Woodchips are small pieces of wood produced from trees, used in various industries such as paper and textiles. They play a crucial role in the growth of plants, as they help in the production of cells and new organs. Environmental factors that affect plant growth include light, temperature, water, humidity, and nutrition. Trees grow in height (primary growth) and diameter (secondary growth), with average tree growth increasing from 0.81 to 2.1 mm yr−1 along a soil texture gradient from 0 to 67 clay and increasing metal-oxide content.
Soil type also affects plant growth, with nutrient availability and water-holding playing a significant role. The interaction between plants and the wind is crucial for understanding plant biology, development, and survival. The production process for timber products involves several stages that can affect surrounding environments. Wood chips provide a long-term source of organic matter for the soil, providing food for essential fungi critical to many plants.
The “nitrogen loss” caused by wood is a myth, as small quantities of nitrogen are small. However, wood chips can improve soil quality and nutrient levels if used correctly. Environmental factors that affect plant growth include light, temperature, water, humidity, and nutrition. Wood chips can be used as mulch to protect and enrich the soil, helping plants grow.
In summary, wood acts as a growth stimulant indirectly, increasing plant biomass. Shrubs have an advantage over trees due to their earlier completion of wood formation and shorter growing season.
📹 Are Woodchips Harming Your Soil and Plants?
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Why is cutting wood bad for the environment?
Deforestation has far-reaching effects on the environment, including affecting water cycles, affecting the Amazon, and potentially impacting daily life. The South American rainforest is crucial for water supply in Brazilian cities and neighboring countries, while the Amazon provides water to soy farmers and beef ranchers clearing the forest. The loss of clean water and biodiversity could have unforeseeable effects, including impacting coffee. Deforestation also contributes to climate change by adding carbon dioxide to the air and removing the ability to absorb existing carbon dioxide.
If tropical deforestation were a country, it would rank third in carbon dioxide-equivalent emissions. However, conservationists are working to preserve existing forest ecosystems and restore lost tree cover through reforesting and rewilding.
Why put wood chips around plants?
Wood chips provide comparable advantages to mulch, including moisture retention, weed suppression, and temperature regulation. Over time, they decompose, enriching the soil with organic matter. However, to prevent nitrogen depletion, they should be aged or composted.
What are the cons of wood shavings?
Wood shavings are a popular choice for animal bedding due to their absorbency, comfort, odor control, and dust screening. They are highly absorbent, absorbing moisture to keep stalls dry, providing a soft texture for better sleep and overall well-being. However, their availability and sourcing can be more expensive than alternative bedding options. Additionally, the source of wood shavings may cause environmental concerns like deforestation, habitat destruction, and the use of chemicals in wood processing.
Choosing the right bedding material is crucial for animals’ health, comfort, and well-being. However, the choice can be challenging due to the numerous options available. Therefore, it is essential to weigh the pros and cons of each option before making a decision.
Do wood chips break down into soil?
Wood chips can be used as a soil amendment to add organic material to soil, but it takes four or more years. To facilitate decomposition without depleting nitrogen, add ammonium sulfate to each layer of wood chips. Start with one pound of ammonium sulfate for each 100 square feet in the first year, then decrease by half in each subsequent year until the wood chips are fully decomposed. This process will take four or more years, and it is essential to add nitrogen to the soil to prevent depletion.
Can wood shavings be used as fertilizer?
Composting wood shavings is a great way to create a rich, nutritious, organic growing medium for your garden. These shavings are a great source of carbon and prevent compacting, allowing air and water to flow freely. However, the natural decomposition of wood shavings in a compost pile can take several months, depending on the size of the chips, type of wood, and climate. In summer, the center of the pile heats up, causing faster decomposition, while in winter, decomposition rates slow due to cold. Despite the slow process, composting wood shavings can provide a valuable organic growing medium for your garden.
What is the purpose of wood chips?
Wood chips are a versatile tool that can be utilized for mulching, enhancing soil moisture, reducing weeds, and cooling the soil, which in turn promotes plant health, faster growth, and reduces insect and disease issues. Additionally, wood chips can be employed to cover garden and yard pathways.
What are 3 disadvantages of using wood?
Wood, a versatile and ancient building material, has its advantages and disadvantages when used in construction. It is vulnerable to fire, moisture, insects, fungi, and decay, which can weaken its structure and durability. Additionally, wood is prone to shrinkage, swelling, warping, and cracking, leading to dimensional instability and aesthetic defects. This article provides expert answers on the advantages and disadvantages of using wood in construction and how to choose the best type of wood for your project.
