applying mulch mid season

[Chris.]

So I want to put down a nice thick layer of woodchips. My issue is that I know that by the time the garden is done I will not have the time to spread a load of woodchips. This whole watering everyday thing is getting old, quick. How much harm, if any would be done if I put a nice layer down now?

[Paquebot]

As long as you go about it as it being either somewhat permanent or a temporary fix to be addressed later, no problem. If you plan on leaving them there until they rot away on their own 5 to 10 years from now, they will continue to work with no further effort or consequences. If you plan to plow or till them under next year, you'll have to also figure on adding a lot of nitrogen at the same time. So, it's quite doable as long as you figure in what you plan to do with them next year.

Martin

[Cliff]

Yep don't till them in unless you want the nitrogen in your soil tied up. When they break down on the surface nitrogen from the air is utilized so they doesn't steal from the soil.

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Chris.

So I want to put down a nice thick layer of woodchips. My issue is that I know that by the time the garden is done I will not have the time to spread a load of woodchips. This whole watering everyday thing is getting old, quick. How much harm, if any would be done if I put a nice layer down now?

A lot depends on your purpose for putting them down, and the composition of the chips. If your purpose is to cut your watering down, then you must consider how much your underlying soil is dried out. Putting a mulch down of any kind would probably help, but you will have to water the mulch quite a lot in order to have it absorb as much as it can, plus get the underlying soil moisture in the root zone moist enough to do the job of growing your plants.

If your purpose is to make a permanent wood chip mulched garden, then putting them down now or later is not a problem. Your real problem with that method(sometimes referred to as the Eden method) is many fold:

1) Composition. The Eden method stresses using chips from green tree limbs and branches with leaves on them--they will have the nitrogen sources in them ready for breakdown without "robbing" the soil nitrogen. Otherwise, straight run chips can be anything from old rotten trees, bark, deadwood, walnut trees, road cleanings(poison ivy and Virginia Creeper, to mention just a couple, and who knows what else, without anything but nearly inert materials).

2) As mentioned, breakdown will be slow if you hope wood chips alone to mellow your soil and add any nutrients. Yes, it may happen, and you will need to have earthworms already present( the nightcrawler kind) in order to have them drag down matter into the actual soil. But you will need to be patient, and probably add some nitrogen to make it happen faster.

3) Depending on your soil, adding a thick layer of anything over the top may create a permanent, wet soil environment that will make it hard to warm up, and may actually lose more nitrogen if it creates an anaerobic condition. It may also make direct seeding of crops--lettuce, beets, carrots, etc, hard if not impossible, and crops needing warm conditions to germinate may have to be started in indoors or greenhouse conditions. If you have clay or hardpan conditions underneath, it may take even longer to grow and anchor deep rooted types of plants. And again, as mentioned, slugs, voles, and other critters may invade.

4) Once you start, you can't stop. You will have to secure your source of good quality chips each year.

geo

[geo in mi]

Originally Posted by Cliff

Yep don't till them in unless you want the nitrogen in your soil tied up. When they break down on the surface nitrogen from the air is utilized so they doesn't steal from the soil.

Actually, Cliff, this isn't quite true. Laying on top, the soil microrganisms at the soil surface margin only do the breakdown, and it is so thin that it doesn't upset the balance of microorganisms inside the soil itself. The rest of the mulch materials just sit on top and wait their turn as the decomposition underneath goes on at its slow pace. The bigger the woodchip particles, the slower it is, since less surface is actually in contact with the soil.

Pure N in the air cannot be used by soil microorganisms. Nitrogen in a compound form has to be presented to them so they can use it. Their decomposition when they die off makes the nitrogen compound that is used by the plants.


geo

[Chris.]

The back to eden video is whatg is kinda inspiring this. I want to put a layer on top. This garden in first year, used to be front lawn. I know there is plenty of worms in there becuase, there was when I ripped up the sod, and decided to find away of killing the sod without roundup or removal, becuase there was so many stinking worms,

[Chris.]

Looks like the tree company is dumping tomaroww. Just in case any other of yall are stuck near the city. Davey tree has a super easy woodchip request form.

Davey Tree : Expert Tree Service Since 1880 : Home : Wood Chip Request

I just had to fill out the form, and got a call today. Its a win win, they don't have to waste diesel to haul the chips to the mulch co. and I get free wood chips.

[Forlane]

I covered my entire 4000 sq/ft garden in 6+ inches of woodchips. The only downside is planting time. If you want the wood chips for weed suppression The thicker they are the better, I found, that using only 1-2" of chips didn't actually help anything and only made things more complicated.

Another thing to consider with woodchips, no kneeling down in the garden unless you have pants on or kneepads. If you are lazy about weeding like me (which is the main reason I put wood chips down in the first place) if you let the weeds establish themselves and you go to pull them from the base of the plant to get the whole root out, most often times you will grab a handful of chips with it, lots of splinters or small cuts if you don't wear gloves.

We have a type of soil that is cement hard when dry and black gold when moist, but when its soaked it's quicksand. Trying to keep the soil moist without over watering is definitely a learning experience. All of my peas suffered from mildew problems, same with the pumpkin and zuc's, squash, watermelon. Could be because of the fog we get until noon during summer.

The HUGE plus I will say though, is that any weeds that rooted into the woodchips, where the chips were too thick for them to come up through were SUPER easy to pull and took no more effort to pull then walking by and grabbing them as I perused the garden.

The weeds that were rooted into the soil and came up through the areas where the chips got scuffled around and were only 1-2" thick were a monster to pull as the soil was also dry due to lack of "Buffer zone" from the chips.

All of the soil under 6+" of chips never dried out after the first initial good soak after laying the chips, our high temps haven't really been much more than 80-90 though

Another HUGE plus is that with the amount of woodchips down, going on 4 months I have just today saw my first case of aphids on a plant, thankfully it was on a random weed on the outer perimeter of my garden border, but not a single pest problem except slugs/snails.

The downside to wood chips is the perfect environment for slugs and snails. Today I found a pack of slugs when pulling carrots each one was bigger than my thumb. The massive amount of tiny gaps in the chips create the perfect beneficial spider breeding ground that eliminated most pests. No beetles, worms, aphids. NO pesticides used and the only damage was from the slugs and snails and the mildew.

Hope this gives you a little more insight into using the chips.

[Chris.]

thank you very much. Im siked. Watering everynight has been a chore, and I always feel bad when my folks have to do it when I'm at work. Watering is really the only reason this is a family effort. Otherwise it would just be the crazy neighbor kid in the garden. I used to the wood chips as I volenteer at the local public rose garden who uses a lot of wood chips.

[Paquebot]

Originally Posted by Forlane

We have a type of soil that is cement hard when dry and black gold when moist, but when its soaked it's quicksand. Trying to keep the soil moist without over watering is definitely a learning experience. All of my peas suffered from mildew problems, same with the pumpkin and zuc's, squash, watermelon. Could be because of the fog we get until noon during summer.

Sounds like you have silt. Great stuff under certain conditions but a bugger the rest of the time. One thing that makes silt such good farm soil is usually the amount of humus in it. Takes thousands of years for it to build up naturally but the amount that you've applied may be equal to several thousands. If left on the surface to totally disintegrate, some will be lost to wind or erosion. If tilled in before then, and with enough nitrogen to break it down, that humus will be there for hundreds of years.

Martin