Composting wood chips from a maple tree

[MrBoZiffer]

I just had an old maple cut down in my front yard and now have a pile of chips at my disposal. However, I'm not entirely certain how to use the chips. I know I can use some as mulch and use some as browns for my compost.

Would these chips be suitable as mulch for my corn, tomatoes, and okra? From what I've read it sounds as if too much might soak up nitrogen; but would the chips be safe as just a mulch?

Also, I have a compost bin I just filled and letting cook. I have a second bin that I just started filling. Could I add a bunch of the chips as long as I make sure to mix in plenty of greens along the way?

Should I maybe stash away some chips for future use? I'm also planning on putting in blueberries soon. Would the chips be suitable as bedding or mulch for the blueberries?

Thanks!

[hit or miss]

They'll take forever to compost in the bin. I would use them as mulch. Some folks use wood chips as mulch for everything, I don't! I would use them for mulching flowers, bushes and such.

[ccar2000]

In my climate wood chips help my dry soil maintain moisture. I have not had a problem with them robbing nitrogen.
I also use them as mulch.
I mix them in compost but more or less just to add texture.

[tomc]

Given the choice I'd use chipped tree (most any tree) for mulch. Only a few garden plants didn't like chipped wood as mulch (Asparagus). Everything else, including walkways do fine.

About the only exception to 'any chipped tree', is black walnut.

[soil]

how big is the pile?

I would just put it in a bin of some kind to keep it contained. then just let it sit for a year, keeping it moist will help decomposition. by next year the fungi will have taken over and you will have a great mulch.

[rot]

..
The garden guy on NPR warns against wood chip mulch every chance he gets. I think his main concern is mulching around trees. It seems wood chip mulch leads to some kind of fungal disease.

I would believe that because I like to line the bottom of my cold and slow, build as you go, no turn bins with about 4 to 6 inches of woody stuff and that's how I like to use wood chips. After feeding one of those for about 2 to 3 months, I will get mushrooms. Once the mushrooms kick in, those bins do reduce in volume quicker and I can get into a perpetual feeding machine where I feed the bin about two feet of stock and come back in about a month and I've lost pretty much two feet of volume. Works for me because I'm operating more of digesting operation as opposed to a producing compost operation.

After about a year of feeding a cold bin, I let it sit for about a year just adding water every so often and I end up with some really nice worm filled compost.

I'm in a dry climate so I don't worry too much about fungus. I know of at least one guy in a wetter environment and he's always on the look out for fungus and now stays away from a lot of compost. He likes to grow fruit trees and I guess he had some bad experience with some compost and fungus.

two cents
..

[MrBoZiffer]

how big is the pile?

It's probably at least 50 cu. ft. Maybe I can make a "brown" pile. That way I could occasionally use it for my compost piles.

Thanks for the input everyone. I'd really like to go ahead and mulch my beds with this stuff. I have 180 sf of beds and they need mulch. Is there any real difference to using the chips fresh, like they are now, versus using them after a few weeks? The guy who cut the tree down told me to let them sit for a couple of weeks to cook before adding to my garden.

[!potatoes!]

in general, the more time you can give them before using, the better. the longer they age, the more they'll break down (even if it's molecular changes you can't see), and the more they break down ahead of time, the less danger of being a nitrogen-vampire-mulch.

wait a couple weeks if you can. even better would be months.

[MrBoZiffer]

That sounds good. I'll probably move them to a pile in the corner of my backyard and let them sit. I'll just have to mulch with some straw or grass clippings. Thanks!

[toxcrusadr]

Interesting point about fungi potentially affecting trees. I had not heard that but I do know that the primary decomposition pathway for wood is through fungi, which can digest the fibrous cellulose that bacteria cannot access as well. Researchers have actually looked at species like white rot fungi for decomposing certain hazardous wastes, such as chlorinated hydrocarbons (PCBs, dioxin, etc.), which do not decompose well in the environment.

I use a lot of wood chips, in the form of free shredded yard waste mulch. I do get a lot of diseases it seems, but it's likely everyone's yard waste is loaded with them anyway, so it's not the fact that there are woody chunks in there.

[Moley]

The guy on NPR cracks me up, he calls people out left and right. I do use wood mulch, it works great at keeping weeds down and moisture in, also looks pretty nice but I am always careful to keep it about a foot away from the fruit trees/bushes main truncks. In that space I just use shredded fall leaves.

[toxcrusadr]

If you're worried about it hogging nitrogen because it's fresh wood, put it on TOP of some other mulch - such as the grass clippings you mentioned - those are high in nitrogen already and will be a nice buffer for the wood mulch.

[resin]

yea use it as mulch we do here all the time as it reduces evaporation and provides some nutrients to the soil as it breaks down. We generally use pine bark, pine chips or leaf litter. Just spead about 75mm (3 inches) thick should be fine.

Not sure who the NPR guy is but isnt that mold there in every forest around the world breaking all the leaves, branches down any way?

[john gault]

Many of the concerns about wood chips is mostly myth, including the pathogen issue and the nitrogen-sucking issue. This addresses those concerns and many more: https://www.puyallup.wsu.edu/~linda%20chalker-scott/Horticultural%20Myths_files/Myths/magazine%20pdfs/Woodchips.pdf