For years I've use composted, sifted (1/4" screen) wood chips as a foundation for homemade potting soil. I find it superior in multiple aspects to peat-based mixtures.

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

Re-chipping and/or sifting is key! Obviously, the enormous wood chips in the video would take ages to break down... Plus, having enough moisture and green stuff/manure in there is vital so the microbes can get to work. I use the bigger chips as mulch to encourage mycorrhizae to grow. It helps that we get a lot of rain where I live though. :) I make sure the chips are damp, and I try to turn the pile at least four times. (My compost pile is in a large perforated plastic bin with a lid that keeps the heat in fairly well.)

I agree with this assessment. I live in FL and woodchips compost fast here. The humidity, fungal dominance, and year-round pests help to break it down quickly. But, it just isn't a true compost. Without fertilizers, it is pretty much dead. 3 years of gardening was wasted on the Back to Eden method. Yes, it made the ground more absorbent and held water longer, but the nutrients just weren't there. I have a 2yr old pile of woodchips that is now fluffy soil, its great for moisture retention and to bulk up with other fertilizers. I mix chicken manure into it in my raised bed gardens and that seems to work fine. it is also a great food resource for worms, so they end up turning a bed into worm compost over time.

Thanks for all the great comments!!!!! Part 2 of the series: kzread.info/dash/bejne/nqOok8mPhd22aLA.html

Elaine's probably screaming at her screen that visual inspection is no way to judge the quality. And someone else will want lab tests. But I appreciate these experiments, even though I have plenty of space and rain to make a pile and leave it for two years, and am happy with the results. Like you said, different context.

@Yahya100x100

2 жыл бұрын

I agree the wood chips in areas where rain is scanty offers protection to living matters under the soil from drying allowing them to function underneath.

@SpidermanandhisAmazingFriends

Жыл бұрын

I live in southern Michigan and air is like a wet sponge, so wood chips are great for compost here

I had to redo a few raised beds this year. I dug them down, added a bunch of wood chips, and then added the soil back to the top. Right now I have a cover crop mix growing in those beds and they look great.

Another use for fresh Arborist chip is to make huglekulture rows. I've been mounding up 1-2 ft of chip with 4-6 in of soil on top.

Wood chips are tough and Diego you are correct about it depending on your local weather. We pile up the chips, fill in the paths, and use them as mulch around the gardens. The chips in the paths are "mechanically" broken down simply by walking on them as well as adding kitchen scraps to the paths. When the new growing season starts a light raking to get the larger chunks moved to the side and then the rest moved to the vegetable gardens and the process is started again. The piled chips are "used" throughout the year. A new pile is started when we screen the old pile(s) and wood chips, grass clippings, and kitchen scraps are "layered" and the pile reduces around half to three quarters by the next season. Wood chips are added to the bottom of the pots we use for flowers and herbs to make the pots easier to move around. At the end of the season, they are emptied into the newest compost piles. Have a great day.

I totally agree with not using wood chips if you want good compost fast. I'm not worried about fast compost, I need to keep moisture in the soil during the long hot dry summer & insulate the ground during the few freezing nights we get in late winter. Wood chips being free, are the best mulch solution for my budget & available time. I put a 6-8 inch thick layer on my entire garden in the spring & it has compacted to 3-4 inches, it is definitely starting to break down with lots of mushrooms & bug activity. Wood chips take 18-24 months to breakdown when I do this. I started with my first load of wood chips about 5 years ago & it definitely is a long game but amazing results for the soil eventually.

@louisbrentnell2551

10 ай бұрын

Several thousand tons of chips here. My heavy clay soil changes rather quickly, especially where I’ve created swales on contour.

In small quantities they do fine as a compost input, but overall I agree that they are better put to use elsewhere. One potential use would be in a core gardening method, using them as a modified hugelkulture layer under the growing medium that eventually forms a spongy water reservoir.

Most people don't know how to use woodchip effectively. As you say; large particles are a pain. I go through roughly a ton of woodchip a year, mostly on the 40cm/15" paths between my 1,2m/4@ wide, no till beds. I add roughly 25% racing pigeon droppings (high N content) to each ton, mixed in & then stacked in the bulk bags used to deliver sand & ballast to small construction projects. Then apart from keeping it moist, I ignore it for a year. Year old still goes only on paths, with the 2 year old added ON TOP of my beds, where they leach nutrients down into the soil but don't rob N from the root zone.

I totally agree. I've tried using even aged wood chips in a compost pile, and the end result is more of a "rich mulch" rather than compost. Which works fine, but isn't the usual end product I'm looking for from a compost pile. So now I use leaves and straw (and shredded paper) as the carbon in my compost pile, and use the wood chips as a top dressing in some of the beds.

@benthere8051

2 жыл бұрын

Leaves are a great resource and make an excellent addition to a garden. It is hard to believe they are discarded. I have contacted services that remove leaves from lawns in this area and they will not make them available to me.

