R. Morgan

Thanks Dale.

Unfortunately those links seem to be in NSW, which is too far away for them to be interested in my trees. I'm here in SA (South Australia) so I would need some more local contacts. I will look, but if anyone can help it will be greatly appreciated. I have hundreds of pines cut down already, but there are thousands of dead pine trees still standing. I cut down the ones near fences and domestic areas for safety reasons and to enable the rebuilding of sheds.

Thanks Peter,

A good thought. I will need to do some research to find out if it's possible for me and won't take too much of my time. I have a million things to do for my bushfire recovery just to get back to the stage I was at a year ago. The scale of the damage is intimidating to say the least! How good it would be if some nice fungus could break down these monstrous pinus radiata trees and return them to the topsoil in a better form.

Thanks Bernard.The first two suggestions can't be used, as I lack time and machinery for such tasks. These trees are really huge. I would love to make them decompose and would like some easy ways of speeding up the process as much as is earthly (or divinely) possible.

Cheers

After the bushfire here in South Australia, I am now the dubiously proud owner of large stacks of whole pinus radiata trees, which I had to get cut down for safety reasons. Does anybody know how i can reduce this to a more soil friendly form? There are over a hundred whole trees in stacks of about 20. I have no tractor or large machinery and would see burning it as a wasteful last resort, but now looking ever more necessary. To me, the scale of the whole thing is mind boggling! Can anybody suggest something which won't cost the earth or send me to an early grave? Getting them cut down in the first place has proven to be horrifically expensive... Nobody will buy them, even though the timber is of good quality. It's just the way things are here now. If they can somehow be returned to the soil in a more useful form that would be fantastic.

Does anybody have good ideas for getting free wood chips?
I'm in South Australia and the ways that I've seen mentioned just don't seem to be available here.
I could easily use hundreds of tons of these wood chips, so buying them is completely out of the question.

Thanks Adam, or is that Santa ?
What a quick reply.
I will take this all on board and hope to be able to do something about it after the heatwave goes away.
It's midsummer here and temps will be about 40 C for the next week or so.

I'm in South Australia and have an area I'd like to upgrade in a similar way. Seed seems to be hard to obtain, unless it's to collect a small amount by hand, spread the seeds and let nature take its course. I want to add grasses and clovers, but wonder what other plants would benefit the soil and allow grazing. I'll follow this forum with great interest.

Thanks for the information guys.

I am interested to see if I can improve some areas of my farm in South Australia to improve the pasture. Anyone used chips for this purpose?

Some of my land is hilly, some undulating and some flat. Any tips on how to get grass growing on these different areas using wood chips?
Also, are pine and gum trees ok for this purpose? I also want to try wood chips on a smallish irrigated pasture, which should help the chips to break down quicker.

I'd better contact the power company now, they are due to prune in this area very soon.

Patrick Rahilly wrote:Mr. Morgan,
I realize your post was made last December, sorry if this gets to you late, however, I hope to give you some thoughts to think about prior to this coming Aussi Summer.

South Australia. I don't intend to second guess you, but are you certain the soil is acidic? Do you happen to be in the Murray-Darling basin? East, West? Climate type?

you should look at the surrounding Veg on the adjacent parcels/ hillsides? Other crops in the area.

I would guess with the white clay sub soil you are probably dealing with a very old soil potentially in a very high moisture area or perhaps now dry, with a historically wet history/ancient flood plain/wetland (billabong) which has leached out all the irons and metals leaving essentially a clay/silicon matrix which can be acidic. the dusty top soils darker color from organic matter (OM) from what plants have grown there recently (last couple hundred years). The dusty-ness makes me think it is more alkaline or sodic in nature, and if you are in a flood plain/historic lake/billabong this is more likely the case than acidic. Its hard to say without knowing climate and spatial proximity in Auz.

My best suggesting to you, regardless of further details, is to look around at the adjacent veg, bushes, shrubs and trees especially. If you are not opposed to planting these in your pasture (with a little more info I can offer some help/suggestions) in broadly spaced rows (trees and shrubs) (think silvo-pasture) this may be the best way to to add OM to the sub-soil, add soil structure, increase grass rooting ability, increase water infiltration/percolation/holding capacity, decrease ET associated with wind, perhaps even build soil by collecting soil that blows off your neighbors lands. Trees/shrubs not only can access deep nutrients that have leached out of surface soils and deposit them on the surface through litter drop and shallow root turnover, but they can also bring deep soil moisture to the surface (a plant phyx anomaly).

Also, where is the water table? shallow? Water quality of the table, salty?

Anyhow, more info would be good to better ascertain your situation.

kind regards.
Patrick.

Hi Patrick,

I am in the Adelaide hills in South Australia, rainfall about a metre per year and a mediterranean climate. The soil is acidic and tests have confirmed that. I believe that all soils in the area are similar, unless people have added lime. I am building soil by allowing builders to dump good topsoil on the surface, and adding horse manure too. The water table is good quality water, the depth is unknown, but neighbours have bores from 35 to 60 metres deep. Once I can get things to grow faster, I will add some deep rooted pasture plants, such as lucerne (alfalfa). Once this happens, I expect that the grazing of it by sheep will slowly build up deeper and richer soil and I will have what I want. Damn slow business this soil improvement (on a low budget). I guess I need good ways to raise soil ph and keep it that way. Wish I could do it with plants alone.

Thanks for your input, much appreciated

Alder Burns wrote:Sounds like maybe you need to consider some duck curry....

Hahaha, sounds like a ripping idea, but to begin with I would rather scare them off than cook them up