Do woodchips contaminate soil?

[murphy4trees]

That sounds right to me... I suppose if the chips were deep enough they would protect the termite from predators...
What about tree stumps... is there any info on them providing a staging ground for house attacks... I'd like to put a brochure together to help sell stump grinding....

 

[SilverBlue]

Good idea about the stumps, even old woodpiles, will have to look into our database for info you could use. I would include other pests such as ants. I know that woodpiles provide shelter as well as long as conditions are right. Perhaps call your county agent and see if they have brochures that you can refer to as well. Mortgage lenders may want a certificate proving the grounds are termite free as well, good points to note.

 

[jmchristopher]

In my experience, the "contamination" factor is mostly semantics. If they consider wood a contaminant, it is. That doesn't mean that there couldn't concieveably be something of a chemical nature IN the tree that would be like what most of us think of as contamination.
As far as the Nitrogen robbing, it's probably not a real issue. First, the concept is not proven, despite some heavy pronouncements by folks like Univ. Maryland Dr. Goins. Second, the cycle is mostly a closed one in the immediate environment of the dump site. If N is locked up, it's released pretty quickly as the composting slows and stops. The concern is usually for the plants sharing the site, and this is not a garden we're talking about, but a place where somebody happily drives a truck up, dumps x yards of chips, and then knocks the pile over with a tractor.
What the property owners are getting is a wonderful site to put an organic garden of monstrous scale. (but don't tellthem that or you might lose your dumping rights anyway!)
Luck!

 

[OutOnaLimb]

I know of a couple of places around here, (soil companies, landscape suppliers, and a mushroom farm) that will actually buy the chips. They dont pay much but it will help put gas in the tank of your truck. They however usually dont want the chips that come from coniferous trees. Whats up with the turpentine in pine and spruce chips that make them unusable for some places?

 

[Lumberjack]

Originally posted by OutOnaLimb
I know of a couple of places around here, (soil companies, landscape suppliers, and a mushroom farm) that will actually buy the chips. They dont pay much but it will help put gas in the tank of your truck. They however usually dont want the chips that come from coniferous trees. Whats up with the turpentine in pine and spruce chips that make them unusable for some places?

On mine stumps the chips have alot of stuff in them that will make the soil acdic, so you have to wait for the chips acid to leach out... which takes time.... So i figure they say that they just want other chips to eliminate this problem.