Are wood chips good for indoor plants?
Bark and woodchips are popular choices for indoor plant potting due to their excellent drainage, aeration, and moisture retention properties. They are suitable for various plant species and are relatively inexpensive and readily available. Bark and woodchips offer several benefits, such as preventing excess water from pooling in pots, improving the aesthetics of plants, and retaining moisture for longer periods between watering.
However, it is important to consider the size of the bark or woodchips used for the plant and its root system. Fine bark or woodchips may be suitable for smaller plants, while larger pieces may be more suitable for larger specimens. Additionally, it is crucial to ensure the bark and woodchips are clean and free from pests or diseases before using them in indoor pots. Overall, choosing the right potting medium for indoor plants can provide numerous benefits, making them a practical choice for many plant enthusiasts.
Are wood chips bad for the environment?
Wood chips are a renewable and eco-friendly energy source made from trees and other wood waste. They can be easily regenerated or replaced, making them a sustainable and eco-friendly alternative to other energy sources. Wood chips also help reduce waste sent to landfills by diverting waste away from landfills and increasing landfill size. However, wood chips emit more carbon dioxide than other energy sources, releasing greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
They also require significant energy to produce, processing and transporting wood chips, adding to their environmental impact. Additionally, wood chips are generally more expensive than other energy sources, making them an undesirable option for some households and businesses.
The future of wood chips is promising, as new technologies and advancements in sustainable energy sources will likely make them even more efficient and environmentally friendly. Scientists believe that woodchip use could become an important source of renewable energy in the future. Research is being conducted to find more efficient ways to use wood chips, such as pyrolysis, to break down wood chips into more efficient forms of energy, such as methanol and biochar. This could further reduce the environmental impact of woodchip use.
Are wood shavings good for gardens?
Wood shavings, chips, and sawdust temporarily tie up nitrogen in soil, making it unavailable to plants. Once microorganisms break down these products, more nitrogen is released into the soil. These products are best used for paths or mulching established trees and shrubs with an extensive root system that can tolerate short-term nitrogen deficiency. However, watch for signs of nitrogen deficiencies, such as stunted, yellow leaves, and poor productivity. To help plants show signs of nutrient deficiency, add a low nitrogen slow-release nitrogen fertilizer.
📹 Let’s Talk About Trees – Tree Growth, Biology, and Wood as a Material
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That is bark and thought this might be better than I thought it would be. Awhile later I had a pile of about 2 yards sitting next to my driveway ready to be used when I cut a tendon in my hand that slowed down my yard work. One day as I walked by that pile of wood chips I noticed that some volunteer sweet potatoes had started growing on the wood chips. I just left them to it and we ended up harvesting some very nice and tasty red sweet potatoes from that pile if wood chips. I never put any soil or fertilizer on them, they seemed to be living off the fungus that was living off the wood chips. It was quite the surprise. Needless to say, I am very happy to use wood chips where ever I can. Enjoy perusal your very informative articles, see you next time.
I have been using woodchips and dried leaves a lot around the garden, because I have an abundance of both these resources. They make great mulch and are easy to remove and put back in place when weeding. When I started gardening, I first had to bring in a truckload of soil, because there was none to speak of, just lots of rocks mixed in with either clay or sand. So I did start my first patch with imported soil, but when I decided to expand the garden further I decided I just incorporated a lot of dried leaves into the clay and wait. After one year, the soil was much lighter, but still hard to weed or till. The leaves were s ill not fully broken down and as I expected, I could not harvest much from this area, just a few small potatoes – and lots of weeds, but I had low expectations and not much to lose but a few leftover seeds. In year two though, I ended up with a rich black soil. I can’t wait to plant in this bed this year.
I have a compost pile that is just wood chips and chicken manure. I bought a 3point chipper for my tractor just for this. My land is very sandy and not a lot of actual nutrient soil, and it’s acidic because it’s oak scrub land. If I turn every 2 weeks, I can compost the chips and manure down in just a few months, and boy does it make a nice fluffy tilth… the straight chicken manure really cooks the wood chips down and provides more than enough nitrogen to eat the chips away… then I mix this compost with regular compost and I’ve been building my fields and pastures back up this way…
I use sawdust in my walkways where I don’t want anything to grow. The fact that they pack down and don’t admit water is a good thing. It also takes a long time to break down so I don’t have to reapply. One of the few gripes I have about wood chips is that they break down so well and are so good at growing plants that I’ve found they are miserable in walkways, I’m constantly weeding them and having to apply a new layer.
