I live in the middle fo the woods and one year I shredded a lot of small branches that had collected around the place. When I used them for mulch, I discovered that they appeared to suck all the nitrogen out of the soil as they decomposed and I lost many plants. However, another factor may have been that some of the branches were from black walnut trees.

Bill Lee in Cincinnati

-----Original Message-----
From: Christopher P. Lindsey <lindsey@mallorn.com>
To: perennials@hort.net
Sent: Tue, Jun 14, 2011 1:01 pm
Subject: Pine bark fines

----- Original Message -----
> 
> Chris....my experience with chipping/shredding branches, etc., is
> that the result is very coarse, even too coarse to use as mulch.
> But, that might be just the chipper/shredders I've seen used. I'd
> also be interested in knowing if others have found this a useful
> tool for making soil amendments and what type of machine is best.

It's something that I'll have to experiment with.

I still prefer mixing my own soil when potting up plants -- it's
so much less expensive, seems to hold up well, and I can tailor
it to the needs of a plant (i.e. hardwood bark fines for non-acid-
lovers, pine bark fines for acid lovers, extra chicken grit when
more drainage is needed, etc.)

So for my use running mulch through a chipper multiple times
might be effective, but that may not be true for needing enough
to cover a 20x20 bed.  :)

Chris

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