@caseG80

2 жыл бұрын

@@benthere8051 possible to go ahead of trash service and grab the leaves put out for pick up? Or family , friends and neighbors usually are more than happy to let there leaves be cleaned up for free. And remember if your getting wood chips from a local tree service most likely the leaves on tree were sent through the chipper also it’s possible to run the woodchips through a chipper once twice more to make them smaller my neighbor does this when he makes 1000’s of yards of mulch. Cheers

I can't wait to see what he says about a thermophilic compost pile with wood chips. I've been turning and burning on my pile of woodchips for a month or so and just started sifting. I can forsee using the larger particles to continue composting or mulching but then again the desert trees I got from the local road crew are likely all nitrogen fixing legume tree ie mesquite, Palo Verde. Either way whether it's mulch or fine compost it's free and useful in my garden.

I use horse manure, grass hay and wood chips I call it my garden lasagna soil maker recipe. I add water and let it bake. BEAUTIFUL😍

Context...context...context. Nature is ALWAYS right - learn to mimic Nature's processes and in Nature wood never breaks down rapidly. I do use wood chips to make activated biochar to speed up decomposition. Studies show adding about 5% activated biochar increases moisture holding capacity by 26%. When establishing a new growing bed, I'll dig a pit and fill it with wood chips that's been inoculated with a mycorrhizal solution to help speed up decomposition and help with moisture retention - a modified hugelkultur bed. Since I have the space to do so, I make piles of covered wood chips which sits for two to three years. I still have to sift the resulting medium but well worth the effort. Enjoyed the video! Cheers...

It takes wood chips about 3 years to break down and makes beautiful soil. I like to pile free wood chips about 12 inches deep on a future garden site. It takes time but if it’s free then find a use for it.

I have been enjoying this project develop. Good for mulch unless left for 3+ years, is my conclusion. Thank you for doing these experiments.

It is a good product and easy to get your hands on the key word is quickly always keeping a pile going

Thanks for the content Diego. There are def pro's and cons. The ease of obtaining woodchips - dropped on my driveway for free - may outweigh the cons of getting them to break down. Especially where there is a general lack of quality carbon sources in my 10a zone. A second hand chipper that can get the woodchips more fine is a good investment, and I also have experimented with in-ground (a big hole) wood chip composting systems that work really well holding moisture in my heavy clay soil, as well as being a great home for insects, worms, and the like. Keeping it aerobic can be a challenge, but wood chips generally are coarse enough to allow air throught.

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

I have heavy clay soil, too, and free wood chips are amazing for it! My soil is starting to be more like a sponge the more I use them while simultaneously improving drainage! Before I used wood chips, I had a patch of grass that was a shallow pond every time it rained, and the entire garden would bake to a rock-hard shell (even while covered in vegetation) whenever it was dry and sunny for a couple of days...I think the key is only using very small wood chips for composting, and using the larger ones for mulch. Plus, encouraging soil biology to help break things down quicker. It helps that we get a lot of rain here (the Netherlands. Are you in Norway, by the way?). I will try the in-ground method, too, thanks for the inspiration!

@torheggelund1608

2 жыл бұрын

@@billiev8705 I’m in San Diego, so we don’t get much rain. Moisture is the largest challenge to getting wood chips to decompose here

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

@@torheggelund1608 Oh, haha, Norway was a wild guess based on your screen name. :) The lack of rain seems so challenging! I have heard dr Ingham say ground cover crops might be better than wood chips in some situations... though a thick layer of chips will certainly hold moisture in the soil once you have moisture! I would imagine you'd have to water the soil first before putting anything on it... Difficult to even get a pile to stay damp on the inside with our copious rain here!

Interesting experiment! To me, wood chips are too valuable to put on the compost heap. They make the most beautiful paths which is where I use them. That said, all kinds of sticks, twigs and other ligneous stuff ends up in my compost heaps. Then it just gets put onto the soil and I plant into what CAN be some pretty lumpy compost. The plants don't seem to mind...! Thanks Diego.

I'm working on setting my garden up for next yr. I've decided to make a mounded raised bed. So I've been digging a 6in trench in my walkways and tossing that up on the beds then filling the trench up to the top of the New bed height. I used leaves and grass as my mulch in the beds this yr and that works good. I'm hoping the wood chip trench will help with water retention

Good job explaining your context and encouraging people to do the same for themselves. We all need to practice thinking thru things for ourselves especially with mainstream media and censorship nowadays.

Hi I live in Canada Cold winters The is a guy above Ottawa that makes compost and sells to stores he gets Wood chips bark ect from wood mills and manure from dairy farms .

I put wood chips along my fence line where the dogs trample on them and on the walk paths of the garden. Eventually they breakdown and I replace them with fresh wood chips and start the cycle all over again. It takes time but for me this works out well.

