Walnut chips

Homer · August 09, 2006, 05:08:04 AM

I've put walnut planer chips around some soft maple and white birch trees as mulch. Wife(Gigi) is concerned about insects and I about walnut toxic to trees? Does look nice and could be a good use? Any information please. Homer

Sunfield Hardwood · August 09, 2006, 07:59:26 AM

Hi Homer, a few years ago I had some very nice mountain ash trees in my back yard, they were about 4" in dia. and were just getting big enough to have the red berries on them in the fall .

then I mulched them with some sawdust from sawmill that only had a very small percentage of walnut in it , within a couple of weeks they all started dying . I removed the sawdust but it was to late, they all died :(. just my experience, Good Luck. Bill

DanG · August 09, 2006, 08:07:33 AM

Hmmm. Juglone is a natural herbicide, but I don't know if it is strong enough to kill trees unless they are really small. It would be a neat experiment to mulch a few expendable trees with Walnut, and some others with something else. I'd do it, but I ain't got no Walnut.

Furby · August 09, 2006, 01:05:02 PM

Bill, was your sawdust thick enough to prevent water from seeping through?

iain · August 09, 2006, 05:02:13 PM

Walnut is one of those trees that kill competition, shift the mulch now

iain

brdmkr · August 09, 2006, 05:52:29 PM

Ditto comments above. Walnut puts out a natural herbicide to reduce competition from other plants. I am not sure if the compounds are in the wood or leaves, but I wouldn't take the chance.

rebocardo · August 09, 2006, 06:26:45 PM

I use white oak shavings to kill the weeds and pretty much everything else. When it rains and the water turns brown in puddles, you know something is afixin to die :D

Sunfield Hardwood · August 09, 2006, 08:10:31 PM

I put the sawdust around the base of trees about 3' diameter and 3" deep. these were nice healthy trees and showed no sign of stress or bugs or any problems.

Furby · August 09, 2006, 08:19:25 PM

It's possible that the trees died due to lack of water.
I've seen it happen on smaller trees.
Least that's what I belive killed them.

DanG · August 09, 2006, 09:22:09 PM

3 inches is too thick to mulch such small trees unless you planted them shallow enough to make up for it. Besides that, Walnut would be a poor choice for mulch. I'm thinkin' that it's the double whammy that got them. When you plant containerized trees, put them at the same level they were in the pot. It's probably better to use some sort of collar so you can use a string trimmer up close, rather than mulching. These trees grow in the wild, so try to duplicate their natural habitat.