Wood chips in the garden

[Tania]

Originally Posted by COMPOSTER

Tatiana,

I'm thrilled you are doing well with this method. I was excited about the wood chips before you started this thread and am even more excited when you share your actual experiences. It's one thing to read about it in an article or see it in a film and a totally different thing when you are corresponding with somebody that is actually having success with it.

According to "Back to Eden" it is the minerals from the wood chips breaking down that are improving the taste of your crops.

Glenn

I am happy to hear that

The juiciness of tomatoes is exceptional. The drawback is when fruit is left on the vine for too long, it will crack (burst). Also, the fruits are too juicy for sauce!

The only thing that seems to be struggling a bit is broccoli. That's strange, because kale does not mind the wood chips at all, and growing huge. I think broccoli would have benefited from some nitrogen fertilizer, but I was neglecting it. Will ask Stan to give it a liquid fish and kelp on the weekend.

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by ChrisK

This might be of interest here. Posted today by Andrew McGuire. Is focused on farm scale though.

http://www.biofortified.org/2014/08/...improve-soils/

Interesting article Chris. But this pumps it up a notch. It is not mutually exclusive to both concentrate the surface SOM and also improve the deep carbon cycle simultaneously.

[COMPOSTER]

Last year I planned to put in fruit trees this Spring. In preperation I read a book on organically growing apples. The author reccomended making a fungally dominated compost by mixing ramial woof chips with horse manurure and leaving it as a static pile for at least a year instead of turning it. So in preperation for the fruit trees I made just such a pile last year. Just dug into it yesterday to broadcast around the trees. It turned out to be the darkest black, most rich looking, worm filled compost I have made in a while. Very surprised how much the chips composted down in 1 year. Really beautiful stuff. Still too many wood chips showing to dig into my garden beds but I am going to mulch a few of them and see how it works on the vegetables as well as the fruit trees.

Glenn

[drew51]

Fruit trees don't require a lot of nitrogen, but best fertilize young trees and if your soil is lacking etc. Sounds like a perfect compost for trees. I myself though think it is too much work to grow apples anyway. So many insects love them. Are you going to use kaolin clay product to cover them? It works pretty good, some will still become infested. Bagging them is way too much work. Some states announce when infestations hit, and you know when to treat. The codling moth is a pain! Timing is everything with them. Lot's of products to use to help, but man these insects are terrible! I grow peaches, cherries, and plums, but will not grow apples, as stated too difficult to get much product without investing bucks in preventatives, organic or otherwise. Peaches are not easy to grow either. But I can get a good apple at the market, no such thing as a good peach at the market.

[Worth1]

Drew I know you mentioned it some place else but what peaches do you grow?

Fruit trees like compost and manure for a mulch.

Worth

[drew51]

Originally Posted by Worth1

Drew I know you mentioned it some place else but what peaches do you grow?

Fruit trees like compost and manure for a mulch.

Worth

I like to use a manure compost.

I lost Old Mixon Free this year, bummer, i want to replace, but moving argh!
I still have Spice Zee Nectaplum a peach-nectarine-plum non gmo hybrid developed by Floyd Zaiger.
Paul Friday of MI developed Flamin' Fury series of peach trees which ripen from beginning to end of season. I grow PF - Lucky 13, interested in Pf-7a which is super cold resistant and can keep it's fruit buds past -10 degrees, unlike most other peaches.

You want to follow backyard orchard culture techniques. Which were developed for the home grower.
Go here to seek advice, and also to see what Zaiger has. Links to his fruit trees are on this page.
http://www.davewilson.com:8080/home-...rchard-culture

I like to follow what Tom Spellman is doing, his videos are very informative.
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...J-Q97zk3tsYZAw

Indian Free which was grown by Thomas Jefferson.
And Arctic Glo nectarine, a very tart nectarine also developed by Floyd Zaiger out of CA but has been shown to be very hardy here.
And I have a weeping Santa Rosa plum that is barely hanging on. It was severely damaged last winter. And A 4 in 1 pluot tree which has Dapple Dandy, Flavor Queen, Flavor King, and Flavor Supreme pluots. This is also hardy here. But all lost fruit buds last winter. We hit -14 degrees one night, that killed them all. 13 days below zero didn't help! I also have White Gold Sweet Cherry, and Carmine Jewel tart bush cherry.
At my cottage I have Glacier sweet cherry, and 15 cornellian cherry (dogwood) trees. Also a tri-color beech tree.