When I cut back my bushes, and shrubs, and trimmed my trees back and dead limbed them. I took the branches through my chipper, leaves and all. Put them into a ditch that was about two feet deep of clay. Then I added a pile of wet grass clippings and leaves. Then I added newspaper layers with more grass layers. (was 4 of each about 2 inches thick. I topped that with a soaked pile of compost that I was unable to get to the correct moisture content followed by more newspaper then topped with good compost. I then place a solar tarp over it (primarily because I had no place to put it at that point in time. This was around the end of summer. In mid spring I uncovered the pile (now a shallow pit. Poked it with the pitch fork a couple times then hit the whole thing with a tiller. To my surprise most of the wood was in an advanced state of decomposition if not gone. This was a lot of work though. Not to mention all of the compost and other organic material I had sitting around to add to it. Had zero dollars but many hours of labor in it, Cheers to back breaking labor to boost that harvest of food through the next season!!

i dig the accuracy of your communications, sir.

I mainly use wood chips as weed suppression and just brush away the sections I need when I need them. It’s free it I add a layer every year and I spray it down with a cedar based repellent for flys but I’m just a home gardener using a little over half an acre by myself. I couldn’t imagine this being the best strategy for someone trying to produce on a large scale

I really appreciate your work on these videos. Also like that you're willing to challenge commonly-held beliefs with scientific experiments.

I agree , I use them to cover the ground in my orchard area . After about 2 years I start adding to the compost or use as mulch as it is getting pretty broken down. Here in Australia , most of my free woodchips are very hardwoods & take a long time to decompose . The areas that are covered have greatly improved as it is all poor quality back fill with sand , clay broken bricks & rock. I now have millions of worms & my trees are loving it with maybe 20 cm depth increase & growing . I put a new layer every 2 yrs or so. The soil under the woodchips is amazing compared to what it was! i

Diego, I would be interested in some testing on using wood chips as animal bedding and then composting, and seeing if the absorbed manure changes the c/n ratio enough to decrease decomposition time. As a free resource, wood chips are incredibly attractive as bedding material, and can definitely cut down the straw bill.

@zmblion

2 жыл бұрын

Yhats what I'm using in my chicken pen they have about a foot of chips

@gogogardener

2 жыл бұрын

Hens prefer straw. However, when necessary, I use pine shavings from Tractor Supply. I'd recommend using straw for the nest boxes. Though.

@Yahya100x100

2 жыл бұрын

Chicken manure + wood chips maybe not the ideal combo. But I think maybe cow manure + cow urine + wood chips + a lot of cow stepping and crushing would be great to see if it works.

@zmblion

2 жыл бұрын

@@gogogardener wood chips are just on the ground

@zmblion

2 жыл бұрын

@@Yahya100x100 your probably right look up polyface he uses a deep mulch litter and it looks like in 1 yr it very well could be a nice broken down compost that may need to mellow a bit

I wonder if there is a known difference in breakdown time between different kinds of trees-wood? Neat video as always! Thanks!

The trick to composting woodchips is to get them fresh from an arborist in late fall to early spring. That's when all the nutrients are pulled in the trunk of the tree, including nitrogen. I found that out accidentally a few years back when I had a tree chopped on my property and the woodchips started steaming almost immediately. In just a few days the core looked like finished compost, and I was bummed that most of the chips got too dark (I wanted light chips to contrast with compost in my garden). I later did research and found out that there are regulations on how tall a woodchip pile can be because they can actually catch fire from the heat coming from bacterial activity, especially when paired with sunlight. I also didn't have to add water. The moisture they already had was enough. ETA: it depends on the tree too. Mine was a tulip poplar and is famous for breaking down fast, same for beech and birch trees. Oaks are notoriously slow to break down, that's why their logs make good mushroom substrates. Basically if a tree is good for mushroom making, it will break down more slowly, if it's not, fungus will rip through it like butter. The exception being softwoods like pine, fir, spruce etc. They take forever to break down and are good for neigther log mushroom cultivation nor composting.

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

Useful breakdown - no pun intended, ha! - thank you! I was lucky enough to get a gift of beech, birch and chestnut chips not too long ago, and I have to keep turning and watering the piles so they don't get too hot for the good bacteria to survive in there! Looks like I will have at least a thin layer of compost at the bottom of my mulch by spring, too. But yeah, it can get hot in there! Thankfully I've had lots of rain lately, which helps keep the piles damp on the outside atleast!

I use woodchips as mulch on perennial plants to keep weeds out and keep stable soil moisture (woodchips do a great job of it at my climate) and in the chicken run. The woodchips I clean from the chicken run that are full of chicken manure I leave to compost for a year after cleaning it out and it makes great compost.

@victorybeginsinthegarden

2 жыл бұрын

Yes I agree

@belindadomingo

2 жыл бұрын

We add wood chips to the chicken run too and with the combo of chicken manure and our wet temperate climate seems to break down the chips within a year.

last year I use the free mulch (mostly wood chips and yard waist) from the county put in my bio reactor which just have a lot of one inch pvc pipes and it worked well . just redid it with chips from chip drop we'll see how it goes adding chicken poo also as I clean the coop

I live in Tucson and use shredded palm fronds in my walkways. It has been four years and they do not compost well. I do not apply either water or nitrogen to them. I have no expectations for them to become compost but they are great at keeping the weeds in check.

