chips

[ropensaddle]

I live where top soil is rarely good my question will chips compost
enough to make good soil/ How long if they are turned will it take?
Should or can it be mixed with soil particles after a decay period or
is it only good as mulch?

 

[Magnum783]

We have a mulch program at the AF base I work on. We regrind them and then mix them with a little nitrogen. I was a farmer for the first portion of my life so I know a little more than the average about dirt. Chips because of their size will take quite sometime to decompose but if you mix them with a little nitrogen a burry them slightly I think you will have improved soil in a year maybe less.
Jared

 

[geofore]

mulch/chips

Magnum has it right with the nitrogen helps but if your into organic try www.fungi.com and add a bit of fungi and water it now and then.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

The cheap way to do it is to mix soil with your chip piles.

If you ask can you spread chip out and get it to mulch down, no. You need to pile and turn every month or so. Turning helps get air in, spread moisture and get innoculuum on more surface.

When I ran a crew I would rent a skidder every other month to push out the piles, turn them up and provide room for more to be dumped.

Once you get good decomposition, you do not need to addd soil, just turn old in with new to get mycillium spread around.

After you get a number of piles decomposing, you can rent a screener to get the black dirt seperated from the big pieces, and mix it with native soil, large debris goes back into the piles....

 

[ropensaddle]

The cheap way to do it is to mix soil with your chip piles.

If you ask can you spread chip out and get it to mulch down, no. You need to pile and turn every month or so. Turning helps get air in, spread moisture and get innoculuum on more surface.

When I ran a crew I would rent a skidder every other month to push out the piles, turn them up and provide room for more to be dumped.

Once you get good decomposition, you do not need to addd soil, just turn old in with new to get mycillium spread around.

After you get a number of piles decomposing, you can rent a screener to get the black dirt seperated from the big pieces, and mix it with native soil, large debris goes back into the piles....

Thanks I did mention turning but
was going to spread then I have a turn plow and was going to plow in and then disc every once a while is this a working plan?

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I think it is a heat an moisture thing, spread out they dry too fast. Piles seem to be better, low piles keep a heat that stimulates the growth and holds the moisture in. Huge piles can actually combust spontaneously.

Let them break down for a few months, turn the piles, not windrows. then spread the residue out letting the big chunks break down in the field.

Should or can it be mixed with soil particles after a decay period or is it only good as mulch?

SO to answer your question directly; it is best to mix any compost with soil, since compost is just organic mater. If you were gardening with it, you might go 2 soil:1 sand:1compost to get a good sandy loam (pronounced loom only in the New England area).

I guess it really depends what you intend to do with the land you want to spread it on.

Another thing that will happen if you spread woody debris out over a wide area, the decomposition will steal all the N from the soil and stress the other plants. You will see this in sawdust piles a week after a job, the grass is greener everywhere byt where you left clumps of sawdust.

 

[ropensaddle]

Well am building a food plot for deer clover or equivalent and chips
have been decaying for at least a year kinda chocolate looking! The
plow would bury them and disk would turn them or no?

 

[begleytree]

saw dust at a mill is usually free. much easier to work with than the larger chips.
imo, disc is under and sow grass
-RAlph

 

[ropensaddle]

Thanks for the info everyone and I guess I need to read more on soil and water relations in the study guide clover makes own nitrogen and hard to get everything just right! Deer season comes too fast lol.

 

[maxburton]

The cheapest way to get rid of them is to put a layer of them between the peanut butter and jelly in your sandwiches. You hardly notice the taste, and before you know it, there's room to dump another load. And you can never get enough fiber.:yoyo: