The Woodchip Handbook by Ben Raskin

Author:Ben Raskin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Adding Nitrogen

Though I would argue that the evidence mostly suggests there is generally little need to complement your woodchip mulches with a high-nitrogen material, you might in some circumstances decide to do so. We are experimenting with manure–woodchip mixes on our raspberries, as I feel they are not growing as well as I would have expected with a pure woodchip mulch. You might also consider adding nitrogen if you are spreading fresh chip on the surface, but intend to cultivate the soil later, perhaps for weed control. As you cultivate, the chip will become incorporated with the upper soil layer and so take on some more of the soil nitrogen.

As with most soil science, we are still learning. Multiple complex interactions are happening, dependent on soil type, climate and crops. This is shown in one study comparing various mulches, trying to take a holistic evaluation of soil health, tree performance and weed control.4 What they found was that:

Wood chip mulch resulted in excellent tree growth … In contrast, tree leaf nitrogen was lower than the other treatments … Increased compost amendment rates led to higher leaf nutrient levels but not enough to meet levels considered desirable for young non fruit bearing trees, indicating that tree nitrogen needs were not met even at the high nitrogen rate. The wood chip mulch treatment resulted in abundant soil moisture, which may have contributed to the observed desirable tree growth; yet, this may also have contributed to nitrogen loss through denitrification or leaching mechanisms, as suggested by the low available soil nitrogen in summers. In concert, these findings demonstrate that wood chip mulch is not a suitable strategy for orchard floor management during tree establishment unless additional steps are taken to manage nitrogen supply.

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