For the first minute of this video, I was preparing my personal tirade to you. But yep I agree 100% with what you say. They are too slow to break down to be considered a main source of compost. But the end result after 2 or 3 years and some sifting is pretty awesome. Love your work 👍

I added a six inch layer of wood chips to my garden mainly as a weed control measure because I was traveling for work and didn't want to start from square one when I got back to gardening. After three years they had turned into beautiful soil. These were not tree trimmings, they were a hardwood product meant for charcoal.

@ColoradoTodd

2 жыл бұрын

Too true - they're a great "compost in place" mulch. But the goal with a compost pile (as opposed to mulching) is to create compost more quickly. The breakdown of mulch can also be environment-dependent. Here in northern Colorado, I mulched a bed with wood chips 7 years ago and only the bottom half inch has composted. We're just really dry here.

I love your experiments! I’m an everything composter....with different results each time.

Joel Salatin compost video comes to mind. The heavy bacterial activity from decomposition that is already happening and woodchips is more of the bedding for the heavy animal residue from large animal carcasses. in turn that heat from breakdown and the rotting fluids help spread nitrogen, moisture and heat into the large chip sized woodchips. Joel Salatin uses the wood chips in his carcass decomposing bins multiple times until it is broken down and they break down fast. I would think that blood meal used for nitrogen is a stable product and is not actively decaying as food for bacteria. Fresh horse and cattle bedding, roadkill, worm bin drippings are all much closer to an actively decaying mass and is closer to the environment where you want woodchips to capture all those released nitrogen and moisture and heat. I would think an aerated submerged high nitrogen water tank could give a better environment for the breakdown of wood. Nitrogen penetration into the wood through aerosol, gas, and drippings is too absent in bloodmeal only. But at this point it's a lab concoction instead of an actual "compost bin" Your neighbors might hate the following suggestion but if you supply buckets to a local fresh fish and butcher they an fill you up with as much guts fins bones and heads as you want. It will stink unless you bury them deep into some woodchips and even then, you have to protect it from scavengers and stray HOA enforcers If your compost pile can disintegrate bone, it is active enough for adding woodchips to the pile. Seriously look up Joel Salatin's old composting video to ramp up woodchip use. For home gardening I don't like wood chips since it cools the bioreaction in a compost way too much. It needs so much input like you said. Maybe if you want to externally heat the compost pile it could work. Solar heating is free but you would need to heat the core of the pile to keep the bacteria alive and thriving

Interesting..Thankyou..

Tey pouring some deisel exhaust fluid over the wood chips. It's basically just urea which is just pure nitrogen. It's cheap and available at any big box store. Most people think because it is added to deisel fuel its toxic to plants but its just almost pure nitrogen. Of course it will have to be diluted to prevent burning plants.

Good video. Do you know when part 2 will be live? Says "private" now. Thanks.

Woodchips are the basis for all my veg beds. They do a great job...by the 2nd or third year. Decent job first year. But crazy is my huge wood chips pile (6 semi truck loads) that steams and gets rain, sun, etc hardly decomposed when dug up with a front end loader after 4 years. At ground level it was black (dumped on sand soil) up about 6" but just chips up from there. It was pine and hardwoods containing chips, twigs, leaves, needles, bark etc. Pine and hardwood semi separated. Lots of white spaghetti mycelium fungus(?) though. I was surprised, fascinated, disappointed, excited. Knowledge and science is fun.

Woodship composting is the best compost according to the French Templar Knights, the secret, is to plunge all woodships into water for 24-48 hours; i use a 300liters cow drinker with a purge valve.

Depends on type tree. Some pioneer species trees have timber like paper., I can chuck branches as thick as my arm into the compost heap & they break down in a year... But it's tropical, real hot and hots of rain here

Hi Diego🖐 what is better carbon source for composting high nitrogen dairy manure: pine tree sawdust or willow/birch wood chips?

I'm interested in the biology created: aerobic bacterial species, fungal activity and beneficial nematodes. Would you discuss that too please? Thanks for content

@torheggelund1608

2 жыл бұрын

elaine ingram should answer all your questions ! She has hours of material

@pamlacourse6891

2 жыл бұрын

@@torheggelund1608 Thanks Tor- her research is amazing 💚 I'm hoping Diego will report on soil community development at the 6th month decomposition stage for each of his 3 test piles.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

Not being an expert I can say that you are generating a lot of fungal activity because fungi are the main decomposer organisms. As the fungi break down the wood chips more and more, then you get other organisms which can eat the residual wood chips - bacteria, micro and macro arthropods. And you get organisms eating others and the waste of others. I think having some wood in the soil at all times is good. Some, not excessive amounts.

Is deep aeration a type of double digging? I've used a 24 in long x 4 in diameter earth auger drill bit to drill deep down and backfill with a mix of compost and gritty soil mix. I then topdress with more compost to cover the clay that gets pulled up. Basically swiss cheesing an area of my yard that is heavier clay.

