We have lots and lots of wood chips from pine trees we've cut down over the past 2 years. I was wondering if it would be beneficial to mix in a significant amount of pine chips into my soil to help "fluff" it up, give it some porosity. My husband says it isn't beneficial unless it's fully degraded but I thought I'd read otherwise on the Internet. Also, our neighbor said she was sold some Soil Conditioner at a local nursery and when she opened the bag is was just pine bark. Isn't this the same as my wood chip pile?
Using pine chips for soil conditioner
I certainly feel pine chips are an excellent additive to a planting hole as well as used for mulch. I'd say go for it.
I wish I had started buying bags of pink bark chips last year when I did so many plantings. I recently bought lots of hostas and the planting tips says to add pine bark chips to help allow the roots to breathe and keeps the soil loose not to mention how it is a calling card for earth worms. Another use for them, I have found useful, is planting azaleas on top the ground setting them onto a bed of bark and topsoil then building the same up around the azaleas into a mound and then mulch with bark and pine straw. I have 10 50 cent each WM sale plants that are showing new growth and buds today. I credit it to the bark allowing the azalea roots to breathe and have great drainage.
So, help me out here. I also have a big pile of chips/mulch from 2 big pines from frontyard but haven't dared using them because "people" (not DG ) tell me it is too acid and will kill most plants because it drains nitrogen from soil ,are you supposed to add nitrogen or...... What is thruth?
Cordele, I can see what you mean about the drainage and breathing, but Azaleas like acid soil, right? Did you use the pine chips anywhere else too?
Coby
Every hole I dig gets a big handful of pine bark chips mixed in with native and bagged soil. Plus a cup full of worm castings now that I bought some of that from the RU. The pine bark really attracts the worms. I don't know that much about the various soil types and ph levels. But yes, azaleas do like acid soil. On adding fertilzer, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. The ideal situation would be to have your soil tested in every garden area if they are spread out on your property. I did add some fertilzer especially labeled for azaleas when I set them out. I also use the bloom buster grandulars for cuttings that need extra help growing roots.
My opinion... Pine chips are very beneficial if you mix them in right. Look at Miracle grow potting mix. It's full of pine chips. The two down sides to pine chips are 1) You're adding a bunch of carbon to the soil. Fix this like Cordeledawg said by mixing in some high nitrogen fertilizer either natural or chemical with it. 2) They're pretty acidic. Mix some Lime in with it to fix this. To do this right you should really measure how much of each thing you put in like MG does but I tend to just kind of eyeball it... You should only need a little nitrogen/lot of carbon just like in a compost pile.
The best thing you can do is mix all this stuff together in a place where you'll plant in a year. Give it time to react before you put plants in it.
After my husband had me paranoid that I was raising the acid level of our soil enough to kill all my plants I purchased a soil test kit from Lowe's yesterday and ran some pH tests in different garden beds. Turns out the acid level is highest in the garden bed he is responsible for. I do add a 10-10-10 fertilizer when I'm tilling the soil and pne chips into my beds. The soil test kit from Lowe's included a list of common garden plants and the pH levels they prefer. There was not a single plant on the list didn't fall in the pH range of 6.0 which is acidic. Azaleas like it as low as 4.5 which is really acidic. The list typically gave a pH range of 1.5 to 2 pH numbers. I think adding pine chips will rarely adversely affect a garden bed.
I bought a whole pickup load of mixed chips as mulch, but you can bet your bippee 80% is pine. So far, so good. None of my plants have acted like they are suffering, and with this drought, I needed all the mulch I can get in my beds. It already appears to be conditioning my red clay/rock soil, along with the addition of composted cow manure. I actually see some earthworms moving in!!
I was using it in my brug pots and was told that it wasn't good for them by a brug grower. Deleted something they needed or added I can't remember which.
Also watch out for termites. I think you have to add lime to kill the eggs off.