For:
By: Daniel E. Mullins
Extension Horticulture Agent
Recycling Sawdust, Wood Chips and Stump Grindings
Most yards are now cleared of major debris and many homeowners now find themselves staring at piles of sawdust, ground up stumps and wood chips. If you are one of those, now is the time to decide what to do with this material.
Properly used, the material can be recycled, benefiting your garden or landscape beds. Depending upon how fine or coarse pieces from an individual pile are, it can be used as mulch, in making compost or for direct application as a soil amendment.
Use only the coarse materials as mulch, or piles whose individual pieces are at least one and one-half inches in diameter. This material can be added to landscape beds to create a total mulch depth of two to three inches. Pull back the mulch a couple of inches away from the crown of plants. It should not be allowed to touch the base of plant stems.
Chipped wood and bark pieces that are fresh might temporarily tie up soil nitrogen, so add a small amount of nitrogen containing fertilizer to the surface before mulching. This helps to compensate for the “nitrogen robbing effect” that can temporarily occur when high cellulose containing materials are used in large amounts.
Piles made up of sawdust or stump grindings with relatively small particle sizes should be composted or tilled into the soil as an amendment. Fine textured organic materials do not make good mulch. They tend to mat together, limiting the amount of air and water that reaches plant roots. Fine textured materials also decompose rapidly and can promote the germination and growth of weeds within the mulch layer.
The addition of fresh, fine textured wood chips, sawdust and stump grindings directly to the soil should only be done under certain circumstances. The area where the material is to be spread should be free of desirable vegetation such as vegetables, flowers or shrubs. Once applied, it should be mixed with the soil by tilling to a depth of about six inches. Since this is very fresh or “green” woody material, the application of a nitrogen containing fertilizer just prior to tilling aids in the decomposition process.
Be willing to wait for several months before reestablishing the area. The addition of such large amounts of cellulose containing material results in an explosion in the number of soil microbes. Enough time must be allowed for decomposition to occur and for the soil microbe population to stabilize. This requires several weeks to several months, depending upon soil temperature, moisture, the amount of organic material applied and other factors.
Question of the Week: What is the easiest species of lemon to grow here? I am looking to buy a lemon tree soon.
Answer: The true lemons are
too cold sensitive to be recommended for general planting in the landscape
here. Consider Meyer Lemon as a
substitute. Though not a true lemon, it
is close enough. It bears large yellow
fruit and is more cold hardy than lemons. Even Meyer Lemon can be cold damaged, so
plant it on the south side of a building, in full sunlight. Prepare to protect it as you would satsumas in our area.
Note: Almost every
question that is answered here is real, being received by e-mail, letter,
telephone or walk-in traffic at the office.
I don’t remember making up many, and then only when writing in a remote
location or with limited time.