Wither one will had wood chips to compost (compost should always be a mixture of materials) depends on one's definition of "wood chips" That was one of the mistakes people have with BTE. The "wood chips" used are chipped up branches. With chip drop, a lot of the material is chipped up firewood logs. I have a chipper shredder that I chip up branches 1" or less in diameter, leaves and all. Some people would consider that would chips. I think it would make great hen house bedding and addition to compost that tends to pack down and become anaerobic.

lol, I have a pile of wood chips under shady trees in my very wet Connecticut yard for about 6+ months I thought would go into the compost bins but used for sheet mulching instead. Completely get what you're saying!

You are right, however… I put a shallow layer of year old chips in my covered bin in early summer, mid junish, in the desert… I do slow composting with infrequent turning and they were atop a nitrogen layer… we had a long heavy monsoon starting in late July… and I have holes in the top… and I probably only watered it three or four times before the monsoon… i wasn’t planning on composting the chips and moving them out of the way to harvest the compost… just wanted to keep moisture in the lower material over the summer… in September… I opened it up and found the bottom half of those wood chips were almost completely composted, but still mulchy … a lot of sawdust like stuff … but, it was very very hot and they got a lot of rain water, which matches your argument about resources. I just got lucky… but I do like to use them on top to keep moist as I am a lazy composter at this juncture.

My method is to put wood chip on the paths between the raised beds on top of liftable landscape sheets . To stop weed at the edge I skirt the raised beds with a 6 inch sheet of stapled landscape sheet. When I see weeds growing on the wood chip I lift it and sieve out the particles below 1/2 inch . When I have collected 1 darlek 330 litre of wood chip I mix it with two darlek 660 litres of green material and 50 litres of coffee grounds and 50 litres of sharp sand . Within 6 months and 4 turns it is the perfect compost . Note I put insulation sheets around the compost have a pallet underneath to encourage ventilation. It hits a high temp throughout the compost.

Hey Diego Whew that was close. The marauding hoard with torches almost trampled me. Needed to lay low for a bit. Echoing the observations and statements of previous respondents. Wood chips are one of many tools so to say for folks looking to improve their quality of life. Thanks Diego. oh keep your head down. I hear them coming again.

Great video. What do you think about the quality that you “will” get, and do you think wood chip compost should be used different? Do you think it would be better used in an orchard or food forest and maybe not the best for market gardens or row crops? I wish I would of seen this before I built my bioreactors because I would of used more horse manure in them.

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

Not Diego, but... my guess is that as long as the compost is aerobic (so lots of turning to get air in), you'll get the good microbes and limit on the bad ones. That is the most important for the functioning of the garden. As long as you put the compost ON the soil, and don't dig it in, it will be a great addition to any garden, including a market garden. The soil bacteria, fungi, and all the other tiny critters will do the rest of the work for you. Most important, I think, is to have as much variety as possible in the types of input that go into your compost, so not just wood chips and cut grass, for example. My view is: the more diverse the input, the wider the range of good critters (bacteria, fungi, etc etc) in the compost. And it's those critters that make nutrients already present in the soil available to the plant! Dr. Elaine Ingham says: if you make sure you have lots of good biology in the soil, that soil biology will deliver exactly the nutrients your plant needs in exactly the amounts it needs them (including correcting the ph inside the roots if it is not ideal in the soil!) It's like a computer data center/provider hub down there with plants and microbiology constantly communicating and providing one another with the nutrients they need!

you said there are other ways to use them in the garden, besides at the bottom of new beds and on walk ways what are some other ways for good use?

I love how you can back up your comments based on your own experiments 👌. 3 years ago I “had to” use 2 yr old wood chip/ leaf pile (mostly eucalypt) that was free, to refresh a veggie bed having no compost left - the garlic coming out a year after that was awesome, but chunky chips are still evident and direct sowing that bed is pretty much impossible. pros and cons as with everything I guess, you just have to observe and test and find the niche that suits each component to best integrate them.

@billiev8705

2 жыл бұрын

Eucalyptus has anti-microbial properties, so that is probably what hurt your soil biology there. Also, wood chips and wood chip compost is best applied as a mulch - if you dig it in, it may rob the soil of some nitrogen (though this is probably temporary).

You sound like you might be able to answer a question I have. Are chipped oleander branches okay as a mulch layer in avocado and citrus trees? I don't compost wood chips, but try to cover the tree roots at the end of Fall to protect them from frosts. I also add straw from coop. Over the Winter and Spring, they break down and then help hold water in the soil the rest of the year.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

I used to have a lot of oleander and I chipped most of it up. I didn’t notice any negative effects.

@annburge291

2 жыл бұрын

Where you place oleander chop and drop depends on whether you have dogs. You don't want them burying their bones in this area because the branches and leaves are toxic.

@gogogardener

2 жыл бұрын

@@DiegoFooter Thank you. A friend was worried the fruit trees would absorb the toxin. I felt a natural toxin breaks down easier than modern chemicals.