I love woodchips.. They made an excellent bedding for my pigs and the pigs did a great job breaking the chips down into compost. I also use them in my deep litter chicken bedding. They are great under perennials and trees.. I do t like them in the annual gardens because they tend to get mixed in the soil during transplanting or weeding. Also note that woodchips attract certain wild animals such as birds, skunk, and raccoons. They love to dig thru the chips to eat grubs and other insects..
I add quite a lot of well shredded woody material to my compost bays but add the result to the surface only (I’m ‘no till) & thus don’t have an issue with it subsequently depleting my soil’s nitrogen level. Heck, all the paths between my vegetable beds are the same shredded material & I add 2″ a year to them & they’re constantly breaking down, with plant roots only a couple of inches down from the freshly applied stuff.
Feeding roots are typically close to the suface and if your soil is already a bit low in nitrogen it could be an issue. If your soil is hydrophobic putting something slightly acidic on it isnt going to help until fungi take hold. Putting mulch on the suface, you have to wonder how much will get into the soil and how much just turns into gas and is lost. Plenty of pros though. You really need enough plants so you cant see the much, unless you are growing really tall trees, i guess
Ernie, my x’s grandfather, whom died in the 80’s, made composting his art, in his retirement. I took the rest of his 20 year old compost, and threw it in a tomato garden, and had bags, and bags, and bags of tomato’s. I could not even give them all away. His secret, which now is no secret, was adding lots of egg shells.
Do worms prefer wood shavings, chips or sawdust I wonder? I use mostly paper based or hemp based bedding for my guinea pigs and hamster but we sometimes change it up and use wood shavings. We compost all their waste, tea leaves, coffee grounds, non glossy cardboard, garden waste and fruit and veg waste. Yes, the compost takes years but we do tend to spread it over the garden every other year, cover it with top soil and start again. We don’t plant in the year that we spread all the unfinished compost though
I compost stall waste from a friends horse charity. Coarse sawdust saturated with urine and plenty green horse manure will not compost itself. It will not absorb water without washing off the nitrogen. I get best results not turning and letting the clean outer wood make a crust. It seems to get oxygen without turning. Takes at least a year.
Mr. Pavlis, I have access to all the free dry pine shavings from a lmber mill near me. It’s pretty fine with smaller particles, splinters and curls but a lot of powdery dust too. It’s virgin with no chemicals or treatment in it. I’ve spread this over my vegetable garden (about 800 square feet) after perusal your articles on mulching. I’ve laid it pretty thick. It’s not gonna pack like regular sawdust so I should be good with oxygen I think. And it’s not nearly as dense as regular wood chips or bagged mulch. Do you think if I let it sit over the winter and maybe add a little nitrogen along the way it can be tilled into the dirt or should I take it off? Thanks so much for you very informative website..
I put down 10 inches of woodchips(swflorida hot humid wet) and let the grass gro up through it until it was the middle of my shins, enough to hold down the woodchips when I mowed. I continued to let my grass grow tall before I mowed it. By doing so I was releasing rushes of nitrogen and causing the bactrria to explode in population. At this point mycelia has grown across all the wood chips and the bacteria and mycelium are cohabitating symbiotically. Every rush of nitrogen invigorates the bacteria and causes an explosion in population and in Florida after 2 years those wood chips are soil. Rich soil.
If you want to break down your hardwood or Douglas Fir (or Pinus radiata, they won’t like most Pinus much) chip layer faster, I recommend you start some Psilocybe ovoidiocystidiata spawn and then just go right on ahead an innocualte those chips. Keep moist during your dry season, and enjoy the delightful Ovoid fruit-bodies in the spring .😜 You might also try wood-eating Psilocybe in the cyanescens clade, as they fruit in the fall. Although very rarely they can cause a quite unpleasant effect that doesnt occur with any other Psilocybe clade, so I would say Ovoids are a better bet, snd they do sometimes fruit a bit in the fall in addition to the spring. For the less, uh, neuropharmacologically adventurous, you may be able to get Stropharia rugosoannulata going in your hardwood mulch. The “Wine Cap Mushroom” — they are quite tasty, and pretty easy to grow.
Excellent article! I have a huge amount of 2 year old wood chip piles that I got from the local utility right of way clearing. I probably still have close to 20 cubic yards. When I dig down into them I find a brown cottage cheese texture that does not resemble weed chips at all. Would that be considered completely composted?
