I live close to a small town and asked the DPW guys to dump the chips at my house. Saves them the tax money of not having to have them hauled away. So glad to have them.
I have my power company dump here when they work on the area. I prefer the chips with a lot of green leaves and small branches, but I don't care if whole trees are ground up in there. Deep ground cover is a blessing either way. Earthworms love it. Three years in and we are really starting to see the benefits.
@@breahnalawrence6725 bringing in weeds has not been a big problem, but you have to be vigilant. Weeds are easy to deal with in the chips, but they will take over if you don't do some maintenance regularly. If the chipped up trees were cut when they have seeds on them, you will get a bazillion little trees coming up, but they are easy to deal with early with a garden rake. Crabgrass and other creeping weeds closing in from the outside are something to keep in check...I think paul gautchi has railroad ties buried to maintain an edge. I have thought of some other ways also, but I'm not there yet. still building. Nitrogen fixing cover crops are great weed control...could talk all day. Feel free to ask anything. I've made all the mistakes I can think of so far.
@@breahnalawrence6725 also, regarding bringing in weeds, if the chips are fresh and contain a lot of green leaves and needles, the pile will heat up enough to kill most seeds. If you cant get them spread in a day, you better let them sit and compost a while anyway because they will be full of mold that you don't want to breathe. It is dangerous...mold fibers can cause lung cancer. I like to let them sit a year, and keep the pile sprayed down wet when I am forking them up to keep the dust down.
Thank you, that is very helpful, I am hoping to get a big enough load to mulch well this fall and start a good compost pile, as my soil here leaves a lot to be desired. So you have answered two of my biggest concerns
@@breahnalawrence6725 if your yard is big enough to get a truck into see if the company will drop it where you want the garden & if they will drag it out so its more flat than a pile. The stuff with green leaves decomposes fast so id go for 2 ft depth & leave it over the fall. Plant pumpkins next spring as ground cover & then garden in earnest the following year.
I got all the wood chips one tree service produced this summer. I will be spending all winter spreading the mountain around my little trees I planted this spring. Thanks for the video. You are one of the only ones in my same climate zone so I love watching your videos.
Thank you for continuing to educate us. I live in Oregon USA. We are blessed here with being able to get free wood chips from the arborists here. I like to take in at least a truck load in the summer. I spread the chips out in the fall and use an electric chicken fence and winter our chickens (15) in the chips. In the spring we mulch our orchard.
I get cardboard slips from Costco. They are happy to get rid of them and keep them out of the landfill. Sam's has them too. Also at your local grocery store, check for slips where they sell water. I fold them in half and stack them in my grocery cart. And put the things I want to buy in the small area where baby's sit and on the bottom. Since I go so often, I don't have to buy a lot of food each time. You will find the most slips in the toilet paper area and where they sell water. I regularly go down the isles and carefully remove any that have just a few items on them or sometimes you can find them stacked vertically in between items. Sometimes I find a friendly worker to give me slips they are about to send through the masher.
Wood chips 4-6 inches is usually recommended for most trees because of the heat they can give off if you add more then 6 inches. Also keep a good 6 inches or more from the trunk flare of your tree because trunk bark hates moisture. If your going for straight weed murder 8inches is good. Help with moisture retention, erosion, food for microbes.
With a friend in East Bay SanFran, we mulched her entire garden, vineyard, and orchard with wood chips and trimmings from the local arborists. We put 4-6 inches over the entire garden. 8-12 inches in her vineyard, and then 16-18 inches across the entire orchard. In 1 year we noticed that the garden chips' depth of 4-6 inches shrunk from fluffy to less-fluffy 2 inches, but that 1 inch of black gold soil was created, and it was moist. The same and more for the vineyard and orchard. Her crops from all these 3 areas massively increased - if it wasn't already "negligent gardening (her quote)" on her part - was even more increased. Chips keep the soil moist (no dehydration), keeps the roots shaded and they don't sprout ground shoots, stops invasive weeds from growing (or much easier to pull out), completely kept down any hay, grass, and quackgrass seedlings, ... and made for easier plant starts and fig tree rootings, and greater vine production of berries and grapes.