@gogogardener

2 жыл бұрын

@@annburge291 No worries. No dogs. My hens used to love sheltering under them,. They'd scratch around the fallen flowers and even nibbled them. They were 7 years old when a coyote got them. However, my dad said that after WWII, the beaches in OC took out the oleanders because alot of folks were hospitalized or died when they used the branches to cook hot dogs or marsmellows.

Have had a similar experience with woodchips, but over a year or so it worked - ending up with a pretty decent top dressing. Could increasing the mass of the pile help? You’d likely have a much more active pile of you increased the size, right?

I'm in Hawaii and woodchips break down fast here, but it's not a good base if you're looking for hot compost that breaks down in a month or two. I like to think of it more like leaf mold. If you're looking at doing a compost, it needs to sit for a long while while fungus, microbes and bugs break it down. However, I use woodchips as a thick mulch in my garden (around 4"thick). I frequently add used coffee grounds to it, which really boosts the fungal growth. I also bury food scraps at the bottom of the mulch layer. Overall, I Have to add more woodchips every 6-9 months and it makes a great fluffy soil. If I had a bigger lot and better tools, I'd try composting a load of arborist woodchips by grinding them further and mixing in used coffee grounds and other nitrogen materials

If I want them to break down faster I place them in a tub of water and just soak them till they go spongy.. takes awhile still. Before using it I add worm tea and bubble it for a day then it is ready to be added or used.

Interesting, maybe you should try pine woodchips. I don’t use woodchips in my compost but I did notice last year when I laid pine woodchips on the forest floor of my garden it decomposed very quickly. Perhaps it was due to it being a 1-2 inch layer. I cut some trees and turned some of it into woodchips and my backyard just decomposes it so quickly, maybe it’s the heat, leaves in the fall and southern clay, water and conditions.

Last summer I built new boxes for garden directly on the grass I put 1 feet of wood chip, 6 inches of homemade compost with a lot of leaves in it In my garden the wood chips its a very nice natural sponge I’m surprise that we dont see in your wood chips compost the white funge

Really really hope you try again with the bin, but this time use a fungal/mushroom inoculant. Try 1 bin with king stropharia and 1 bin with pink oyster and then 1 control. Not only are those edible, choice, quality mushrooms you can sell or use, I've heard that king stropharia is a very aggressive saprotrophic decomposer. In my own field trials with a leaf mold, softwoods (the arborist mulch that I have access to), and hardwood pellets, it seems to have broken the pile down rapidly. In spring however, I will find for certain what quality the material is when I break apart the pile (wasn't going to break it apart just before my very harsh winters; I want the king stropharia to overwinter). From what I understand, supplementing with a a hardwood feedstock is only maybe necessary if you really want the edible mushrooms and your pile doesn't have any; that's how aggressive of a feeder it is, apparently. Also, king stropharia have naturalized in settings across North America so you shouldn't have concerns about them being invasive, but rather complementary/mutualistic to your garden. And once you get them naturalized, they're going to be there for a long time, so need to rebuy. I believe same may be true for pink oyster, but I am not sure on that.

did you add water regularly to the one with the blood meal? just curious

great video, really loved this experiment. you are incorrect about retaining moisture. wood chips in a sufficiently large pile, about the size of your two piles, will retain moisture under about a 3" outer layer. especially if they get a good soaking first. I piled up a pile of cedar/oak (60/40 or 70/30 respectively, so mainly cedar) and it would dry on the surface, but remain moist about 1-1/2 to 3" beneath surface. This was thru a brutal Texas summer, with high winds, no rain for well over 45 days, and in full sun. Additionally, the beetles and ants helped to munch down the wood. Utilizing natures little composters is key, lots of bacterial and fungal elements hitchhike on the ants and beetles. throw some bird seed on top every once in a while to get some bird poop going, and you have an essentially, work free compost system, but yes, it takes a year or three.

Here in Hawaii wood chips get devoured by millipedes and turned into frass relatively quickly. If it weren't for the millipedes and I had to rely on fungus it would take a long longer. It's always moist here which certainly helps.

Might have to disagree based on the 40m3 of high quality compost (from hardwood woodchip that has been active for less than 3 months) I have outside. Making it in a barrel with a lid Diego - are you inoculating with; facultative anaerobes/lacto/actinomycetes/phototrophic bactera? Without adding compost or having soil contact or an inoculum where could microbes be expected to come from? The horse manure compost will likely be heavily bacterially dominant (High moisture and N) and the woodchip compost fungally dominant so highly variable outcomes for purpose. Thanks for sparking conversation

I only use wood chips in my walkways. Every few years when they have broken down I add them to my rows and put down new chips.

I live in the PNW and can get tons of free wood chips. They need to be aged at least 5-6 moths before use. I have had to "toss" them with a pitch fork with the rain or a sprinkler to get them uniformly moist or they get dry in the center and get mildew and do not break down. My soil needs tons of organic matter and calcium. Can't add too much and for a food forest it's the most efficient method for me. I now have chickens and they break the aged wood chips down into soft corky black fuel for the compost pile. Wood chips are great but just putting them on the ground isn't going to do much. You're right there.

@Galv1nBass

2 жыл бұрын

How do the chickens help break in down faster? Through their manure and constant tossing?

