Re: Wood chips??? what to do with these?

FamilyGardening 2/25/2014, 11:37 pm

From what I have read and learned woodchips/mulch on top of soil/MM will not rob the soil of nutrition because the woodchips are not at the level of the plants roots.... as long as you don't mix the woodchips in with the soil/MM its not a problem.....

happy gardening
rose

**camprn** 2/25/2014, 11:43 pm

FamilyGardening wrote:From what I have read and learned woodchips/mulch on top of soil/MM will not rob the soil of nutrition because the woodchips are not at the level of the plants roots.... as long as you don't mix the woodchips in with the soil/MM its not a problem.....

happy gardening
rose

Wood chips may tie up rather than rob the nitrogen at the surface of the Mel's Mix. This could be a problem for shallow rooted plants. I would suggest that if using the wood chips in the vegetable growing bed, take care and watch for symptoms that the plants need to be fed.

Good luck.

FamilyGardening 2/25/2014, 11:58 pm

camprn wrote:
FamilyGardening wrote:From what I have read and learned woodchips/mulch on top of soil/MM will not rob the soil of nutrition because the woodchips are not at the level of the plants roots.... as long as you don't mix the woodchips in with the soil/MM its not a problem.....

happy gardening
rose
Wood chips may tie up rather than rob the nitrogen at the surface of the Mel's Mix. This could be a problem for shallow rooted plants. I would suggest that if using the wood chips in the vegetable growing bed, take care and watch for symptoms that the plants need to be fed.

Good luck.

and if the MM is only 6 inch deep....I can see your point Camp Very Happy

Thanks!

Hugs
rose

audrey.jeanne.roberts 2/25/2014, 11:59 pm

camprn wrote:
FamilyGardening wrote:From what I have read and learned woodchips/mulch on top of soil/MM will not rob the soil of nutrition because the woodchips are not at the level of the plants roots.... as long as you don't mix the woodchips in with the soil/MM its not a problem.....

happy gardening
rose
Wood chips may tie up rather than rob the nitrogen at the surface of the Mel's Mix. This could be a problem for shallow rooted plants. I would suggest that if using the wood chips in the vegetable growing bed, take care and watch for symptoms that the plants need to be fed.

Good luck.

Camp's right - and it's very easy to spot if it becomes an issue. It's one reason why we lay down a couple inches of a rich compost/manure mix before putting the mulch down and supplement with compost tea or other organic amendments if needed.

FamilyGardening 2/26/2014, 12:04 am

yep I just responded to Camp.....6 inchs of MM is not very deep so I can see how it could become a problem.....all the research I have done so far was using compost and soil .....I forget that MM is not soil....so there maybe a difference on how the woodchips would react to the MM and how shallow the roots are in 6 inch of MM....

we do use the woodchips in our SFG beds and they do fine.....but there could be variables like we get a lot of rain ....that is different from some one who doesn't get as much.....

hugs
rose

**sanderson** 2/26/2014, 2:58 am

I use plain wood chips as mulch. When I replant, I remove 99.9% of them, add and mix in new compost, plant, and then replace the chips. The only thing I'm doing new is that I am sprinkling a light layer of composted chicken manure before replacing the chips. I can't use a sprinkle of blood meal because my cat goes bonkers over the smell. I'll be using it in my new compost pile, instead.

**camprn** 2/26/2014, 6:58 am

sanderson wrote:I use plain wood chips as mulch. When I replant, I remove 99.9% of them, add and mix in new compost, plant, and then replace the chips. The only thing I'm doing new is that I am sprinkling a light layer of composted chicken manure before replacing the chips. I can't use a sprinkle of blood meal because my cat goes bonkers over the smell. I'll be using it in my new compost pile, instead.

I bet that works pretty well. Very Happy

**sanderson** 2/26/2014, 12:34 pm

**jimmy cee** 2/26/2014, 8:06 pm

FamilyGardening wrote:Jimmy....could you pour some of those woodchips out of the bucket and onto the ground or cement? to get a good look at what the mixture of your woodchips is give us a close up look

hope that helps
rose

I'm not able to photo them now, will do next week, it's all about the same tho

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