I am in southeast Tennessee. I purchased your beyond organic film soon after it came out. I ended up putting in some trios and for the last 5 years I have been adding trees and perennials every year. I have 11 different varieties of apples. i don't plan on adding any new varieties but what I have a problem with is pollination. I have all the matches needed, but with the trio layout and the spacing I am concerned about pollination. The recommend 50 feet for apples. I have many triploid varieties that each have their own pollination needs. My orchard is only 3 rows and space for 84 trees due to the shape of my field. I have some apples that are 150 from its pollinator. I am looking to maybe put in some crab apples in some nitrogen fixer spots. How important is the distance? It seems like no one in permaculture is doing videos on pollination. Could you please do one? I have about 15 more trees I want to get in the ground this fall but I just don't know how to handle the pollination needs of these apples. My trees are 22 feed apart on the diagonal, 16 between rows and plant are like 16 feet apart or close to those numbers.
Hi Stephan! Leaves are a good mulch as well, especially now in fall. With city crews cleaning up parks and such, that would be another resource. Cheers! We can get free mulch here in Calgary from the city disposal place during summer.
Sounds great! Go for it. Shredded leaves are a great carbon source and will rapidly decompose. See my garlic video from last week, we use shredded leaves.
Love you show, I learn a ton of good things I can use even in West Texas. One question, we don't have many trees here, so chip are even more rare here. What I do have is a constant supply of pine needles. Is that ok?
Use them on top of the soil never dig them in. I would probably do a soil test after about two years of pine needles to see what's happening as they break down. I'd guess you'll be able to tell if your trees are thriving even without the test. Spray with neem oil to be sure no pine pests invade your orchard. I know pine needles are used under berries quite a bit.
Congrats for offering so much value. If one has enough small branches, Would a mulch of only small branches be better than a mulch of small branches and also wood chips from the trunk? It so happens that i have a cut down tree, so enough supply of smallest branches for mulching the 2 trees I’m about to plant is not a problem.
Small branches are excellent and yes are better however they don't last as long as the soil life will digest them quickly. Great for the soil but takes more work from you.
@@StefanSobkowiak Thanks for the reply. Improving the soil from top to bottom by integrating the mulch into it is exactly what i want, as i have clay soil, which isn't the best soil for apple trees. Sould you have anything to add to this way of improving a planting hole (or clay soil in general)?
Sheet mulching is the bees knees. I usually don’t have to weed an area for 2 years. I’ll find out how effective it is with blackberry bushes. My property is way over grown
I often have chipper trucks around but I don't get particular as long as there's not much trash in the load, every load is different, some are full of sticks and less attractive so I use outback, others are nicer cut for outfront, it's nice to have leaves or pine needles in the mix but I take what they have even if it's big limbs and trunk material. I only have 1/2 acre so I can afford to use ONLY chips plenty deep to smother grass. (6" or so plus) I do like to mow it close 1st.
I love this video. I learnt a lot, especially about what size branches to look for when it comes to chipping. Its Spring, going into Summer here. I have Oat hay and was thinking of using it as a mulch around the new fruit trees I planted a couple of months ago. Do you think that would work as well?
I’m new in this process. Tree service company is more than happy to provide me with more chips than I need. Applied 6 inches everyone last year. Will add more this year to maintain 6 inches. Can one have too much wood chips ?
Hi Stefan I thought for certified organic farming you can’t use bags with colour ink writing on them and also these bags have glue on them at joints which is also a no no for organic farming at least in bc I think because of this reason they don’t allow paper pot transplant Your thoughts Thanks
Most inks nowadays are soy based, at least the ones intended to compost. Contact your bag manufacturer and demand they switch. Some glue to me is ok especially since we are recycling cardboard, we try to avoid it but a not so friendly alternative is to buy cardboard. Try your best to stay within rules but use common sense.
i would like to see a test with wood chip mulch. for a small scale setup as yours. we can test lets say 1 square foot of chips at 3 inches. then increase to 2 then 4 , 8, 16, 32 square feet and so on. this way we can find out how little of square feet we can cover a tree row for benefits. i think this would really help out people doing similar stuff as you. im lucky enough to have only a few trees that i can baby with a full wood chip mulched area.
Thanks Stefan for saying your Surname. My latest obsession is with the Johnson Su bioreactor. John Kempf said in one of his talks that it produces an inoculant thousand of times more effective than any other kind of compost methods he has tested and that's saying something. Carbon Link has a series of talks by Dr Johnson... Johnson Su Composting Bioreactor....BEAM... One uses the woodchips or leaves to make an inoculant. It takes one year for woodchips to be processed and six months for leaves. One can make a slurry with molasses, milk and the inoculant and coat seeds. If one adds the inoculant to water, it is about 2lbs per acre. He has shown that in three years the field is as carbon enriched and microbially diverse as some of the most productive rainforest manage in 30 years. This is a game changer. I was wondering if you could team up with Dr Johnson and use your farm as a research site. With your tree prunings you could fill few bioreactors. If you are wondering why I am not offering my humble plot is because two weeks ago planes sprayed the neighbouring pecan orchards on two sides of our place for apparently tree fleas (pulgon). Every plant in our place was left dripping with some shiney sticky goo. I had to remove all animals to an inner city house... it's chaos. I'm disappointed that the bioreactor will have to wait for materials. In the winter it's even difficult to obtain sawdust because the government has been supporting a program for sawdust burning heaters to stop people burning rubbish.
