2y woodchip pile

A neighbor asked the highway crews for a truck load of wood chips. Mixed trees, who knows really what it was. They dumped it. He never did anything with it...... now he's offering it to me.

Some of it's mostly rotted, especially at the bottom of the 6' tall pile. What would I need to add to make this "great" compost? And there is a LOT. A semi-load of it.

Thanks.

I'd say it already IS great compost, meaning well rotted organic material. Well rotted is well rotted. The not well rotted portions need more N or just more time with rain and snow.

I'd use the not well rotted as mulch and the well rotted as compost.

THANKS. Score one for my flowers.

You are in an enviable situation!! Wood chips make the best mulch, then break down to make great compost. You seem to have a bit of both! Your flowers will thank you! With this drought we are experiencing here in Pa I have been going daily to my wood chip pile left by the phone company after removing a lot of trees two years ago and trying to save my flower gardens. You can add the wood chips themselves to the soil. As long as you don't mix it in to the soil already there it will just break down naturally and not deplete the nitrogen in your soil. The compost part should be pretty well balanced by this time. No matter what it is a win win situation for you!

I have augmented the chips by adding some rabbit manure to the soil, watering and then putting the chips on top of that.

I have a chipper/shredder and add wood chips to my compost piles quite often with good results.
This photo shows the piles of chipped/shredded materials in the front while the darker piles in back are the finished product.

early_bloomer

This message was edited Jul 13, 2012 7:02 PM

Oops! Meant to post this one.


early_bloomer

Nice looking compost!!!

Early_Bloomer - what brand chipper/shredder to you use? The ones I've checked into don't do as good a job as that shown in your photos.

I have a Troy Bilt. It's the bigger 10 hp model. Depending on what I'm chipping or shredding and what they will be used for I sometimes run them through a second time if I want them smaller.

early_bloomer