Can I use freshly chipped green wood as mulch?

17 years ago

DH just chipped up a bunch of apple wood. It's fresh and green -- is it okay to use as mulch for mature shrubs and trees, or do I need to let it age first? Thanks!

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Comments (9)

digdirt2
17 years ago
You can but IMHO it's always best to let fresh wood chippings/shavings age for a bit first. They can get quite hot while decomposing - too hot even to touch - so can easily burn/scortch contact plants not to mention possibly tie up available nitrogen in the soil and thus deprive any plantings in the area. If you choose to use them keep them away from direct contact with the house, the base of any plant, or the tree and spread them thinly.

A search here for using wood chips will bring up several prior discussions for more details and potential problems and there is some info in the FAQ here too which I linked below.

Here is a link that might be useful: FAQ on Mulching
squeeze
17 years ago
applewood is fine, no harmful stuff, let it "age" as mulch

Bill
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There are about a gazillion types of ants known to science and probably about two gazillion types they haven't noticed yet. But for the sake of a simple answer, I'll divide them into the three most important types: ants who love wood chips, ants who love plants, and and ants who don't care about either. The ones in the first category love wood chips and/or other dead vegetation for food and/or housing. They may be attracted by wood chips, but most ants in this category are beneficial in breaking down dead vegetation for your vegies to get the nutrients. The ones in the second category use plants for food and/or shelter. Some of these guys "farm" aphids. They may be attracted to your garden by the vegies themselves, regardless of the mulch. The third category will be there regardless of the vegies or mulch. Some of these ants are beneficial hunters of other insects. These categories overlap a bit, but are generally true. The science guys are a lot farther ahead with describing and naming insects, than they are with figuring out how they live and what they eat. If you look in a real deal scientific book on insects, they identify all those tiny red and black ants by things like what their mandibles (jaws) or antennae (feelers) look like when magnified. Just watching them gives you more practical info than going through all that to get a Latin name and no details. Wood chips near the porch may be bad for two reasons. First, the wood chips will shrink a lot as they decompose. second, I've read that they attract termites and carpenter ants, which you don't want damaging your house. My personal experience is that they are only interested in larger pieces of wood that they can create a nest in, and not chips or saw dust. It may be an old wives tale from people seeing carpenter ants in wood chips and/or saw dust where trees were removed and not realizing that they were really living in the stump or underground roots. In your area it may be different though. Ziggy
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Can I use it to kill the grass where I want to put in new beds in a few months? If anybody is in the Ashford Park area and wants some, email me at eamoody@emory.edu . OMG- I have so many wood chips in my front yard! What have I gotten myself into?
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Thanks for the advice all, I just put the chips around the plants. I had to wait a couple days before I had time to spread them, and when I removed the top layer off the load in the wheel barrow, the middle was warm and steaming already. The ground under the chips is free of sod and weeds already, even though it might look like they are planted straight in the turf. When I planted the row last year, I removed the sod, planted, and put cardboard rings around them, with composted stump grindings on top of the cardboard. I got them in the ground just before summer and the plants had a bit of trouble with the heat, some dry times, and the lawn guy mowing over one of them, but I am happy to see they all came back this year. I dug and weeded around them just now before spreading the chips and it looks like the cardboard broke down pretty nicely too.
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In my area the two most common mulches under acid loving plants are mushroom compost and hardwood bark. Mushroom compost is the output of the facilities who grow the mushrooms we buy in the grocery stores. In this area they grow the mushrooms in abandoned coal mines so the facilities are cheap and common, and so is the mushroom compost. The hardwood bark is preferred because the color doesn't change as the season progresses. The mushroom compost is preferred by those who have more complex gardens than a couple rhododendrons or azaleas in front of the house. In my community they collect leaves in the fall and in the spring dump a big pile of the leaf compost at a central place where you can help yourself. I can't make myself use this stuff as it's full of plastic bags from the grocery store. Who would collect leaves and stuff them in such a tiny bag, but they do. I get the picture of someone collecting leaves in their purse, transferring them to a plastic bag. But then I wonder what else is in that "leaf compost". In some areas they mix in the municipal sewage sludge.
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digdirt2
17 years ago
You said apple wood and it just occurred to me, do you know what they charge for a small bag of apple wood chips for the Bar-B-Q grill? Expensive stuff! Bag it to sell on eBay and save some to use on the grill. ;)
jayco
Original Author
17 years ago
Ebay! Never thought of that! Thanks all, for the advice. I'll let it age (if I don't sell it on Ebay, that is).
franktank232
17 years ago
Use it on your grill! Awesome wood for smoking. I wouldn't waste it on mulch.
jayco
Original Author
17 years ago
We will use some of it! But we don't grill that much, and it's a BIG pile. Maybe I'll offer some to our grillin' neighbors.
Kimmsr
17 years ago
Use it as a mulch. Around 4 inches thickness should not present problems.
kossetx
17 years ago
As long as your not mulching more than 6 inches you will be fine. I use fresh chips constantly.
jpal
17 years ago
We use fresh wood chips for our pathways. It makes for a nice bright yellow pathway which then weathers to a nice grey and finally earthy brown once it's broken down. Breaking down takes about a year and then we use it as a soil amendment. Sometimes we screen it, and sometimes not. We lay down 4 to 6 inches of wood chips in the pathway.

Sort of a pain in the neck, but we live in a triple decker neighborhood and a lot of folks look into our garden and this makes for a nice "something's alive" look in the midst of a dreary New England winter.

Note: In our community garden the Fire Department was once called to put out a steaming pile of fresh wood chips. They had a bit of a hard time understanding the pile wasn't actually burning, but was getting digested by bacteria.

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Can I use freshly chipped green wood as mulch?

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digdirt2

squeeze

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Can I use freshly chipped green wood as mulch?

Comments (9)

digdirt2

squeeze

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