I do exactly opposite. First chop n' drop then spread the woodchips and cover with fabric after all the trials it seemed to be most effective way to protect the soil in a long term. Without the plastic I just couldn't keep grass at bay and I realized that it only robs the soil of nitrogen because it sucks and dries constantly witc release nitrogen to the atmosphere. Back to the woodchips I think that they bring so much life and microbe activity that I don't need to grow cover crop anymore. What do you think about it?
I am still starting out, but what I am trying to do is imitate berm planting. I don't have the equipment or the soil etc for that, so I plant my trees in dirt piles. then as I get the compost or the clippings whatever, that slowly builds the berm in between my tree dirt piles. I usually weed whip a bit first so I get that chop and drop effect. I throw some source of nitrogen down just to be on the safe side then do the chips. Much of what I do is to combat those stinking voles !! You let the grass go at all here and they girdle everything! I seem to have a pest for every opportunity. I think it might be the woodchucks that dig up the smaller trees. I replant a LOT!!
So, arborists are often called to take down diseased trees. I'm all for wood chip mulch, but anyone have any thoughts on whether there is a danger of importing disease when you receive loads chips from them? I wonder if there might be a safe amount of time to store imported chips before using them, like letting them sit in a pile for a year or two.
I don't think it's necessary, sooner you get them on the ground the better. I'v been holding some piles of woodchips for three seasons and they partially decomposed but the ones I'v put on the ground already gone also I'v seen a lot of fungal activities along the way and it never seem to harm crops or attack the grove. Maybe if the woodchips came out of some diseased fruit trees or other variety susceptible to transfer diseases or parasite... That's why you can't see this kind of practice in the commercial applications of crop productions. They just can't take the risk. Cheers 👋😊
Chrys -- I have always wondered the same, about diseased wood. I think that is a very valid concern! Stefan, would you please give us your insight on this issue? I enjoy your videos so much --you are a treasure.
Anything is better than nothing most of the time but pure coniferous it may be better to pile and let compost a bit before applying. I have not used pure coniferous chips or bark before.
It depends on the size and availability of sufficient mulch. We started with rbf mulch and switched to plastic because we could not get enough rbf. I recommend don’t consider using plastic for less than 200 trees because it’s not so much work to get and spread rbf for that amount of trees.
@@StefanSobkowiak Awesome, thank you for the quick answer, after watching your movie, I am planning to implement your system on our property, we are in the eastern townships with very shallow top soil on top of the bedrock. I'll make sure to use rbf since there will be a maximum of 70 trees when we have fully expanded this project on the plot of land we have for our future orchard. Again thank you for all the knowledge you share for free and for the movie. You bring us beginners from 0 to 100 in a few minutes.
Im always concerned with getting random wood chips because of bug and disease infestation. Most people take down trees for a specific issue and I dont want their issue on my farm. Always have to pay for clean chips or make sure I chip my own.
Once in the pile it’s not an issue, the fungus (white rot fungus) in wood chip pile are used to bioremediate DDT, Dioxin and all the worst nasty chemicals. Disease is a piece of cake for them.
Not in our sandy soil, we've tried bringing in snails and none survived. But if you have a clay soil slugs may be an issue, i guess then just get a couple of ducks.
What happened to the lower limbs ur spraying open space its a common rut to get in is to remove sucker gtowth this can be tied down to encourage fruiting
Arthur we had sheep in this orchard block for more than 10 years. They pruned all the lower limbs and the regrowth. Only young two years max branches in the lower parts.
Why dont you grow your own? Plant an acre or two in closely spaced willow & cotton wood cuttings. Then every year cut them down & put them through the chipper. The small diameter ones arent too expensive. It should produce enough biomass to cover most of your orchard every year. Plus the creature habitat during the summer.
Great point. Have you ever run the branches from one acre through a chipper? Unless you have an industrial sized chipper it takes more time than it's worth. We've tried twice with two sizes of chipper and it's faster to go get a pile.
