Tim:
I Think there are a number of woods that contain oils that prevent growth
for a while at any rate. I'm thinking of eucalyptus, pine etc. The products
may be in the leaves rather than the woods I guess. The effect is not of
long duration I think and so shouldn't be a concern. I think chips work best
when spread over the surface of soils. They even make an excellent driveway,
as do peach pips. - and they're biodegradable
SS
From: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com [mailto:compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com] On
Behalf Of Timothy Clark
Sent: 26 September 2011 18:44
To: compost tea group
Subject: RE: [compost_tea] wood chips and compost
Black walnut is the only hardwood that I am aware of that serves as a
natural inhibitor of plant growth: allelopathy. We use fir and hardwood for
composting as well as making a super bedding for red wrigglers. We have
limited experiments composting and testing on plant growth with the black
walnut.
http://pubs.ext.vt.edu/430/430-021/430-021.html
Tim Clark
_____
To: compost_tea_at_yahoogroups.com
From: home_at_zim.co.zw
Date: Mon, 26 Sep 2011 09:29:49 +0200
Subject: [compost_tea] wood chips and compost
My compost contains a lot of rotten veg & fruit. In moderation I use both
hardwood shavings & pine wood-chips in my compost; I find the wood shavings
suitably hold on to the valuable juices rather than it leaching out. I
top-off the heaps after the first turn, with a coating/plastering of mud
(red soil) and wood chips. I read somewhere that there are particular
microbes that live in clay soils that are capable of reducing ammonia
losses. The wood-chips come out when sieving and simply get reused.
Contrary to many publications I have also used pine sawdust in my
Vermiculture process; by pre-composting it and offering it up with regular
feedstock in balanced proportions.
Ian Carruthers
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<snip>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
"> Compost should be made from just about anything you can get for
nothing. Wood chips are great because they form a mulch and don't break down
too quickly- thereby protecting your tree or shrub's roots from the
greatest anti-microbial agent of all - the sun. So, use it to spread over an
> application of compost and you'll get a lot of benefit - especially if
you have lots of evaporation. Soon you'll have lots of earthworms
Received on Tue Sep 27 2011 - 02:25:56 EDT