Hastening decay of downed wood?

In the aftermath of a 4,000 acre fire that spent the last week scorching through the local mountains

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thought I'd do a bit more thinning out of primarily bay laurel on the back hill. Now I've already cut down quite a few trees over the years and they take their sweet time turning back to the soils and nutrients from which they originated. I figured keeping them wet and close together near the ground would help. Any other helpful suggestions?

Reply to
Digital Larry
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> I thought I'd do a bit more thinning out of primarily bay laurel on

Chip them, the more surface area the faster the microorganisms can work.

David

Reply to
David Hare-Scott

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> I thought I'd do a bit more thinning out of primarily bay laurel on

A chipper for a few days.

Tom J

Reply to
Tom J

Get as much dirt as you can on them.

Reply to
Billy

I would cut wood in 4' lengths and give the wood soil contact.

Also brush piles are good for wildlife as well.

Reply to
symplastless

Mix with rotten wood chips to inoculate with fungus, maybe?

Reply to
Father Haskell

Father Haskell wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@f63g2000hsf.googlegr oups.com:

or better yet, order some edible fungus plugs & make yourself a nice mushroom garden. lee

Reply to
enigma

Breaking material into smaller pieces will certainly help. Termites may find it, although I wouldn't want this within 50 feet of the house.

Reply to
Phisherman

Fukuoka recommends burying logs in hole and letting them decay in the soil. Apparently builds high soil fertility.

As I mentioned earlier, the most basic method for improving soil is to bury coarse organic matter in deep trenches.

One may establish an orchard and plant nursery stock using essentially the same methods as when planting forest trees. Vegetation on the hillside is cut in lateral strips, and the large trunks, branches, and leaves of the felled trees are arranged or buried in trenches running along hill contours, covered with earth, and allowed to decompose naturally

rob

Reply to
George.com

Because trees contain so much of a forest's nutrients, burying logs is actually one of the most efficient ways to build soil. Masanobu Fukuoka, a Japanese agronomist and philosopher who's considered one of the founders of permaculture, proved this through extensive experiments in the mid-20th century (see /The One-Straw Revolution/, Rodale Press, 1978).

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Reply to
George.com

Well, thanks for all the tips, seems the most practical approach is just to lay the stuff all out on the ground and chip what I can. My chipper can't really take anything much larger than 2" and some of this stuff, we're talking 18 or 24 inches around. And there is a LOT of it, I'm talking at least a dozen trees 8 inches at the base or more and 40 or 50 feet tall. Also it is on a steep hill and just getting the chipper down to that location might be a one-way trip, you know! But then again what else am I gonna do with it! It's not the most attractive garden ornament.

You don't suppose drinking a couple of beers while watching TV would help?

Thnx!

DL

Reply to
Digital Larry

get that stuff they sell for making stumps rot. it's in home depot, lowes, etc. you drill a bunch of holes in the wood and pack in the stuff and wet it down for a while. It eats the lignin out of the wood, leaving only the cellulose; the wood becomes spongy and basically turns into cardboard.

Reply to
z

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