@@StefanSobkowiak Better not using walnut or some other tree or bush like forsythia on the rootzone. These chips can kill trees. It's called alellopathie.
@@StefanSobkowiak Yea, they're unfortunately quite expensive in some countries, whereas in others they're more or less free. Understandable that those quantities would be too expensive indeed.
Let your grass grow tall around your fruit trees. Then cut it to the ground before it start to seed to mulch your fruit trees. Grass decompose much faster than stupid wood chips. And it is safe cause you are using your own grass with no shit in it. LOL
I live close to a small town and asked the DPW guys to dump the chips at my house. Saves them the tax money of not having to have them hauled away. So glad to have them.
I have my power company dump here when they work on the area. I prefer the chips with a lot of green leaves and small branches, but I don't care if whole trees are ground up in there. Deep ground cover is a blessing either way. Earthworms love it. Three years in and we are really starting to see the benefits.
I am working on setting this up, but I do worry about bringing in weeds, have you had any issues??
@@breahnalawrence6725 bringing in weeds has not been a big problem, but you have to be vigilant. Weeds are easy to deal with in the chips, but they will take over if you don't do some maintenance regularly. If the chipped up trees were cut when they have seeds on them, you will get a bazillion little trees coming up, but they are easy to deal with early with a garden rake. Crabgrass and other creeping weeds closing in from the outside are something to keep in check...I think paul gautchi has railroad ties buried to maintain an edge. I have thought of some other ways also, but I'm not there yet. still building. Nitrogen fixing cover crops are great weed control...could talk all day. Feel free to ask anything. I've made all the mistakes I can think of so far.
@@breahnalawrence6725 also, regarding bringing in weeds, if the chips are fresh and contain a lot of green leaves and needles, the pile will heat up enough to kill most seeds. If you cant get them spread in a day, you better let them sit and compost a while anyway because they will be full of mold that you don't want to breathe. It is dangerous...mold fibers can cause lung cancer. I like to let them sit a year, and keep the pile sprayed down wet when I am forking them up to keep the dust down.
Thank you, that is very helpful, I am hoping to get a big enough load to mulch well this fall and start a good compost pile, as my soil here leaves a lot to be desired. So you have answered two of my biggest concerns
@@breahnalawrence6725 if your yard is big enough to get a truck into see if the company will drop it where you want the garden & if they will drag it out so its more flat than a pile. The stuff with green leaves decomposes fast so id go for 2 ft depth & leave it over the fall. Plant pumpkins next spring as ground cover & then garden in earnest the following year.
I got all the wood chips one tree service produced this summer. I will be spending all winter spreading the mountain around my little trees I planted this spring. Thanks for the video. You are one of the only ones in my same climate zone so I love watching your videos.
Way to go a mountain of gold.
Thank you for continuing to educate us. I live in Oregon USA. We are blessed here with being able to get free wood chips from the arborists here. I like to take in at least a truck load in the summer. I spread the chips out in the fall and use an electric chicken fence and winter our chickens (15) in the chips. In the spring we mulch our orchard.
Great idea, chickens love going through chips.
What part of Oregon? I'm in southern Oregon about to start my orchard.
as usual Stefan with unique tips that no other woodchip video can not give 😻👍
I have been doing it for 7 years, luv it.
The best Show on TH-cam
Thank you. Much appreciated.
This was soooooo helpful!!! I never realized that some was good enough. I realize more is better, but some times good is the best you can do.
Enjoy your channel and appreciate all the knowledge you share.
I get cardboard slips from Costco. They are happy to get rid of them and keep them out of the landfill. Sam's has them too. Also at your local grocery store, check for slips where they sell water. I fold them in half and stack them in my grocery cart. And put the things I want to buy in the small area where baby's sit and on the bottom. Since I go so often, I don't have to buy a lot of food each time. You will find the most slips in the toilet paper area and where they sell water. I regularly go down the isles and carefully remove any that have just a few items on them or sometimes you can find them stacked vertically in between items. Sometimes I find a friendly worker to give me slips they are about to send through the masher.
Best video yet! I used plastic bagged mulch. Expensive needed.
Wood chips 4-6 inches is usually recommended for most trees because of the heat they can give off if you add more then 6 inches. Also keep a good 6 inches or more from the trunk flare of your tree because trunk bark hates moisture. If your going for straight weed murder 8inches is good. Help with moisture retention, erosion, food for microbes.
