jyoutz
Super Member
Or dryer
Wood chips and composting
ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 23,684
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
My best mulch chips are old growth heart redwood...
Still have a few 100 year old posts around the place...
Still have a few 100 year old posts around the place...
Hilbilly
Veteran Member
About 3 or 4 years ago I managed to get 40 16' cedar logs and stored them on sacrificial logs, to keep them off the ground. I used a lot of them right away and left a few for later use. Last week I went to mill them into lumber and the ones on the bottom of the pile were rotten and unusable. Probably because the bark was still on them.
The weather here varies from -40*C in the winter to plus 44*C in the summer and we don't normally get large amounts of rain.
I just started composted grass clippings mixed with sawdust, last year and that was very successful. I had good compost within a few months. But that was putting in the effort to make sure it was moist, rotated and mixed at a ratio of about 2 to 1. The wood chips that were just left to their own, after running them through the brush mower, started to heat up but then stalled. That was a few years ago.
I don't have any experience with just leaving the wood chips as shown on the pictures I posted and don't know if they will compost on their own or will need to be attended to, like the grass clippings.
The weather here varies from -40*C in the winter to plus 44*C in the summer and we don't normally get large amounts of rain.
I just started composted grass clippings mixed with sawdust, last year and that was very successful. I had good compost within a few months. But that was putting in the effort to make sure it was moist, rotated and mixed at a ratio of about 2 to 1. The wood chips that were just left to their own, after running them through the brush mower, started to heat up but then stalled. That was a few years ago.
I don't have any experience with just leaving the wood chips as shown on the pictures I posted and don't know if they will compost on their own or will need to be attended to, like the grass clippings.
jyoutz
Super Member
Old growth heart redwood is pretty much unobtainable nowadays.
ultrarunner
Epic Contributor
- Joined
- Apr 6, 2004
- Messages
- 23,684
- Tractor
- Cat D3, Deere 110 TLB, Kubota BX23 and L3800 and RTV900 with restored 1948 Deere M, 1949 Farmall Cub, 1953 Ford Jubliee and 1957 Ford 740 Row Crop, Craftsman Mower, Deere 350C Dozer 50 assorted vehicles from 1905 to 2006
Unless you have a connection to the Santa Cruz CA fire zone.
My best friend lost everything during the fire and is now rebuilding his shop with salvage Heart Redwood he is milling on his property... 6 miles up the mountain on a dirt road.
He has lots of chips from cleanup going on.
jaxs
Elite Member
Lucky hounds! To give you an idea how difficult Redwood is to find in Texas,I salvaged 1"x12"x8' Redwood boards from an old home that was to be demolished and advertised them for $80 each thinking buyers would want to haggle over paying that for used lumber. Had the usual inquiries saying surly I couldn't be serious and did I mean $8 instead. A boat builder that restores wood pleasure boats drove 200 miles one way to buy all I had.
Last edited:
orangetree
Gold Member
first, for composting you need a good ratio of "nitrogen rich" to "carbon rich". Wood chips are the latter. Food waste and green foliage are the former. If you mix in grass clippings you'll get better results.
Second, as others have mentioned, heat is your friend on speed. So if you can make an 8foot pile of it, keep it moist (but not wet), it will literally start smoking and go much faster. Note it's technically possible for it to self-combust, so don't go crazy if you're in a dry area.
That said, as a kid our family took 50+ truckloads from a local commercial tree service we knew who was looking for a free place to dump (what was waste for him). 10 years later, that was some GREAT soil ... so i you're patient.
Second, as others have mentioned, heat is your friend on speed. So if you can make an 8foot pile of it, keep it moist (but not wet), it will literally start smoking and go much faster. Note it's technically possible for it to self-combust, so don't go crazy if you're in a dry area.
That said, as a kid our family took 50+ truckloads from a local commercial tree service we knew who was looking for a free place to dump (what was waste for him). 10 years later, that was some GREAT soil ... so i you're patient.
jaxs
Elite Member
Cedar can mean different trees,depending on where you are located. What we call "cedar" in Texas is Juniperus virginiana that when used as fence posts resists rot for decades,taking the back seat only to Bois-D-Arc. Did I mention that it depends on where you are located?
Well if you happen to be located at a building material outlet in Texas asking for cedar,you recieve one from NW USA that in no way resembles what grows here. If you insist on buying some grown locally, yo
u must go to a furniture wood distributor, sawmill or mill it yourself. On a side note. Heading South from the Red River,as you get nearer the Rio Granda,you might want to taste a sample before ordering chili. Most places serve something similar to that found on supermarket shelves but as you get nearer Rio Granda they might bring a bowl of
a 
for desert and afor the following day..
Hilbilly
Veteran Member
Thanks.
The pile of fresh chips that I posted earlier are about 1/4 of what I will end up with after some clearing I'm doing. Most of the trees will be used for lumber or firewood, depending on diameter and the rest will get chipped and piled for composting. Not sure If I have 10 years to wait though. At my age, I might be compost by then, lol.
