Dealing with woodchips in soil...

[adegiulio]

I have an area of my yard that had a lot of woodchips on it. I've removed as much as I could, but there are still a bunch of half decomposed chips mixed with soil. I would like to plant here, but I'm concerned that the woodchips will leach nitrogen from the soil as the decomp further. Is there something I can put down that will either speed up the decomp or help to restore niitrogen for planting in the spring (or both)

Thanks in advance!

[gsganzer]

You sort of answered your own question. Put down some fertilizer with a good nitrogen ratio.

[Bird]

I went the other direction in my garden. Instead of removing wood chips, I added massive quantities of wood chips, all I could get, and tilled them into that clay soil. I never used any commercial fertilizer, but did have a good quantity of cow manure and some rabbit manure, so I had a fine garden.

[GAFarmer]

Actually, before you do anything with those chips I would get a soil test and THEN figure out what to do.

[Pat]

A soil test is always a good idea but it is a sure thing you will have less available nitrogen where there were wood chips for a while since they use nitrogen in the decomposition process.

If you choose to wing it, then you should at least put on some nitrogen. I wouldn't go crazy, no more than a light spritz of 0-0-19 or some such.

Like Bird did is good, chicken and rabbit are both good. Don't over do the chicken doo! That stuff is pretty "HOT" and it would be safer to compost it first or mix it in with other materials when doing compost and then work that into the soil.

Oh, did you consider maybe a soil test? That takes the guess work out of it and can prevent wasting your time and money while making the soil unballanced.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[adegiulio]

Yeah, a soil test sounds like a great idea, and it is something I should do anyway. My one concern with a soil test, as far as the wood chips go, is that the test may not show FUTURE nitrogen depletion as a result of bacterial breakdown of the wood. So, while it might have fine levels of nitrogen now, but spring or summer those levels might be too low.

I plan on mixing horse manure (it might be composted, but I might be stuck with fresh) into the soil. Is that enough or should I still go with a nitrogen fertilizer? Also, if I do go with fertilizer, which should I choose?

Thanks for all the responses!

[egon]

Put on some straight ammonia nitrate, 15 -0-0 and then some regular of about 10-10-10. Don't go to heavy and watch for yellow on the plants which indicates to much Nitrogen. If that happens add lots of water. Note the ratio's above may be slightly different in your area.

You may also ask what the local farmers are using. That is always good general information on the local area.

The best is organic like compost. Keep adding and you get a fine well structure soil. The chemical variety has instant results but in my opinion does damage some of a living soils infrastructure. [ unproven by me] [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Egon

[buck21]

egon sorry to inform you but yellowing leaves mean theres not enough Nitrogen its a problem that we have alot because corn and pig weed drains it right out. [img]/forums/images/icons/ooo.gif[/img] but i maybe wrong so dont hold it to me but i am about 98% certain that it means not enough

[egon]

Uh-oh, have I been telling lies again? [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]

Chances are the yellowing can indicate either as excess N2 will also kill.

Egon [img]/forums/images/icons/grin.gif[/img]

[Pat]

Egon, yoiu said, "You may also ask what the local farmers are using. That is always good general information on the local area."

That would get widely varied and mostly wrong advice around here. One of my pet peaves is everyone asks everybody else how to fertilize or they see that John got good results so they want to do what John did. I have 5 different soil types on my 160 acres and the fert requirements aren't even the same across all of any one type.

Nothing succeeds like a real soil test. Everything else is BS and luck unless you have been doing the same thing on the same ground and know what works well. Still, a soil test might turn up some unknown information.

Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]