You Made TH-cam Sweeter And Better
Thanks a lot for the details!
Thank you!! This is amazing information!!!
Glad it was helpful!
I use newspaper as the underlayer, a good thick layer kills weeds and traps moisture.
With a friend in East Bay SanFran, we mulched her entire garden, vineyard, and orchard with wood chips and trimmings from the local arborists. We put 4-6 inches over the entire garden. 8-12 inches in her vineyard, and then 16-18 inches across the entire orchard. In 1 year we noticed that the garden chips' depth of 4-6 inches shrunk from fluffy to less-fluffy 2 inches, but that 1 inch of black gold soil was created, and it was moist. The same and more for the vineyard and orchard. Her crops from all these 3 areas massively increased - if it wasn't already "negligent gardening (her quote)" on her part - was even more increased. Chips keep the soil moist (no dehydration), keeps the roots shaded and they don't sprout ground shoots, stops invasive weeds from growing (or much easier to pull out), completely kept down any hay, grass, and quackgrass seedlings, ... and made for easier plant starts and fig tree rootings, and greater vine production of berries and grapes.
Yes it should be valued as the amazing resource it is for soil building.
I'm glad to have any woodchips, bark, leaves, or inner wood. On my alcaline clay soil it's all an improvement 😅
I am in southeast Tennessee. I purchased your beyond organic film soon after it came out. I ended up putting in some trios and for the last 5 years I have been adding trees and perennials every year. I have 11 different varieties of apples. i don't plan on adding any new varieties but what I have a problem with is pollination. I have all the matches needed, but with the trio layout and the spacing I am concerned about pollination. The recommend 50 feet for apples. I have many triploid varieties that each have their own pollination needs. My orchard is only 3 rows and space for 84 trees due to the shape of my field. I have some apples that are 150 from its pollinator. I am looking to maybe put in some crab apples in some nitrogen fixer spots. How important is the distance?
It seems like no one in permaculture is doing videos on pollination. Could you please do one? I have about 15 more trees I want to get in the ground this fall but I just don't know how to handle the pollination needs of these apples. My trees are 22 feed apart on the diagonal, 16 between rows and plant are like 16 feet apart or close to those numbers.
The tootn' Teuton observed in the wild 👍💯 Hi Frank, remember that mulching is theft 🤣
Hi Stephan! Leaves are a good mulch as well, especially now in fall. With city crews cleaning up parks and such, that would be another resource. Cheers! We can get free mulch here in Calgary from the city disposal place during summer.
Sounds great! Go for it. Shredded leaves are a great carbon source and will rapidly decompose. See my garlic video from last week, we use shredded leaves.
Leaves, collected in the city will be probably polluted with some heavy metals and might be dangerous for the soil?
@@mikhailshafeev9384 if city leaves were that polluted, it would be dangerous for you to live there. 😀
@@aldas3831 Some cities in Eastern Europe still have some industry, chemical plants, etc... and we ( people) have to live there...
Love you show, I learn a ton of good things I can use even in West Texas.
One question, we don't have many trees here, so chip are even more rare here. What I do have is a constant supply of pine needles. Is that ok?
If your water is super hard, the pine needles are a blessing
Use them on top of the soil never dig them in. I would probably do a soil test after about two years of pine needles to see what's happening as they break down. I'd guess you'll be able to tell if your trees are thriving even without the test. Spray with neem oil to be sure no pine pests invade your orchard. I know pine needles are used under berries quite a bit.
Thanks🤠all this is good to know and food for thought as I meet the challenges of my climate and establish my little orchard.
Its called pine straw! Go for it
Congrats for offering so much value.
If one has enough small branches,
Would a mulch of only small branches be better than a mulch of small branches and also wood chips from the trunk?
It so happens that i have a cut down tree, so enough supply of smallest branches for mulching the 2 trees I’m about to plant is not a problem.
Small branches are excellent and yes are better however they don't last as long as the soil life will digest them quickly. Great for the soil but takes more work from you.
@@StefanSobkowiak Thanks for the reply. Improving the soil from top to bottom by integrating the mulch into it is exactly what i want, as i have clay soil, which isn't the best soil for apple trees.
Sould you have anything to add to this way of improving a planting hole (or clay soil in general)?
