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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Camphor tree wood chips as mulch, danger?

12 years ago

I am getting delivered free what was supposed to be a load of Crape Myrtle wood chips. The tree service guy just called and said he added a pine tree and camphor tree to the load.

I did some research on camphor trees and it is supposed to be an invasive tree in Florida, don't know if it would also be in the drier California conditions. But it is supposed to produce loads of berries in the spring. I don't know if this tree has berries formed already, but I am wary about maybe introducing hundreds of camphor tree seeds onto my property.

The camphor is also supposed to repel insects and smell nice, which would be good, but too much of the fumes is supposed to be toxic.

Should I stop the guy from dumping this? Might not get another chance to get a free load of wood chips delivered for free though.

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Comment (1)

californian
Original Author
12 years ago
Well the tree service guy just showed up and said it wasn't a camphor tree after all, it was a carrot wood tree, which from some research is also listed as an invasive tree in Florida.
The chips were a little bigger than what I would have wanted but I guess you can't look a gift horse in the mouth. But seeing as we don't have any mangrove swamps in southern California it may not be an invasive tree here. I will be on the outlook for any seeds.
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