@jlazelle1

2 жыл бұрын

@@Galv1nBass Pretty much. I also add smaller amounts of old leaves and compost that has worms and bugs for them. It takes 5 chickens about 6 weeks to turn aged chips into black soft material. Better than adding the chips to the compost. That doesn't work really at all like Diego says.

thats where fungus comes into play

how did the improved bio reactor composter do or is doing. Single inside opening 3ft outside 5 foot.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

Doing good. Manure only.

would it make sense to try composting wood using termites, similar to vermicomposting? termicompost/termiculture?

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

Interesting idea.

Ah, wish I could do the same experiments as you here on the east coast where we get significantly more rain and winter.

I think what you should say is "some wood chips" because they aren't all created equal. Your barrels don't really meet the minimum critical mass, don't seem to have oxygen intake. Here is Florida we get tree trimmer mulch which is branches and fresh green leaves, not chipped logs, winter dormant branches without leaves or pallets. Best thing is frequently the trees are legume trees which carry a far better C:N ratio. That said, don't expect wood to decompose fast but here in a warm zone we get millipedes working in a few months and the warmth lets them go year round. So, just because you have one experience don't assume every place has your identical problems.

Wood chips are better for paths etc, though leafy mulch more branch type mulch will break down much quicker naturally being small. Using horse manure with lots of shavings or dust will take a long time to break down even when moist still needs lists of imputes. I’m trying to use that manure to make a watered down tea for my veggie plants...

Every pile of chips I get from the landscape company is steaming hot. I think if the pile is 10 yards or more it may compost down really well. But I have no idea why or how this happens. Or the end product. In my environment wood chips will stay moist without watering. So that’s not a problem. What do you think of sawdust?

Wouldn't adding sugar to the mix just raise the carbon ratio more? Could this account for the similar decomposition time to the untreated? I find my wood chips break down quicker when I add soybean meal for a nitrogen source.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

There wasn't much sugar and it was meant to kickstart the whole process. I don't think it had any effect.

The only way to compost wood chips quickly is to grind them into sawdust. But wood chips have a very positive attribute in that they are never contaminated with Grazon. A possible alternative to grinding would be near-constant agitation with optimum moisture, aeration, warmth, and high nitrogen. I've always wanted to try a large rotating drum composter. I feel that would make for a really interesting experiment.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

Or just make a big pile and let it sit for a very long time. :)

If instead of wood chips, would using sawdust which is smaller in size be able to break down more easily especially when mixed with animal manure such a chicken poop or cow dung. Secondly for Johnson Su Bioreactor, would the use of grass have the same result as using leaves ?.

Please review my understanding and correct. Two conditions create this divide. Annuals vs Perennials. Annuals want bacterial dominant conditions. Perennials want fungal dominance. The goal is to shoot for 1 to 1 balance. This can be achieved by innoculation and establishing "living root". Living root, Micorrhizal fungi, microbes and other creatures are dependent upon each other (symbiotic). Dead soil is what you get when you take out any 1 member. This is why cover crops work. Woodchips work by decomposing slowly, feeding both bacteria and fungi which feed microbes. But it can take a long time to establish micorrhizal fungi. Living root promotes air and water flow in soil. Large woodchip chunks prevent seedlings from growth and woodchip in soil ties up nitrogen until they break down. So wood chips is not good for veggies. To integrate the 2 worlds, the wood chips are rowed/opened up to soil level so that softer compost becomes veggie bed. But, before planting veggies a cover crop is planted like legumes which deposit nitrogen into the soil via nodules (nodule pink inside is healthy) which cover crop is cut down to soil surface prior to flowering stage so to maintain maximum nitrogen in soil in nodules. Flowering and fruiting uses nitrogen from root nodules and that is why cover crop is cut before flowering or at first sign of flowers. The cover crop is a sacrifice plant that the bacteria, fungi and microbes absorb to create food for your desired crop. Perennial living root is possible and more desirable because they keep symbiotic relatives alive. Wood chips is good for providing long term soil protection and continual feed by gradual decomposition. Large and small chunks create aerobic conditions, by gaps creating passageways for air and water flow. Wood chips provide a continual compost tea each time it rains. Living root also provides pathways for air & water. When a plant displays symptoms it is because some relationship of the living soil is failing. Bugs only attact plants when they are ill. A device used to measure plant sugars (Refractometer) which is relatively simple and cheap can show the plants blood sugar level. A level below 12 is sign of illness (note: no gmo plant has ever risen above 10), levels above prevent insect consumption, because insects require easier to digest sickly plants due to their lack of digestive enzymes. So always look to the relationship of the living soil. This is because all soil on Earth contans all the minerals every plant needs but it is the relationship that dictates if a plant receives needed nutrients. Plants extrude rewards (endr?) as incentives to different symbiotic members to receive what it needs because a plant knows. All of the elements in the periodic table are available in all soil and plants require all of them. In different quantities. Our farming practices of using salts, tilling and pesticides is what has been destroying our soil. Micorrhizae fungal is the great mother of all living things, the largest of beings of Earth. It helped plants evolve from the waters to land.