Sheet mulching is the bees knees. I usually don’t have to weed an area for 2 years. I’ll find out how effective it is with blackberry bushes. My property is way over grown
I often have chipper trucks around but I don't get particular as long as there's not much trash in the load, every load is different, some are full of sticks and less attractive so I use outback, others are nicer cut for outfront, it's nice to have leaves or pine needles in the mix but I take what they have even if it's big limbs and trunk material. I only have 1/2 acre so I can afford to use ONLY chips plenty deep to smother grass. (6" or so plus) I do like to mow it close 1st.
Right on, great to take all you can get.
I love this video. I learnt a lot, especially about what size branches to look for when it comes to chipping.
Its Spring, going into Summer here. I have Oat hay and was thinking of using it as a mulch around the new fruit trees I planted a couple of months ago. Do you think that would work as well?
Of course it will, just won't last near as long as chips.
That's ok, will add wood chips when the pathway has decomposed :)
Straw ok to use
SUPER !!!!
I’m new in this process. Tree service company is more than happy to provide me with more chips than I need. Applied 6 inches everyone last year. Will add more this year to maintain 6 inches. Can one have too much wood chips ?
Hi Stefan
I thought for certified organic farming you can’t use bags with colour ink writing on them and also these bags have glue on them at joints which is also a no no for organic farming at least in bc
I think because of this reason they don’t allow paper pot transplant
Your thoughts
Thanks
Most inks nowadays are soy based, at least the ones intended to compost. Contact your bag manufacturer and demand they switch. Some glue to me is ok especially since we are recycling cardboard, we try to avoid it but a not so friendly alternative is to buy cardboard. Try your best to stay within rules but use common sense.
Do you have to have the bags under the fresh chips? Can you just put the fresh chipped chips around the tree bottoms?
Yes you can but the bags or cardboard will keep grass from growing through for longer.
Even with the ash borers? Do you avoid the poisonous trees like cherry? And sumac?
And what about carpenter ants and termites?
The only tree that I avoid is Black Walnut, but even small amounts of that will not hurt.
i would like to see a test with wood chip mulch. for a small scale setup as yours. we can test lets say 1 square foot of chips at 3 inches. then increase to 2 then 4 , 8, 16, 32 square feet and so on. this way we can find out how little of square feet we can cover a tree row for benefits. i think this would really help out people doing similar stuff as you. im lucky enough to have only a few trees that i can baby with a full wood chip mulched area.
Certainly the more area covered the better but every bit helps. My scientific experimenting career is over, i leave the measuring to others now.
Thanks Stefan for saying your Surname. My latest obsession is with the Johnson Su bioreactor. John Kempf said in one of his talks that it produces an inoculant thousand of times more effective than any other kind of compost methods he has tested and that's saying something. Carbon Link has a series of talks by Dr Johnson... Johnson Su Composting Bioreactor....BEAM... One uses the woodchips or leaves to make an inoculant. It takes one year for woodchips to be processed and six months for leaves. One can make a slurry with molasses, milk and the inoculant and coat seeds. If one adds the inoculant to water, it is about 2lbs per acre. He has shown that in three years the field is as carbon enriched and microbially diverse as some of the most productive rainforest manage in 30 years. This is a game changer. I was wondering if you could team up with Dr Johnson and use your farm as a research site. With your tree prunings you could fill few bioreactors. If you are wondering why I am not offering my humble plot is because two weeks ago planes sprayed the neighbouring pecan orchards on two sides of our place for apparently tree fleas (pulgon). Every plant in our place was left dripping with some shiney sticky goo. I had to remove all animals to an inner city house... it's chaos. I'm disappointed that the bioreactor will have to wait for materials. In the winter it's even difficult to obtain sawdust because the government has been supporting a program for sawdust burning heaters to stop people burning rubbish.
I do exactly opposite. First chop n' drop then spread the woodchips and cover with fabric after all the trials it seemed to be most effective way to protect the soil in a long term. Without the plastic I just couldn't keep grass at bay and I realized that it only robs the soil of nitrogen because it sucks and dries constantly witc release nitrogen to the atmosphere. Back to the woodchips I think that they bring so much life and microbe activity that I don't need to grow cover crop anymore. What do you think about it?
Wood chips serves as a cover crop and can bring more organic matter depending on depth applied.
Do the wood chips and paper bags provide a home for voles in the winter time to attack tree bases and feeder roots?
No, they don’t like to move near the wood chips.
