This topic contains 9 replies, has 5 voices, and was last updated by Neilfrazerm 5 years, 6 months ago.
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Is this fresh green wood chip? I’m afraid I wouldn’t put it on my growing areas at all. I know it aids VAMs but I made that error once before with shredded twigs and its 16 months later and I’m still rueing the day.
I believe others tend to let it rot in a covered pile for a long while before applying it, but I shall let their voices chime in for now.VAMS?
mycorrhizal fungi – sorry
Ah ok.
I woodchip as much as I can. I have probably filled about 20 big builders bags (the ones that are about 1 cubic metre) over the last year, still not enough though.
If it is shredded with the leaves on and is left in a bag for sometime it gets very hot and decomposes to something nearing compost quite quickly.
More woody stems and chipping during the winter, so less leaves and sap makes a chip that lasts much longer in the bags.
Anything over about 1.5 inches diameter I consider to be choppable into firewood unless it is very wiggly shaped, so I don’t chip any bigger stuff.If I want to make fast rotting compost I drag some fallen dead, half rotten branches from the hedge and blast those through the chipper too. This seems to inoculate the bag of wood chip pretty well with spores and bacteria.
IGNORE MY PREVIOUS COMMENT!!
My thought until today was to get woodchip to decompose quickly I was dragging a lump of dead rotting wood from the hedge and blitzing it through our wood chipper.
I have now found honey fungus here and that has thrown up alsorts of questions.My thought now is only ever chip good healthy wood and leave anything that is dying or dead.
Hi Sean,
I am a big advocate for woodchips, but only between the beds on paths. See my last post on ‘reconceptualising no-dig gardening…’
I had a hunt through the RHS pages and they tell us that ‘The RHS do, however, recommend that basal parts of trees infected with honey fungus, Phytophthora root rot, or parts of trees infected with stem diseases such as verticillium wilt or coral spot, are not used, to reduce the risk to plants.‘Notice it the quote that it is only basal parts of the tree donating the chippings they are talking about. Unless you are really unlucky and the tree surgeon has been doing stump grinding, I thinky you would be very unlikely to have problems. To my mind, the spores for honey fungus and the like are constantly about us, and if they deign to take hold on your plot,(as they did for fzjohnson) then they will.
As a by the way, my treesurgeon delivered a lorryload of bay tree leaf and branch chippings which had been on the back of his truck over the weekend. When he tipped it out, the temperature was already up to above blood heat, showing how quickly it had started to rot. It smelt divine too!Good information.
I use tree surgeons shreddings for all paths.It generally can be sourced for beer (tokens). It rots quite quickly, part of this winters plan is to lift the paths,( down two seasons), chuck it on a barrow sieve, return the coarse to the path behind the barrow and spread the ‘compost texture’ to the planting areas on top of the seasons mulch of 3yr fym. It has produced a delightful assortment of toadstools, none of which I am confident of to eat.A further application of new to top up the path. This provides an ‘all weather’ surface without mud or slugs.
Cleansweep, you are way ahead of me, but that was my plan. Please could you comment on the progress of your crops this last year. Really interested to know…
Thanks
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