Wood chips and composting

[JJT]

I'm fortunate to have a neighbor that drops off 10-15 bushels of horse manure a week. I mix my wood chips in and turn the pile once or twice a month. By spring time I have a 40 - 60 yard pile of nice compost for the garden. I've been tilling that in for the past 15+ years, my garden is now a raised bed and the soil is like potting soil. Originally all I had was heavy clay, not now, it's well drained loam, full of earth worms.

As others have said, a compost pile can overheat, I've found ash at the center of my compost pile and rocks that were too hot to handle. Turning more frequently would solve that issue, or making smaller piles. I normally stack 8 - 10' high.

 

[Sonny580]

At one time my compost/manure/wood chip pile was over 20' high, never got turned for a long time and was still hot. the piles do need turned a few times but not too often or you lose too much heat and it slows down the rot process .

 

[Garandman]

Garandman, you didn't say what kind of trees, or what you'd use the compost on. In the off-chance they're Black Walnut (or even Hickory or Butternut), be aware that the wood and bark chips will contain juglone. The resulting compost could actually ****** whatever you plan to grow. Here's a link. How to Stop Black Walnut Juglone Toxicity | Gardener’s Path.

Ash, several varieties of Birch, Maple, and Red Oak. Some Eastern Hemlock.

 

[sea2summit]

I'm fortunate to have a neighbor that drops off 10-15 bushels of horse manure a week. I mix my wood chips in and turn the pile once or twice a month. By spring time I have a 40 - 60 yard pile of nice compost for the garden. I've been tilling that in for the past 15+ years, my garden is now a raised bed and the soil is like potting soil. Originally all I had was heavy clay, not now, it's well drained loam, full of earth worms.

As others have said, a compost pile can overheat, I've found ash at the center of my compost pile and rocks that were too hot to handle. Turning more frequently would solve that issue, or making smaller piles. I normally stack 8 - 10' high.

Dang, jealous of that manure.

 

[3Ts]

If you use horse manure, you'll need to get the compost pile hot to kill the weed seeds that pass thru the horse. If you use cow manure, the weed seeds get digested in the cow and you won't have volunteer weeds from the manure.

 

[JJT]

I prefer horse manure over cow manure, even though there will be more weed seeds. With the heavy clay, I need all the organics I can get.

"Horses digest their food less thoroughly than cows, so their manure is richer in organic matter. It is, however, more likely to contain viable weed seeds. Horse manure often contains bedding and straw soaked with nitrogen-rich urine, which is of particular value to growers."

 

[jyoutz]

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, you 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.
.

In New Mexico, we spell it chile. Chile is the pepper and chili is the stew.

 

[Garandman]

In NH, most of what grows other than trees is rocks.

 

[Bill Guenthner]

In NH, most of what grows other than trees is rocks.

The old timers say there’s only two things that grow well here, rocks and sassafras trees. I think they’re leaving out cedars.

 

[jaxs]

Horse manure has been mentioned a few times as being mixed with chips. It does give chips a boost in both speed and quility but I have something else you might try. Red wigglers turned loose in horse manure prosper and multiply rapidly. Kept slightly moist and in shade, worms turn it into potting soil quility material in short order. That's common knowledge but here's a few tricks to I think some may like. With an ongoing supply available,"windrow"manure by unloading each new load next to the one before. Cover it with old carpet to preserve moisture and alow worms to work close to surface. Weather dictates whether moisture must be added but the need is greatly reduced by carpet plus it keeps birds,chickens and other creatures from digging. Worms will usually populate the material but all worms aren't created equal. Some have a more ravenous appetite, others are mobile and make more tunnels and some reproduce faster. You will soon know when digging into material how local worms are doing. Red Wigglers do great with my year around weather but aren't native so I give friends some to start a herd. That being the case,I reccomend they not dump another load close to the first until first pile is well populated. As manure is worked worms migrate to fresh manure. Movement along the windrow can be somewhat controlled by positing successive loads and in dry weather by application of carpet. If one has a market for worms or want's take as few as possible while removing compost,here's how I do it. Remove carpet to expose surface to sun a few hours then remove material from surface until worms are present. As sun drive's worms deeper and layers are removed, they become concentrated in material making worm harvest easier. One might do that when they have only 1 pile then dump new material on top of worm concentration. With a healthy population, oldest compost can be removed without attention to worms since plenty will have migrated and populated fresh manure. Nothing is gained by addition of bedding. Although not necessary cow manure does benefit from additional bedding such as paper and cardboard. Bedding need not be mixed,worms will still process it. Poultry is not suitable at all for worms but top shelf N source for wood chips.