Wood chips into soil?

LizardMan · Dec 2, 2020

So I've read that adding wood chips into the soil bind up nitrogen. I was wondering if i was to add a little extra nitrogen if it would compensate that initial nitrogen lose from decomposing the wood material. Then in the long run turn into more carbon and nitrogen down the road?

I have a bag of soft wood animal bedding that should break down fairly quickly with a high fungal bed.. Or is soft wood not a smart choice?

If anyone could chime in on if i should or shouldn't... If not ill likely do one bed as a test run

Cvh · Dec 2, 2020

Good question.

moses wellfleet · Dec 2, 2020

LizardMan said:
So I've read that adding wood chips into the soil bind up nitrogen. I was wondering if i was to add a little extra nitrogen if it would compensate that initial nitrogen lose from decomposing the wood material. Then in the long run turn into more carbon and nitrogen down the road?

I have a bag of soft wood animal bedding that should break down fairly quickly with a high fungal bed.. Or is soft wood not a smart choice?

If anyone could chime in on if i should or shouldn't... If not ill likely do one bed as a test run

What is the purpose of adding it, are you mixing it into the soil or putting it on top as a mulch layer?

dufous · Dec 2, 2020

The standard advice is to use wood chips on top of the soil, or to compost them first.

Is there some special reason for mixing the wood chips into the soil?

gorilla ganja · Dec 2, 2020

I read if you put the wood chips on top of the soil there is little/ no nitrogen loss if they are exposed to oxygen when they decompose.
I will be doing this on a large scale next year. I will report back with details.

Best of luck
GG

LizardMan · Dec 2, 2020

I do it on top as a mulch layer for water retention, and natural weed barrier outdoors for my veggie garden and see no issues, gorilla ganja....

Id be adding roughly 3 gallons to a 2ftx4ftx18inch bed and mixing it in to the soil its self.... I was thinking of using it to add a carbon source for future bed life, to help with microbial and fungal life, water retention/aeration and just to use up the bag of wood chips up sonce they have been in the garage for a year!!

I believe they are pine and very thin used for rabbit or dog house bedding. I do know some types of wood are more harmful then helpful.

Im more curious as to how much nitrogen they steal as I've read numerous stuff from the world wild web... I figure if i add an extra cup or 2 of something like a blood meal to compensate for the leaching of nitrogen it balance out for the time being.

moses wellfleet · Dec 2, 2020

I personally wouldn't do it.

All I know is from researching hugelkultur, never bury fresh wood in the soil. It would be impossible to determine what is the correct amount of nitrogen to add back?

flylowgethigh · Dec 2, 2020

Some animal bed chips are cedar. They make fence posts from cedar because it lasts a long time when buried.

When I was a kid my father and I drove out to the woods in Ojai, and brought back a trunk full of mulch from the woods floor. Used it in the planters around the house. I have thought of doing that in my old woods, to supplement the garden.

Probably just brought in termites.

Ibechillin · Dec 2, 2020

Not recommended to use fresh wood chips mixed into soil, ok to use as mulch though. Mushrooms thrive on decomposing hardwood trees.

slownickel said:
Soaking wood chips for 2 weeks in water. Brilliant! And thinking back, makes a huge amount of sense.

The idea would be to run the soaked chips, innoculate with your chose endo's and then mulch with them and even scratch some into your soil.....

The problem with getting wood chips down into the soil is that they will suck up nitrogen in the worst way. Making your need for additional nitrogen to make anything grow, even worse. I would venture to say that mixing into the first 4 inches would be plenty and then mulching on top would add the final touch.

LizardMan · Dec 2, 2020

Well its been determined vast majority say not a good idea... So ill do 1 out of 3 beds and see what the fuck happens... Better to learn from a failure then to never try out the idea!!

Side note, really fucked up idea!! now mulch the wood chips in and then plant a cover crop of some hairy vetch and/or crimson clover. Which should help with little nitrogen in the upper layers once chop and drop green mulch...

Maybe i should lay off the hash for a few days hahahaha!!!

Mattbho · Dec 2, 2020

You will regret putting pine in your soil . There must be 100different soil/soiless mixes on this site . 0 call for wood chips . Biochar yes ,chipped animal bedding no .

Personally I wouldn't even use pine/cedar as a mulch .

KISS . Soil building is not the time to be clearing out the garage of random organic matter .

Mattbho · Dec 2, 2020

Soil building is not the time to be adding random things from the garage .

I wouldn't use pine or cedar as mulch . If you really want to get rid of it take it to humane society or start a mushroom bed. .

Mattbho · Dec 2, 2020

136 soil recipies on icmag. Not 1 calls for pine chips.

LizardMan · Dec 2, 2020

Just curious Mattbho, I under stand cedar being not the best choice for mulch but what's wrong with pine?

VerdantGreen · Dec 2, 2020

ive used aged pine bark in soil.... would never use fresh wood chippings of any kind in soil... and wouldn't use it as a mulch fresh either. I'd let it sit in a heap for a few months at least.

it's worth mentioning that pine chips and bark are quite acidic

VG

dank.frank · Dec 2, 2020

Wood chips don't eat anything. Wood chips are not a living organism any longer. They don't possess the ability to consume.

What they do, is foster bacteria required to break them down and that bacteria feeds on nitrogen to perpetuate it's life cycle.

I've never had a single issue with using wood chips or composted mulch across large acreage areas or in raised beds.

I think the whole fear of depleting nitrogen is only relevant if you are growing in a media that is so absurdly deficient, that plants wouldn't be growing properly in the first place.

dank.Frank

trichrider · Dec 2, 2020

you really do want the wood chips to have a strong fungal load, and as VG suggested, let them compost before using.
those pet bedding chips are not ideal unless/until they have some breakdown already occurring, then would be fine.
i would suggest soaking and covering and inoculating them if possible till you can see the mycelium. jmo

bushed · Dec 2, 2020

I researched this for my outdoor veg garden as my soil is fertile but a little sandy, I needed something to help with water retention. I reached out to someone with a qualification in agriculture and permiculture. The reply was that it is an old wife's tail that wood chips take nitrogen from the soil and that as long as the chips were well past been green it would be beneficial.

LizardMan · Dec 2, 2020

Green as in fresh or as in starting to decompose.... And dank frank has it right, It's the bacteria that consume nitrogen to decompose the wood... I wouldn't think much at all....

Ill be adding them to bed tonight as i finish making it, Ill add a large amount of fresh worm casings and some old soil with bacteria and fungal rich, maybe even bran to help with fungal development....

Id like to add some oyster mushroom spores but im not into colonizing blocks to start the decomposing....

Ill let the bed sit for a month or 2 before planting ganja in it.... Its worth a try

moses wellfleet · Dec 2, 2020

Ok this calls for some experiments because I am basically regurgitating info from the interwebz.

I will try some green hugelkultur logs in my raised beds.

Lizard man seems like you and dank.frank are smoking the same strong hash :blowbubbles:

Wood chips into soil?

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