I'm one to always go with the easiest steps as,in concept, rotting is rotting whether it happens in a special place or all around in the dirt. I compost some stuff, bury other stuff, and spread around stuff that's nowhere near composted. However, large amounts of wood chips are a whole special kind of beast and can actually cause a few problems with soil nutrition and chemistry.

You have had these little piles for four to five years and there's only a tiny bit of breakdown, so hoping that they'll fully decay in the soil in the next six months may be a bit of a reach.

Personally, I'd leave them in a pile as the base of a low-work compost heap, and just deal once a year (in Spring) with whatever resulting compost I could get from the heap in total. When you start adding on other things to compost down, the chips won't rot immediately but they will rot faster.

If there is still recognizable wood, I would use them as mulch, or an ingredient in the compost pile. Otherwise there is some risk of depleting soil nitrogen while they decompose. I use wood chips, sawdust or shredded leaves to layer over my kitchen scraps throughout the year.

I would just use them as mulch, and if there are any left over, use them as browns in the compost bin.

Last year I mulched my Brussels sprouts with utility company wood chips. This Spring I spaded them under along with some stinky (sulpher compounds) clean gypsum board scraps that had been soaking in a barrel for a year. Maybe a little compost, I can't remember. A little high nitrogen slow release fertilizer at planting and side dressed later. Along with a nice crop of wine cap mushrooms (delicious) the late planted Copra storage onions grew faster than I've ever seen. They were so heavy and hard that I tested the soluble solids with my refractometer. Cured on my warm and humid kitchen counter they tested 10% brix and stung my eyes. Cured warmer and drier they test 14-15% brix. It was hard to get any juice from them to test. So yes, I am a fan of using aged/rotten wood chips in the soil. They are a different animal than compost, but valuable in their own right. Perhaps especially useful in sandy/sandy loam soils.

David

According to research by Dr. Alex Shigo woody (wood chips) mulches will encourage the soil fungi to develop and are good around trees and shrubs. Vegetables and flowers prefer growing in a soil dominated by bacteria and vegetative (plant waste from veggies and flowers) mulches encourage the development of soil bacteria.
While we can find those that will state they mixed high Carbon materials in the soil they have and saw no problem the preponderance of research says otherwise.

Someone obviously missed this part of the comment.

"A little high nitrogen slow release fertilizer at planting and side dressed later."

Contrary to what a lot of people think and say, even though they have a very high C:N ratio, wood chips are not all that great as a carbon source for hot composting.

Lloyd

This post was edited by pt03 on Sat, Sep 6, 14 at 13:53

Wood chips will be very good for those vegetables that were wild forest plants. They readily form fungal symbiosis. It is no surprise that allium did well. Bacterial soils do best for those vegetables that are not mycorrhizal. This vegetables/trees dichotomy is quite tired and frankly incorrect.

glib, could you list a few of the veggies in each category -- i.e., previously wild forest plants and those that are not mycorrhizal?
Thanks.

Mycorrhiza, Myco meaning fungi, rhiza meaning roots, from Greek referring to a symbiotic (mutually beneficial) relationship some fungi form with plants. It does not refer to a specific fungi, only the relationship. Different species of fungi form that relationship with different plants and those that form that relationship with trees do not form that relationship with vegetable or flowering plants.

Elisa, most vegetables benefit. One of my winter projects is to hugelkultur all my trellises (for beans and squash). Dig under the trellis, bury wood, cover.

Anyway, all cucurbita, all solanaceae, all allium, and most pulses are myc. Beta (spinach, chard, beet) and brassica are not, though I am not sure about all brassicas (example some of the tropical brassica like sisymbrium). I am unsure about apiaceae (carrot, fennel, celery, parsnip, parsley) but I think they are, as are ciichorium (radicchio, catalonia, endive). Lettuce I think yes, asparagus unsure, cardoon/artichoke yes, yacon yes. Obviously all berries are myc. from strawberry to any shrub or tree, even desert shrubs like hippophae or jujube. all fruit trees too.

Beta and brassica are originally seashore plants. they did not evolve in the presence of fungi and did not learn to collaborate. They typically weaken the fungi in a bed. I have always had 1-2 inches branches buried to keep the fungi up, the difference this year I am burying the 5 or 10 inches pieces, even a few 16 inches rounds.

kimmsr and glib -- thank you for the info!

taking notes . . .

So is this the main reason not to plant allium after brassicas -- that the fungi will be weakened, and the alliums won't do as well for that reason?

This post was edited by elisa_Z5 on Sat, Sep 13, 14 at 0:18