I only use aged wood chips or screened wood chips in my compost (higher bark ratio in the fines), and then screen the finished pile and use the remnant as an inoculate for the next pile. If I didn’t I wouldn’t have enough material for a second pile. If you have enough material already you wouldn’t need to look for additional inputs.

Last year I tried to compost coarse bark from a nearby sawmill. I mixed the bark with greenery and some chicken manure, I moved the pile twice and added more greenery both times. This spring I sifted the compost and found no remnants of the bark. I do not understand the urgency of getting the compost ready as soon as possible, you get as much if you do two quick compostings in one year as if you let two piles of compost have a year to break down.

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

I don't disagree. Space becomes an issue of just letting a pile sit for years to not have results. Personally, I would rather get more from that same space by composting materials quicker.

Interesting! But i cant see part 2. Says the video is private

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

It will show up on Friday the 26th.

Diego, I still wonder if burning some of the wood chips an then use the ash in the compost pile. I wonder if this would speed up your bacteria activity ?

@DiegoFooter

2 жыл бұрын

I would worry the pH would be altered too much.

Next its fungi in the woodchips! But inoculate with known lignin eaters. I vaguely remember Paul Stamets did a large area study.

cant agree more, wood chips lack nitrogen. I use wood chips as mulching

Just to add using wood chip in the flower garden it’s always a good practice to put aged manure on first as the wood chip draws the nitrogen from the soil, not the air like clover does.

Malcolm Beck told me in person to use all resources organic or non organic to achieve great results !

Agreed! Well said!

Nature isn't well suited for the impatient.

Is it possible to burn wood chips into ash via fire before composting to speed up the process

First, when you compost woodchips you have to put the bulk through a tumbler and screen out the wood. Each time you do this you will get rich humus-y topsoil. Second, you can clearly see that when you add soil and worms, the wood chips break down faster. Third, you've been trying all of these methods and it has been richly rewarding for all of us, but if you want to quick compost wood chips, you will need a heated rotary tumbler and chips no bigger than 3". Via moisture heat and inoculated enzymes and bacteria and machine-turning the chips are cooked down in only 2 weeks. You run it through the screen again and any chip bigger than 3" has to be burned into bio-char. If you can't make a rotary tumbler, you can still make a passive solar water heater and run the hot water through a coil in the middle of your barrel. It might take a few months, but that should kick up the process into another thermophilic phase and unleash some voracious bacteria.

Even pine shavings from the chicken coop do not break down for years.

What about throwing out everything you have been told and using anaerobic composting? Eliminate the holes in the barrel or raise them up to no lower than halfway down? I live in the Puget Sound area and have seen lots of rotting wood. It doesn't produce the usual rancid smells associated with most anaerobic situations.

From my experience even large piles of woodchips take years to breakdown, not just a couple years, more like 5+. At my work we sometimes chip up trees straight into a pile along the woodline and I've gone back and checked them over the years and they are slooooow to breakdown. Just my experience.

That's why putting them in the chicken coop for bedding works so well. It's great bedding and the chickens do all the work. That being said mine was the smaller bagged pine chips from tractor supply (not hardwood). I think if those large ones were ran through a chipper the results would be a lot better.

I have used wood chips in a wicking bed and it breaks down almost completely within 6 months!

are wood chips a naturally occurring phenomenon in nature? in other words is a decomposing tree the same? I would personally think not as many biological systems change from metabolizing to decomposing upon "death" but that also would presume that all of the trees composition including the microbe were still intact, plus the biodiversity in wood chips would be different from a live tree vs a decaying one? Rambling wonder. Great video looking forward to part 2! Curious which pile would be a better mixer with other composting materials.

I suspect the temperature problem is the fact that the biological activity is between the chips, and so the heat created has to raise the temperature of a larger volume of matter. As for chips lowering moisture? That’s often the point. You should add chips if you’re having trouble with a wet pile going anaerobic. Otherwise. Limit your additions.

A couple of things that werent mentioned; the rate of which your woodchips decompose are contingent on several factors such as, moisture, your ratio of inputs, and the type of woodchips, etc. No all woodchips are created equally and you'll certainly have a hard tome composting cedar and locust chips. Instead try using maple, hickory or oak chips which decompose much quicker. Second thing that should be mentioned is about horse manure. Often horses and livestock are fed fungicides such as ivermectin, don't you think this will inhibit decomposition? Since one of the star players in decomposition is fungus, I don't think fungicidal horse manure is gonna be conducive to a speedy decomposition. All of these factors should be considered. Wood chips are wonderful inputs to any garden or landscape if done properly. Just be mindful of what you do and how you do it.

The larger the chip, the greater the volume to surface area ratio. Want to minimize that ratio to hasten decomposition. Screen the chips? Also just leave the chips in a big pile and don't disturb for heat and fungal growth. Hopefully the chips have a lot of leafy material mixed in for higher N/C ration.. Get chips accordingly.