Tilling in Wood Chips

Our farm received a California Healthy Soils Program grant to trial tilling wood chips into vegetable beds.

We have been quite surprised by how well it works, even with fresh chips and even with fresh Eucalyptus chips.  Only a couple drawbacks.
Also it didn't take using extra fertilizer, however we did spot fertilization, so this helped.  Next year we will investigate how much broadcast
fertilization will be needed to overcome nitrogen tie-up.


The first year results have been video logged here:  https://youtu.be/eFlgaPVTWwA

La Vida Verde - I have avoided euc chips so far but maybe Ill trg3 a little plot.  I have found that sowing peas into woodchips does not give me good results but that mulchi g after planting starters does. I will persevere.

Sowing a nitrogen fixing bacteria host crop won't help nitrogen levels until some of the plants' biomass dies off, preferably in the root zone. Until then, the nitrogen is locked up in the plants' own biological processes. Unless, of course, there's an excess and a mycelial network present to move those excesses around to where they're needed, if I'm understanding the biology correctly.

I think it's like dynamic accumulators, which will accumulate diverse nutrients and minerals, but which won't make them available until there's a root zone die-off that releases them from the plants' tissues.

I have no worry that if I have it mixed up, Dr. Redhawk will come by to correct me.

-CK

When you add wood chips by incorporating them into the soil it is a good idea to also incorporate a good amount of composted manures and spent coffee grounds, that gives the extra nitrogen that the chips will pull from the soil contact areas.
Euc chips are not as allopathic as the roots so no worries there.

Redhawk