maple shavings as mulch

17 years ago

I was given a truck load of maple shavings from tree workers in my neighborhood. The man suggested pouring lime over the mound and letting the rain soak it through the mound. Is this a good idea? What purpose would it serve? Should I put fertilizer over the mound too? When can I start to use it as mulch?

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Comments (5)

Kimmsr
17 years ago
Pouring lime over a pile of maple chips is not a good idea and it serves no purpose whatever. If you have a soil that is in really good shape you can use those tree trimmings for mulch right now. If you have a soil that is not well endowed with organic matter you may want to fix it first because of the possibility that the soil bacteria would leave your soil, taking any avaialable nitrogen with them to feed on this new source of organic matter, leaving your plants with no way to get food.
mdh52
17 years ago
I agree w/ last post--forget adding lime. Even if you decide not to use the shavings soon, they will eventually rot into a very nice, dark compost even w/ zero effort from you, over about 3 years. If you turn the pile at all, and even better, if you add any organic source of nitrogen such as manure or grass clippings, it will happen much sooner.
If you need it as mulch soon, I'd go ahead and use it and not worry about the effect on the soil underneath. Assuming you put it on 4-6" thick, the soil microbes will begin to break it down from the bottom, and after just one year a lot of it will be completely composted already. Caveat: do not mix un-composted shavings INTO the soil. That will mess everything up in the growing medium. Also, keep it away from the house foundation as it will encourage termites. Asolutely perfect as mulch anywhere else, though.
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Kimmsr
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Whether mixing high carbon material into your soil will cause problems depends. Is your soil good and healthy with a really good fuctioning Soil Food Web? Mixing in high carbon "stuff" will have little affect. If your soil is not good and healthy then mixing high carbon "stuff" into the soil will cause what bacteria are there to use all available nitrogen to make the protein they need to digest that carbon and will concentrate on the job leaving the plants with inadequate nutrient support.
bob64
17 years ago
I have used fresh woodchips as mulch without ill effect but I usually let the chips season in a segregated pile for at least a few months. Last summer I mulched a new flower bed during a hot spell with some aged wood chips that I saturated with water right before applying and that worked out very well. FYI, a truly fresh pile of chips will often heat up for a while. If your chips are from Norway Maples I suggest that you let them compost on their own for at least several months before using as mulch.
brdldystlu
17 years ago
I have used fresh wood chips for mulch for years.
The local electric companies are happy to bring it to me. This year the county is doing storm clean ups and I was lucky to get a truck load. Again they were happy to drop it for me. I am going to finish moving it today. I have never had any issues from using it on my beds. I have even used it on a new bed that I had done nothing to. It was an area in my yard that I was not able to get grass to grow, and till a few years ago didn't really care as my boys declared it as their area to dig, run their trucks, and pretty much tear it up. It was a hill side. Now my boys drive their trucks for real.
That year that I threw fresh wood chip mulch on there I pretty much pulled back the mulch and filled the pocket with good compost and planted in the pockets, yes I did get a bit into the soil below but it was hard as a rock so pretty much didn't do much more than scrape the top. The plants I put there are still there today and did good from day one. Year one I did top dress with more fertilizers than have from there. At the end of the season I leave the old mulch there, top dress with compost, stall waste from the local horse farm and chopped up leaves. Then I do a nice layer of wood mulch. Last summer I went to dig a hole to plant something new, top foot was nice dark loam. Then I hit the old hard clay. Glad this is a hill side so the water can run off, if it was flat I don't think that would be as good.
Sandy