I’ve gotten walnut chips before – if it helps suppress seedlings, great, as I use most of my chips now in paths. It didn’t seem to. 🙁 And as for pine – I have alkalai soil. A load of pine wood/needles made a wonderful springy mulch. A soil test a couple years later did show a slight reduction in ph, but I think it was more due to the buffering of the organic matter than any quality of the pine. I got the same effect from areas covered in green ash.
Hey @Garden Fundamentals, what if we have high amounts of nitrogen in our soil, but it’s red clay? I had the idea to mix in wood chips to help break it up a little along with lots of organic greens. Afterwards I added new nitrogen rich top soil from the store to mix in and mulched it all heavily. I did two layers one with leaves and then topped it with Hay so that the leaves wouldn’t blow away in a storm. So far everything seems to be growing nicely. Do you think I made a mistake in the long run?
3 seasons ago I buried a large full bag of fresh wood chips with some general commercial compost in my large planter and I did not add manure or fertilizer or any other source of nitrogen. But I did add some worms that I found in my garden. The first year the flowers were not doing well. The second season it was okay for some flower species but not all, and now at the start of the third season everything that I have growing in there is growing magnificent. Lots of different flowers, pepper seeds germinated, different varieties of flower bulbs that I planted this year started to grow, and for a while even some mushrooms popped up. And I have not watered the planter for months, I only mildly sprayed the pepper seeds with a bottle spray when I put them in the planter. During the winter I turn the planter into a mini greenhouse. And some of the flowers survived the winter and now they look even better as when I bought them. And the planter smells as if you walk into a flower store.
On an aridisol, wood chips / sawdust can help provide whatever isn’t available when you incorporate them into the soil. NPK values don’t make much sense to me – eventually we start talking about molecules because most minerals exist in a variety of forms. What about the climate and geology of the region? My impression of the article suggests that forest-debris takes away from the forest, in general. However, perhaps wood chips contribute to a landscape’s combustibility in arid climates, and a shift away from plants to multicellular fungi in wet climates? Where are we going to get rid of dead trees, landfills or sludge plants?
They work well for potatoes, but impossible to keep from mixing in the soil. Although they maintain moisture better than just about anything, they are a pain in the vegetable garden and prevent close spacing. We use them everywhere for pathways and have killed thousands of square feet of lawn where they are building soil. Great for perennials too.
I’m interested in algae in soil. It’s my understanding it makes up 1-5% of soil and I’ve seen a lot of articles hinging around destroying it any time it blooms. Mainly with seedlings. It bloomed slightly in my pots and in my garden as we had a cold and wet spring. I didn’t do anything because I don’t really believe I need to… nature balances itself. But I’m interested in the topic and I think there is a lot of misinformation about it. Such as, if its part of soil composition, it shouldn’t be bad to see it. I feel it indicates an environment not optimal for regular plants though.
You should keep mulch a few inches away from base of trees anyway. Piling up mulch around the base (“mulch volcanoes”) is bad for various reasons. Mulch around trees only needs to be a couple inches deep. Spread the mulch out wider, not deeper. The funny part about all those myths about various mulches acidifying soil is – it’s actually rather difficult to lower the soil’s pH on a long term basis. Such as when you want to grow a bed of blueberries. I do have big piles of ramial woodchips that I just leave alone and allow them to compost down over a couple years. Then whenever I need some mulch I just scoop some off the top.
I use any wood chips I can get my hands on. EXCEPT fresh Walnut. Fresh wood chips only will do a nitrogen draw down within a scant few inches of soil contact. Using them as a mulch can help eliminate weed sprouting. Sawdust can have a C:N ratio of up to 560:1 (similar to newspaper & cardboard). Pee on your wood chips regularly lol.
I am a certified Master Gardener. The problem with wood chips is that they are very high in carbon but the bacteria in the soils which break down organic matter need a good carbon/nitrogen ratio. When presented with too much carbon the bacteria have no other option but to rob the soil around the wood chips of any available nitrogen, leaving your plants with a nitrogen deficiency. You can ad either a nitrogen fertilizer or better yet ad organic matter high in nitrogen such as grass clippings, rotted manure, etc. to help balance the ratio out
I worked at two nurseries on the East Coast for twenty years. Both used woodchips to heal in all their balled and burlaped trees. The resulting soil was as rich as forest soil. The scam is that you can get wood chips for free in most areas, and there is no profit for the industry if you don’t pay for their mulch. I have used fresh wood chips spread four inches thick early every spring to improve exhausted clay soil on my property for the last forty years. The results have been spectacular. I’ll share another dirty secret about dyed mulch. It’s recycled construction waste. Treated and untreated lumber that is pale enough to take the dye coloring and gets ground up and put in bags.
