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 Post subject: Hickory shavings
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:32 am 
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Joined: Tue Mar 16, 2004 6:19 am
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Location: Central Texas
I live out in the country and am making a new garden site. The soil is a heavy clay. I have added lava sand, green sand, molasses, gypsum, and some top soil from my original site. I have access to quite a bit of shaved
hickory wood. My question is, would it be a good idea to add this to the other ammendments?


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 10:30 am 
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As a mulch on top of the soil, yes. If you compost them first, you could add the fully composted shavings into the soil. Generally speaking, they should not be put into the soil in raw form. What was your reason for adding gypsum (calcium sulfate)?

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 Post subject: gypsum
PostPosted: Tue Mar 16, 2004 8:36 pm 
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Thank you for your reply. The reason I added gypsum was because I had read where Howard Garrett suggested using this to clear up a muddy tank. When I found this product, on the package it stated it was also used to help with clay soils.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 12:58 am 
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If you could mulch with six inches of wood shavings and keep the level at six inches for several years, your clay will turn into a wonderful soil. The trick is to get the fungi that decompose the wood to dwell in the soil. That can happen with the mulch.

Also if you can plant some deep rooting grasses and legumes in the soil as "cover crops," that can really help loosen the soil.

I'm getting ready to post a picture of deep roots on a pasture bunch grass over on the Lawns forum - if you're interested in what tall grass can do for you.

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 Post subject: shavings, continued
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 6:23 am 
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Location: Central Texas
Thank you so much for the information! In my haste to get my garden started I went ahead and added the sawdust on top of my garden site! What do you think will happen when we mix it all together? Since I live in the country, we could plant some of the grasses you suggest. When is the best time to try? Thank you for your suggestions.


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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 8:32 am 
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Oops!

When you mix it in, which we don't suggest you do, your soil microbes will shift toward decomposing that wood shavings. When that happens, nitrogen will preferentially be sent to those microbes doing the decomposing instead of to the plants. Essentially you will stop releasing plant food to the plants until the wood is decomposed. That could be months to years. You'll notice that it will be very hard to get anything to grow there unless you add chemical fertilizer, which we also do not suggest doing.

If you leave the stuff on top of the soil, the soil microbes will remain at work in the soil. The microbes that want to decompose the wood will remain up above the soil and will get their nitrogen from wherever they can but not very much from the soil, even though they are in contact with the soil. This is why composting wood with "greens" works in a compost pile. While the wood shavings are on top of the soil, you will have a great mulch and you should be able to continue growing things in the soil under the mulch.

Was that clear?

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 Post subject:
PostPosted: Wed Mar 17, 2004 10:00 am 
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Location: Central Texas
Oh Glory! Thank you for writing back. Your answer was very clear. I am going right now and raking off the shavings!


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