Great picture! What specifically about pine's tannins and sap causes undesirable results? I actually use rotted pine in my seed starting and soil mixes as the base. They rot pretty quickly and extremely spongy. I know Sepp Holzer mainly uses spruce and softwoods in his Hügel beds.
You are viewing a single comment's thread from:
Probably not a massive problem at all, I figure cherry, locusts and walnut are the hypothetical "worst". These either take years to fully decompose ( locusts) or can directly inhibit plant growth (allelopathy with walnut). Pine and other softwood can be useful for acidic loving plants/shuns most notably in my area: blueberry. Pine mulch can help make the soil more acidic if needed.
What I should have done was outline a certain hierarchy, which is hard to classify because of its vague nature:
Well decomposed locust, walnut and cherry are better to use that fresh cut because theoretically they have leached alot of the chemicals/metabolites/structure out of the log. If these woods were among the only ones you had around, they are okay if WELL decomposed. I imagine even if you did use them over time the soil might be more growable as time pases and the certain aspects of the wood wash away. Also you have a very good point with the softwood pine, I almost garentee it would hold substantially more water, more quickly (in the process of decomposition) than other hardwoods would.
I think cedar differs from pine in the way that cedar (along with acidity) has anti-fungal/anti-microbial capabilities.
There, in a sense, is a form of a hierarchy of "preferableness" amonst even these woods.
I guess if I was to have to quickly form a list of overarching woods it would be: (in order of least amount of time for optimum soil quality of hugel)
-Decayed hardwood (quiker nitrogen overall without the wait)
-Fresh hardwood
-Decayed softwood (including cedar)
-Fresh softwood
-Decayed non usables ( locust, black walnut/cherry)
Awesome! Thanks for the details. I usually use what I have available from the brush and rotted wood around my wood lot. I think diversity creates a buffer for any potential risks. But I would agree walnut shouldn’t be used, and black locusts would definitely take years to decompose. Cedar won’t rot either. White oak is so dense it would take some time to break down as well.