Allotments 4 All
Allotment Stuff => The Basics => Topic started by: Trevor_D on May 12, 2009, 13:07:19
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Have any of you had bulk deliveries of bark chippings? I've had an offer from a local tree surgeon to drop some off, but when we talked about this on site a couple of years back there were worries that it might contain diseased material. I'm sure it would be fine for those folk who want to build paths round raised beds, but would it be OK to use as a mulch, say?
This guy delivers to other allotments in Harrow and the surrounding area, so it sounds as if we're onto some good stuff here, but I've been told to ask you lot, just to make sure....
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i wouldnt as it might contain ericasious chippings and this as you know would alter the soil PH
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i wouldnt as it might contain ericasious chippings and this as you know would alter the soil PH
But if you only use it on paths it would be ok ?
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we use it around the fruit trees and paths in the fruit cage, smells lovely ;D
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Thanks. I was thinking of it for use on paths, but just wondered whether I needed to give any advice or warnings, just in case we had folk filling their raised beds with the stuff!
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I would certainly use it on path ways I'm on the lookout now for a load,
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If they are coming from a tree surgeon they will almost certainly be fresh chippings. If people use fresh wood chippings as a mulch or to bulk out the material they use to fill a raised bed it is likely to cause nitrogen immobilisation, this would not be a problem on a path but in beds the plants could suffer. The usual ways people avoid this is to stack them somewhere for a minimum of 6 months before applying or they use them on paths first & transfer them to beds later in the year.
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We have tree mulch delivered to our allotments site. Not much real bark to speak of.It is usually fir tree probably Leylandi. We use it but only in the sitting area. I wouldn't put it near my plants. Our soil is acid anyway and very light so we really need lots of stuff to bulk up the soil.
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We can't get enough of the stuff! Many people on our site have raised beds and they use chippings on the paths.
A few use it as mulch and haven't had problems.
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we use them on the paths the council workers drop them off in spring after they had cleared all the comunal flower beds up shredding shrubs and trees great for the paths would never use them on beds can you imagine the amount of unwanted stuff that would grow from it making weedind a real headache
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We occasionally have some dropped off, and people use chippings from a dump next door. I've only used them once, to mulch broad beans, and had no problems.
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We've just been offered some too from a tree surgeon. Is there any risk of introducing diseases like e.g. honey fungus?
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That's what I was worried about. We're advising members to use them on paths only, not for mulching or composting.
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We've just been offered some too from a tree surgeon. Is there any risk of introducing diseases like e.g. honey fungus?
There is always a possibilty of introducing disease or other problems when you import any material to your plot wether it is bought in plants carrying a disease, soil infected with a disease or containing inapproporiate materials, infected manure etc...
In the case of woodchips infected with honey fungus studies carried out by the RHS concluded there was only a small risk of infection.
Experiment 3: to investigate the risk of introducing honey fungus in infected mulch material.
This experiment was carried out in the field. The host plants were again Rosa laxa but they were not infected by honey fungus. Instead honey fungus-infected wood chips were placed in bark-chip mulch at various distances from the plant. After fourteen months the plants were harvested and checked for infection. Only 2.5 % of the plants were infected when the inoculum was placed close (5 cm) to the plant. In most cases the infected mulch material dried out without infecting the plant. The results indicate that infection can occur under these conditions but only at a low level.
Full text of the RHS study can be found in this document:
http://www.rhs.org.uk/NR/rdonlyres/D4C959A7-40F4-4C2E-90A9-31A74C5409A6/0/Armillaria.pdf
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Thanks Baccy Man!
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Thanks. That's put my mind at rest.