Do wood chips cause acid soil?

Here we can get all the wood chips we want for nothing and free delivery but that's only within the city and either full or half 5-yard loads. (Takes 4 loads to do the aisles in our community gardens annually.) Drawback is that nobody knows for certain what it's comprised of since it's what the city collects at curbside.

J. I. Rodale had lots to say about wood wastes 50 years ago but always on the sparing side. Long before him, it had been established as to the amount to use on farmland to be 7 tons per acre. At that rate, there was no serious nitrogen problem and the decay rate of the wood slowly built up the humus content. At no time did he ever consider any potential pH problems from wood wastes.

Martin

Paquebot: Thanks for reminding me about the Rodales. I have several old books upstairs and will find them and read. Thank you.

Follow up with some longevity: I am now shoveling nice dirt from my woodchip mulched (three and two years ago) paths into my raised beds. Will cover with composted leaves and advise if any problems I can recognize.

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US Army veteran, military retiree spouse, and military; civilian; British NHS; and VA doctor.

Jenn: That is what we did in our Kitchen Garden this past spring. We had wood chip paths that were about....5 years old....we just kept on putting wood chips down every year...then we shoved it into the Raised Beds. They did just fine. We put fresh wood chips back into the paths. Since most of the dirt/rotten material from the paths were just black dirt, we did not add anything in the raised beds. It just looked like good black dirt! Good luck with yours too.