I had a pretty good vegetable garden 2 years ago, and then last year I covered much of it in wood chips recovered from a free supply from the city… and virtually nothing grew in those areas. I got some tomatillos, but everything else struggled to get more than 6 inches tall. I don’t know why that happened, but I definitely won’t be doing that again.
I definitely compost wood chips. I have several bins that will hold 7 wheelbarrows of wood chips. For each wheelbarrow I will add plenty of nitrogen. Within a week the pile is well over 130 F. After a week I turn it (okay sometimes it is two weeks or more, just because I have other things to do). When I turn the bin into another bin (usually into five parts) I will add plenty of nitrogen. This process will go on for up to 7 weeks. The last process is to sift the composted mulch. If I so choose I can leave it unshifted and use as top dressing. Additionally, if I let the pile sit around for a while (2 – 3 months) I will get a ‘mosh pit’ of worms. I used to use horse manure in my compost but I had to fetch it and it had some nasty herbicides in it. Right now the chips and nitrogen source are within 20 feet of my bins.
@3:30 “…don’t put down 2-3 inches of sawdust, this won’t allow water to percolate into the soil…” Slight correction, the correct term for this phase is “infiltrate” not percolate. Infiltration is the term for water entering the soil, percolation is the term for water moving through the soil. To be clear, I’m not disputing the concept that was being discussed. Just correcting it for the proper terminology.
I try not to teach or talk about anything that I haven’t actually. If I do it’s with the understanding that I’m not really sure. The problem is information repeaters. I watched an influencer post a reel about purple dead nettle while laying in a patch of Creeping Charlie. I suspect he googles his content the day before and then “teaches” about it.
I don’t buy commercial cow manure, because they are about 90 percent wood chips and 10 percent manure. I actually take a bucket and pick up cow patties in the woods. And put the real thing, in my garden. Weeds and cow patties in a 5 gallon bucket of water makes a good and free fertilizer. I’ve been gardening for 63 of my 83 years not a master gardner, just an experienced one.
Using decomposing fungus to compost woodchips is ultimately the most effective i would argue, its just normal composting etiquette is not helpful for the fungus to proliferate(stirring and agitation) If your a hunter, you have access to large amounts of blood. Using blood meal in combination with sawdust is a project im currently entertaining to use as food for a digester for heat extraction and co2 enrichment for an artic greenhouse. Using homemade activated charcoal to extract the leachate as “biochar” If it works good enough it might be even more effective to just use it as a blackwater sewage system to not let those good minerals and nutrients go to waste feeding anerobic bacteria. Its really not too unlike city wastewater treatment bubbler trenches and sludge settling tanks. Definitely not a simple system, but the symbiotic benefits throughout the whole system is worth the effort when you deal with -30f to -60f in the dead of winter.
It takes a while to rot down into something not detrimental to plants… Between the nitrogen suck and the esthers poison, my garden plants are choking where I left the chips… If you’re doing it for gardening… Then no… Don’t… If you have a longer range plan or simply want to prevent weeds, then they’re fine…
There are several misinformations in this article. His advice that this bark doesn’t rob nitrogen is not accurate, soil chemistry and nitrogen are quite dynamic and you need to add nitrogen after the application. I have bark mulched blueberries for a decade. The biggest issue I see is alleopathy, the chemicals exuded by green mulch, I like to pile tree mulch for6 months to wash these detrimental chemicals from the tree mulch. Alleopathy is real.
I could watch you all day. Your legs and glutes are so impressive. I have always had semi muscular legs. Your stretching instructions, kot instructions is already giving me benefit. I’m older and do a ton of gardening. The squat works great but after days of shoveling and carrying, I’m getting backaches. Any recommendations. Thanks, appreciate you.
woofchips release over 95% of their carbon as carbon dioxide, as the microbes consume it. all woodchip fanatics are (mistakenly) not helping the environment at all. this happens in nature in forests, but much slower, when it comes to wood. last time i checked, mushrooms grow very well in forests, not fast growing vegetable crops. what would happen if all the commercial farmers decided to use woodchips?
Great article I really enjoyed it! Just some constructive feedback – in the beginning of the article you repeatedly say “uhh” without cuts or anything. I am guilty myself of “uhm”-ing too much myself so I don’t mean to offend you in any way, just saying that the article would be even more enjoyable that way.