Wood Chips

[ktowne030311]

So I picked this bad boy up last night for $150. I plan on using the wood chips for bedding for our pet duck. That and I plan to hopefully use some as mulch. So my question is, do I have to let the chips "cure" or anything? If so how long?
Also my grandmother seems to think that the wood chips have acidity in them and that they're bad for plants? Does this statement have any value? Thanks for the input guys!

 

[Magicman]

Chips and sawdust need to compost before being used as mulch.

[brendonv]

X2.   I use wood chips exclusively as mulch for beddings. Prob well over a hundred /hundred fifty yards gets used here at least per year. I push customers to keep them too, saves money and gives back to the property.

There are some chips and sawdust that is not good for horses, etc. youll habe to research that tho m

[timberlinetree]

Nice chipper. Not sure but I think fresh wood chips makes bugs? The ones that fly and get in your eye. Good luck chipping.

[Chuck White]

Look around before you start grabbing into a pile of wood chips!

Around here, if there's a pile of wood chips, there's usually a snake curled up on it, soaking up the heat!

[maple flats]

Fresh chips from green wood have lots of moisture. If piled real high you may want to put a pipe vent in, just to be certain you don't get spontaneous combustion. It is rare but can happen. If you don't pile real high, no issue. By all means, let it compost before use for garden or flower use, but not needed for the ducks.

[rjwoelk]

I get lots of chips from my firewood processor,  we have it in 53 cubic ft vented bags. Never a problem with heating, and we use it in the horse trailer. Put them fresh between raspberry rows, easy to pull the weeds latter.

[Chuck White]

Fresh chips from green wood have lots of moisture. If piled real high you may want to put a pipe vent in, just to be certain you don't get spontaneous combustion. It is rare but can happen. If you don't pile real high, no issue. By all means, let it compost before use for garden or flower use, but not needed for the ducks.

Spontaneous combustion can do wierd things too, besides just burn.

Back when I was 12-15 yo, I told my Dad that I could smell smoke in the hay loft, so we both went investigating and found nothing.

Well, along about Jan or Feb while throwing hay down to feed the cows, I pulled out a bale and the whole back side of it was burnt black.  Pulled another couple of bales out and there was a "cavern" where there was hay and it was about 8 bales high, 5 bales deep and maybe 5 bales wide.

Dad pretty near flipped out when I told him about it and he had to go and see for himself!

So the combustion started, but couldn't get enough oxygen to continue burning, so smothered itself out.

Sometimes we get "very lucky"!

[Peter Drouin]

No problem.  ;D


  

 

[rjwoelk]

Any body do composting, with wood chips, if so what is your mix. I was going to get some manure from a local farmer, and mix the chips in let it heat and keep turning.

[ktowne030311]

Thanks for the replies guys. Thanks for the suggestion Rkwoelk on the rasberries. Didnt even cross my mind. We've got quite a few raspberry bushes here around the farm, usually enough to make about 35 jars of jam and a few pies, depending on the weather of course.

[timberlinetree]

We have made some big piles of chips and its amazing how the pile shrinks after time.

[r.man]

Waste from the local veneer mill was hauled to my fathers farm 30 years ago and stockpiled. Mostly bark and sawdust. The trucker, who had the largest tandem dump truck in the area, treated it like sand or gravel, back into the last pile and dump the next just in front of it and end up with a grid  of large piles. Years later I put a small farm tractor and a drag on the area to level it out and you would think that a pick up with a dump box had left the piles.