I also listed elsewhere a list of top rate peaches. About 25 cultivars that have superior taste. All are not best for my environment, but is a list of the best peaches (and nectrines, which are really just hairless peaches) out there. here is is...
Arctic Jay Nectarine* - all time DWN taste test leader
Arctic Glo Nectarine* - White, tart, unique taste, grows well here.
Blazingstar
Blood Indian Cling
Carman* - low rot problems, and great taste. Scott recommended
Carolina Gold* - a high grade choice of Scott. Also very cold hardy!!
clayton - hard to find, Scott recommended (Vaughn Nursery has it, but doesn't list, ask!)
Double Jewel Peach - Double pink flowers
Early Crawford
Ernie's choice
Flat wonderful - red foliage, unusual shape, ornamental.
Gold Dust
Harrow Diamond* - best resistance of the Canadians, a good early
Harcrest- Canadian, good resistance and taste
Honey Babe Miniature Peach - Farmer Fred Favorite

Indian Free* - winner of many taste tests, white with red streaks. Late season.
Peach leaf curl resistant, Beautiful looking peach on the inside.
Kinda ugly on the outside. Susceptable to brown rot Grown by Thomas Jefferson
Jefferson* - A good yellow highy prasied.
Jon Boy - Hman choice for steady production
Lady Nancy - White, great tastse, but low cropper in colder areas.
Loring* - test taste winner, hman choice for consistancy
Madison
Mericrest nectarine - Scott fav!
O'Henry* - Yellow. One of the best, everybody gives a thumbs up!
Although does have bacterial spot problems. Is very cold hardy!
Old mixon Free* - White, grown by Jefferson. Scott recommended
Terre madre and Albemarle ciderworks have trees.
Pallas
PF7a - cold hardy!
Raritan Rose - Good white
Red Baron* - Red Double flowers and excellent taste.
Red Skin - Olpea favorite. Sweet, big, good!
rio oso gem - Scott recommended, bacterial spot problems
Silver logen - rot problems, good tasting white
TangOs
Winblo - melting yellow peach with a really good taste.
Scott recommended.

Zin Dai - Scott recommended


What you buy depends where you live. If on the west coast I would go for the Zaiger releases. Also the west is dry so Brown rot, and bacterial spot are not really a problem like they are where I live. So those susceptable should not matter to west coasters.
Other very good peaches exist, this is a list of what I'm considering adding.

Good info for the backyard grower!

Backyard orchard culture
http://www.davewilson.com:8080/home-...rchard-culture


I love the Tom Spellman videos!
http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...J-Q97zk3tsYZAw




*= must haves

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by drew51

Fruit trees don't require a lot of nitrogen, but best fertilize young trees and if your soil is lacking etc. Sounds like a perfect compost for trees. I myself though think it is too much work to grow apples anyway. So many insects love them. Are you going to use kaolin clay product to cover them? It works pretty good, some will still become infested. Bagging them is way too much work. Some states announce when infestations hit, and you know when to treat. The codling moth is a pain! Timing is everything with them. Lot's of products to use to help, but man these insects are terrible! I grow peaches, cherries, and plums, but will not grow apples, as stated too difficult to get much product without investing bucks in preventatives, organic or otherwise. Peaches are not easy to grow either. But I can get a good apple at the market, no such thing as a good peach at the market.

drew,

I'm not sure what I am going to use against insects and fungus if anything. Right now I am 100% organic on my property and from what I have read that may not work so well with apple trees. Anyway, its kind of a cross that bridge when I get there. I planted 6 apple and 2 pear trees and right now I'm just working to make them healthy trees. My biggest concern at the moment is Deer.

Glenn

[Tracydr]

When I lived near Fort Sill, outside of Lawton,OK, I used either pine shavings or hardwood stove pellets for bedding in my barn. I had typically three or four stalled horses at any time, which is a lot of manure.
I had some berms made when the foundation guys dug a pond to use for building up the house area and ended up with too much dirt. On top of the berms, which were the finest, stickiest clay you've ever seen, I piled wheelbarrow loads of stall cleanings on a daily basis for at least a year. I then planted two dwarf peach trees on one mound and a mix of trees and shrubs on the other mound to give privacy from the road. Those trees did amazingly well, especially considering that I lived there through a historical drought. I got a freezer full of peaches one year after planting. I am convinced that my piles of manure and wood shavings/sawdust were responsible, as I never did anything else but thin each spring.
One year after I left my ex-husband, I returned to pick up some of my stuff while he was gone. He hadn't thinned the trees and they had split down the trunk from the weight of the peaches. That was about four years after I had first planted them.

