about sawdust....I'm sure going to take Al's comments to heart re: iron and manganese. |
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| for me i'd use it, it after all is an available resource especially as you are mixing it with manure and composting it first, be better if the manure comes from stalls where it would contain more urine. as for euc's preventing other plants grwoing near them in extreme drought conditions our in the wilds maybe so? and then they also drop lots of foliage to stop moisture loss. but in normal rainfall areas other trees might not grow within their drip line but all other plants do smaller native woody plants & grasses, with the created eco' system the best grass growth has occured under euc' tree. so a bit of a wives tale there me thinks? we have on many occassions used eucalypt in some form in wood chip mixes and never ahd any negative expeinces. the eucalypt could be counted as a weed in the USA. len from down under. |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ: Sunset 13 (My Page) on Wed, Jun 23, 10 at 15:45
| We mulched some beds with the neighbor's ground-up eucalyptus branches. It acted just like regular mulch, but smelled like cough drops for a few weeks. |
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| It's likely there would be greater chance of issues if you incorporated the uncomposted product, or used it as a significant fraction of container media. I don't think I'd have much in the way of concern if I'd composted it or used it as mulch. I'd probably think about combining it with other mulch products though, if I applied it uncomposted. YMMV. Al |
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| I've not used Eucalyptus wood chips or sawdust but I have used Black Walnut wood chips and leaves as mulches many times and have not seen any growth suppression by these except that the shredded leaves appear to have a growth suppression affect on Quack Grass while encouraging Perennial Rye to grow faster and greener. |
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- Posted by the_virginian Zone 7 NoVA (My Page) on Thu, Jun 24, 10 at 15:09
| Here in Northern Virginia we are limited to 3 types of Eucalyptus trees, but I have used their sawdust, leaves and chips in mulch with ZERO problems. For fresh sawdust that is going to be aged with manure it will be a non-issue as the aging process will eliminate the sap causing stunted growth or harming benefitial soil bacteria. |
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- Posted by albert_135 Sunset 2 or 3 (My Page) on Fri, Jun 25, 10 at 12:36
| Most interesting indeed. Most sites weasel around with things like the composted leaves might be toxic or old UC and Australian studies show they are not toxic without any links to the old UC and Australian sites. I did not find any site:.gov or site:.edu sites on ~ composting Eucalyptus ~ that did not equivocate on the leaves. I found nothing on the sawdust. Gardenweb does have GardenWeb Australia Forums |
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| My husband is doing a woodworking project using a very large Eucalyptus log. He is creating a lot of sawdust and I was wondering about using it between my plants to create a path or using it in my compost pile. Not sure if it might hurt my vegetable plants. Someone told me they are acidic and I if I read correctly, some wrote it might deplete my soil of iron. Has anyone heard of the wood chips causing any problems? |
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- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Thu, Apr 28, 11 at 8:39
| honoluluk - Use it as paths or compost it. I've mulched with shredded eucalyptus branches with no problems. If what "some wrote" was bad for composting and mulching was all true, we would be left with nothing for mulch or compost. When you take a critical look at the claims, and try to find research to back it up, they fall apart. |
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