I am still starting out, but what I am trying to do is imitate berm planting. I don't have the equipment or the soil etc for that, so I plant my trees in dirt piles. then as I get the compost or the clippings whatever, that slowly builds the berm in between my tree dirt piles. I usually weed whip a bit first so I get that chop and drop effect. I throw some source of nitrogen down just to be on the safe side then do the chips. Much of what I do is to combat those stinking voles !! You let the grass go at all here and they girdle everything! I seem to have a pest for every opportunity. I think it might be the woodchucks that dig up the smaller trees. I replant a LOT!!
A 1/4" galvanized wire mesh works really well against voles most of the time.
So, arborists are often called to take down diseased trees. I'm all for wood chip mulch, but anyone have any thoughts on whether there is a danger of importing disease when you receive loads chips from them? I wonder if there might be a safe amount of time to store imported chips before using them, like letting them sit in a pile for a year or two.
I don't think it's necessary, sooner you get them on the ground the better. I'v been holding some piles of woodchips for three seasons and they partially decomposed but the ones I'v put on the ground already gone also I'v seen a lot of fungal activities along the way and it never seem to harm crops or attack the grove. Maybe if the woodchips came out of some diseased fruit trees or other variety susceptible to transfer diseases or parasite... That's why you can't see this kind of practice in the commercial applications of crop productions. They just can't take the risk. Cheers 👋😊
Chrys -- I have always wondered the same, about diseased wood. I think that is a very valid concern!
Stefan, would you please give us your insight on this issue? I enjoy your videos so much --you are a treasure.
I’m not concerned by disease in wood chips. Maybe just fireblight but all this area needs some simple research.
Is coniferous bark, mostly spruce bark good to use?
Anything is better than nothing most of the time but pure coniferous it may be better to pile and let compost a bit before applying. I have not used pure coniferous chips or bark before.
This also was my question, desiring to cut80' pines for 55'x100' permaculture orchard. TY sir.@@StefanSobkowiak
Hey Stefan, say you were starting from scratch, would you say this method is better to using plastic mulch? Thanks !!
It depends on the size and availability of sufficient mulch. We started with rbf mulch and switched to plastic because we could not get enough rbf. I recommend don’t consider using plastic for less than 200 trees because it’s not so much work to get and spread rbf for that amount of trees.
@@StefanSobkowiak Awesome, thank you for the quick answer, after watching your movie, I am planning to implement your system on our property, we are in the eastern townships with very shallow top soil on top of the bedrock. I'll make sure to use rbf since there will be a maximum of 70 trees when we have fully expanded this project on the plot of land we have for our future orchard. Again thank you for all the knowledge you share for free and for the movie. You bring us beginners from 0 to 100 in a few minutes.
If you ever need help with your project check out: Ecomestible they are around Sherbrooke and one of my apprentices Alex is a co owner of it.
Before I plant my prunus trees would it pay to dump my old sloe tree cuttings in the bottom of the hole before I plant them 🤷🏼♂️👍🏼🇬🇬
Not in the hole but as a mulch on the soil after planting.
@@StefanSobkowiak thank you 👍🏼🇬🇬
I agree mulch is great wood chips great , but if the tree the chips are from has a desease could that be spread to your tree?
I would only be cautious with fireblight, all the rest should be rendered harmless in the wood chip mat.
Would it be alright if I used 2 year old hay. To mulch around my fruit trees. They are 3 years old. Thank you!
Yes, absolutely
@@StefanSobkowiak thank you so much!
Mow the tall grass, spread the mowed grass around the trees and then put wood chips down. At times I just mow and use the grass.
Im always concerned with getting random wood chips because of bug and disease infestation. Most people take down trees for a specific issue and I dont want their issue on my farm. Always have to pay for clean chips or make sure I chip my own.
Once in the pile it’s not an issue, the fungus (white rot fungus) in wood chip pile are used to bioremediate DDT, Dioxin and all the worst nasty chemicals. Disease is a piece of cake for them.
do you ever get issues with slugs underneath the paperbag/cardboard?
Not in our sandy soil, we've tried bringing in snails and none survived. But if you have a clay soil slugs may be an issue, i guess then just get a couple of ducks.
@@StefanSobkowiak interesting. thank you stefan.
Can I use cardboard cut a slit and a circle for the tree? Thanks jim 80
Yes
Hi Stefan How about sawdust - can it be used as well?
In thin layers when under trees.
@@StefanSobkowiak Hi Stefan, thank you, how thin - 2 inches? 5 inches? Above a layer of cardboard?
I can't get here (in Ukraine) wood chips, but sawdust is available, not to cheap - around $ 200 for 15 m3
wouldn't it be better to do it during the winter when the grass is already dead and lying flat?