[drew51]

I want to be as organic as possible too, but I refuse to give up yield if a way exists to avoid it. So with peaches and plums I'm not organic. Some of the chemicals are short lived though, so worth using IMHO. Plus these are for me and my wife, not young kids or anybody. If the stuff kills me in 30 years I'll be 87, not a bad run! With deer I thought the motion detectors that spray water would work. I heard they don't work well for smaller animals, but work with deer. Another concern is voles and rabbits chewing the lower bark off and girdling the tree, trunk protectors are cheap, and work. Apparently young bark is very tasty!

You may want to check this site out if you need help in the future and just for general info
http://www.ladybug.uconn.edu/

[Tracydr]

I've seen the motion detector sprinklers work well. Friend of mine had a young aspen grove near his house and the elk kept eating it until he put in the sprinklers.

[drew51]

Originally Posted by Tracydr

One year after I left my ex-husband, I returned to pick up some of my stuff while he was gone. He hadn't thinned the trees and they had split down the trunk from the weight of the peaches. That was about four years after I had first planted them.

I guess maybe being domesticated so long peaches just cannot survive on their own. Once that happens it opens the wood to infection and often the trees die. Many times borers and such go after weak trees, if tree is healthy they leave them alone. Not always the case though. The emerald ash borer kills all ash trees. I'm burning ash from infected trees taken down in 2009. the wood is still very good for the wood burning stove. I have a place on an island with 130 cottages, 120 ash trees were taken down in 2009.
A real shame some were huge! I say kill these things with anything we have.
To take down such majestic trees is just not right!
A photo of my wife next to some ash rounds from a tree killed by the borers.

[Tania]

Originally Posted by COMPOSTER

drew,

I'm not sure what I am going to use against insects and fungus if anything. Right now I am 100% organic on my property and from what I have read that may not work so well with apple trees. Anyway, its kind of a cross that bridge when I get there. I planted 6 apple and 2 pear trees and right now I'm just working to make them healthy trees. My biggest concern at the moment is Deer.

Glenn

Same here. We just added 3 apples trees and 2 pears (Comice and Seckel). Our older apple tree has been producing apples since 2007, and no insect issues, except aphids in the early 2010. This year we did not even get aphids. We do not use any insect control, even organic. No sprays. No fertilizers except wood chips cover. Deer and bear are our main problems. Bear will do anything to get to the apples!

Tatiana

[Cole_Robbie]

I am going to look for a wood chip source this winter. I am worried about making sure they are free of black walnut and also poison ivy.

Would mulching with some old hay accomplish the same thing as the wood chips? I have a lot of that on hand.

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by Cole_Robbie

I am going to look for a wood chip source this winter. I am worried about making sure they are free of black walnut and also poison ivy.

Would mulching with some old hay accomplish the same thing as the wood chips? I have a lot of that on hand.

I don't think mulching with hay would bring about the same long term results as the wood chips but it should accomplish a very similar objective. Both mulches will cover an protect the soil while eventually breaking down and adding organic matter / fertility to the soil. The hay will break down much faster than the wood chips and will need to be added to more often. A big difference in my opinion is that while the wood chips should significantly reduce the amount of weeding you have to do, the hay may in fact increase the amount of weeding that needs to be done. Also some hay may have been sprayed with herbacides that could get into your soil and kill your plants. So, you really need to know your hay source.

Glenn

[COMPOSTER]

Originally Posted by Tania

Same here. We just added 3 apples trees and 2 pears (Comice and Seckel). Our older apple tree has been producing apples since 2007, and no insect issues, except aphids in the early 2010. This year we did not even get aphids. We do not use any insect control, even organic. No sprays. No fertilizers except wood chips cover. Deer and bear are our main problems. Bear will do anything to get to the apples!

Tatiana

Tatiana,

I'm hopeing I can harvest some apple and pears without spraying anything. That would be just awesome! I grow blueberries and strawberries but really want my own apples and pears. I have bear also. Friend of mine that lives in the same town told me about an house he worked at when he was a kid that had some beautiful trees loaded with apples. He said the bears basically tore 2 of them right down the middle by pulling the branches down to get the apples.

Just got a 15 yd load of ramial chipped wood the other day. Spreading it everywhere and making a compost pile for next year with wood chips, leaves, grass, horse manure and coffee grinds.

Glenn