Wood Chips

A few days ago a crew from the electric company cut a bunch of volunteer trees out of our back fence row - they were getting too close to the wires overhead. They had a chipper along, and I told them I'd like to have any wood chips they could leave.

They left me a big dump truck load, and I used my tractor and bucket to move them into two compost bins, 10' x 10' x about 6' deep. These are chips from live trees - wild cherry, wild plum, sassafras, elm, and red cedar. They're pretty green and soft at this point, and when I moved them the pile was smoking a little inside.

Today I put about 2 lbs. of 10-20-10 fertilizer on the piles and turned the sprinkler on them for about 3 hours. They absorbed all the water, and my idea is to keep them very wet until, hopefully, they're about half the volume they are now. Then I'll be able to get all the chips in one bin and mix them with green grass clippings in the other bin as the green stuff becomes available.

I've had the electric company leave me wood chips before, and I know from experience if they're just stacked dry and left alone they'll take years to break down. By giving them a little fertilizer, keeping them wet, then layering them with green stuff when I have it I think they'll break down a lot quicker. Any other suggestions?

Wow. Those are monster piles. Maybe try driving a few 7-foot PVC pipes (with plenty of holes drilled in them) down into each pile for better ventilation and quicker decomp?

Like that pipe idea--maybe when you turn it, get some sections of drainage pipe (4 inch diam PVC with holes) and bury them in.

Ozark - we had a similiar offer recently, but I turned it down. I don't have a place to store fresh wood chips, and I know better than to use them before they break down.