Probably have to get chips whenever available. I would of mowed them or cut down before laying cardboard.
Hello why do you put only two side not around thé tree thanks you
Why do you put the paper under the chips? Don't you want the chips to break down into the soil?
Yes i want them to break down just not so fast. Adding paper gives me one more season with mulch.
What happened to the lower limbs ur spraying open space its a common rut to get in is to remove sucker gtowth this can be tied down to encourage fruiting
Arthur we had sheep in this orchard block for more than 10 years. They pruned all the lower limbs and the regrowth. Only young two years max branches in the lower parts.
Cardboard boxes work.
In my area much of the free wood chips I can get contain Black Walnut. Would this be toxic? Or is the BW toxicity in the root system?
Not sure, good question. When in doubt test on one plant.
@@StefanSobkowiak good idea. Thanks.
So its about the bark chips, not per se the wood chips?
Dennis even bark has different degrees of goodness. Old thick bark is mostly carbon. You want the bark from branches 2'' thick or less.
What kinds of woodchips would be best for different kinds of trees, bushes, garde plants ?
Any kind you can get as long as conifer portion is below 20%.
@@StefanSobkowiak what about Walnut, Ginkgo, Sumac ?
Look up single source wood chips there is some interesting research results , especially using willow. I don’t think they tested all species as mulch.
@@StefanSobkowiak great, thank you very much 😊
Yes I'm waiting on a tree service to come and dump a load of wood chips in my driveway...hopefully today or tomorrow they will be here
🖤
lol, yeah I agree it's mulch better than not getting any.
Would that work in a vineyard?
Most likely since grape vines grow up trees, they require the same fungal soil and wood chips create a fungal soil.
@@StefanSobkowiak and wouldn’t that have a negative effect to,for example, mildew?
Just look at wild grapes, are they covered with mildew? When in doubt, test on a small area and compare.
@@StefanSobkowiak I get it. We can produce plenty of woordchips. So we will test it. Many thanks!!
Why dont you grow your own?
Plant an acre or two in closely spaced willow & cotton wood cuttings. Then every year cut them down & put them through the chipper. The small diameter ones arent too expensive.
It should produce enough biomass to cover most of your orchard every year. Plus the creature habitat during the summer.
Great point. Have you ever run the branches from one acre through a chipper? Unless you have an industrial sized chipper it takes more time than it's worth. We've tried twice with two sizes of chipper and it's faster to go get a pile.
@@StefanSobkowiak i was just thinking of how to get quantities of mulch when you have to pay so much for so little.
Always look to get all the wood chips you can, usually for free. Someone has already paid for the labor to chip the branches.
Why don't you have some trees and shrubs for chop and drop? Why to depend of others...
It’s the quantity of material needed and the time to produce it.
Why does he irrigate?
With our short growing season losing a week or two because the plants are so stressed can lose 20% of our growing season.
A local tree service said they would dump some tree chip. I came home from work and found a truck load of black walnut chip and limbs.
Nice, amazing what you get by just asking.
@@StefanSobkowiak Better not using walnut or some other tree or bush like forsythia on the rootzone. These chips can kill trees. It's called alellopathie.
Should have mowed that orchard before doing any chipping - and one wouldn't have to fight all the silage you are growing !
Come on, Stefan, the Back To Eden documentary was published in 2011 ! ;)
Yes and since all the research was done not far from us in the 80s I’ve used wood chips on projects since the early 90s. Not new.
@@StefanSobkowiak Not very many wood chips though, it would seem ;)
@@StefanSobkowiak You would of used them earlier if they were available...I'm guessing.
I have used them in the beginning. I would need 3 tractor trailer loads per acre. No such quantities available in the area.
@@StefanSobkowiak Yea, they're unfortunately quite expensive in some countries, whereas in others they're more or less free. Understandable that those quantities would be too expensive indeed.
Mulch the earth
How about cardboard?
Yes use it under the mulch.
Like ❤️ number 600 from me
Yeah sounds good and all, but meanwhile it's impossible to get woodchips because everything is being thrown into biomass power plants.
if to cut grass around the tree, it will be the mulch already!
True but not as long lasting effect as chips. Any organic matter helps.
Let your grass grow tall around your fruit trees. Then cut it to the ground before it start to seed to mulch your fruit trees. Grass decompose much faster than stupid wood chips. And it is safe cause you are using your own grass with no shit in it. LOL
I think you guys are complicating it too much. Just throw the wood chips down. And you only have enough for one tree in all those bins.
I think that looks hideous