You are being LIED to about using WOOD CHIPS in your garden

what's going on growers it's James Prigioni  coming to you live from Jersey we know as   organic gardeners that the key to a healthy  garden is to work with nature to create an   ideal growing environment so today I wanted to  bring you along as we take some of those steps   toward insuring ourselves better future harvests  let's go all of us know for healthy plants and   trees we need three things sunlight air and water  and those are just the basics for the most part   the air and the sunlight those things are going  to be consistent they're basically always here   they're basically always the same but when it  comes to water that's one of those factors that   changes from year to year one of those things  that if it's not consistent and if it's not the   proper amount of water too much or too little that  will negatively affect your plants but I have a   solution for that something we can do to get that  consistency to make it so we're not over ordering   or under watering in situations but maybe you're  one of those people who have the three basics down   watering it's not an issue for you but you're also  one of those people who in the spring you look at   the garden it's beautiful its lush it's green  things are thriving then something happens you   take about a week off you come back to your garden  and it is completely overrun with weeds it's so   demoralizing you look at your veggies they're just  being strangled out by crabgrass it's a terrible   feeling that's not what we want and we can avoid  that with a natural solution these are the two   biggest issues that I see people running into when  starting their organic garden the idea of either   too much watering or not enough and then being  overrun with weeds believe me I know what it's   like how discouraging it could be to be overrun  with those weeds when your garden is just doing   its doing perfectly but I also know what it's like  to take on too much space I've done it before and   I've done it with the wrong system but if you want  to take on a good amount of space if you put the   right system in if you have nature work with you  if you mimic it then you can take on more space   with less work and grow more food and this big  incredible solution one that we should all be   applying in our garden is simple it's not hard  it's often brushed over that's why I wanted to   present it in this manner switch it up a little  bit and now tell you what it was until a little   bit into the video and that is mulch organic  matter mulch there are many different kinds of   mulch as you can use we want organic matter ones  but even rocks would work fine the idea with this   mulch is that it does a number of things first it  insulates the soil in the summer one is super hot   it helps keep the soil a little cool and then  winter when it's really cold it helps keep the   soil a little warmer allowing the microorganisms  to constant constantly be it working there also   it's gonna retain the moisture which is gonna  help us avoid that issue we had earlier and   it's gonna keep the weeds down avoiding that  other issue woodchips happen to be my favorite   organic matter mulch for a number of reasons and  I'll get into that the first reason I love using   woodchips and I think they're perfect for my  particular scenario is that they're accessible   I can get them oftentimes they'll deliver them  right to my house so because they're accessible   that makes them excellent for my garden also is  the main reason that I love using woodchips is   their ability to create a perfect environment for  fungus to come in in particular mycorrhizae fungi   these are very important funguses and for many  reasons I heard someone say I believe it was   Paul Stamets who as you know is one of the most  famous mycologists say that what chips are about   70% water so they're a great mulch the thing is  we need the access to that water we need something   intermediary that's where the fungus comes in the  mycorrhizal fungi this fungi is so important these   are just a mycelium the hyphae these are almost  like the roots of the fungus and the reason this   is so important incredible is this fungus is  a is unbelievable how large it can get it can   become one of the largest it's actually I think  one of the largest living things in the world   this fungus can stretch for miles some force are  just blanketed with this fungus in the ground the   reason it's so important especially for fruit  trees and other things is because what happens   is these roots these fungal hyphae they'll  be going throughout the whole forest in the   ground everywhere because of this organic matter  mulch the trees roots and other plant roots will   attach into the hyphae basically the roots of the  fungus they'll attach the roots of the plant and   the roots of the fungus together these will form  a symbiotic relationship what the plants will do   is they'll photosynthesize they'll take the sugars  from photosynthesis and share it with the fungus   the fungus in return will give water and nutrition  to those plants water and nutrition that the plant   couldn't access access with its own roots so  its ability to access water nutrition throughout   the whole entire system becomes available so this  fungus is just an incredible incredible thing not   all plants form this relationship though brassicas  don't but again your fruit trees will your woody   substances that's where this is gonna be so  incredible that's why I assist them like this a   food forest where I'm predominantly growing hard  woody substances plants like trees and stuff it   just takes over it does an incredible job because  it just again sets up that perfect environment it   allows the fungus and the trees in a result to  have access to nutrition to order outside of   its regular range so again what really farming  here is funguses so we can actually farm trees   and plants and grow even more food I remember when  I first learned about the mycorrhizal association   that symbiotic connection I was reading a book by  Sir Albert Howard called in agricultural Testament   that thing that made my mind explode I couldn't  believe that that I learned about things like   nitrogen fixation of bacteria on the nodules  of roots and I was like I'm hooked that those   things got me so into gardening I said we know  this stuff what else do we not know and then I   realized like nature has all these solutions all  the solutions we need we just have to be able to   be open to see them it reminds me again come back  to Paul Stamets I was just listening recently   to a podcast and he had mentioned how everyone  knows a lot that bees are dying it's obviously   a detrimental thing it's not good but he came  up with a simple solution using nature what's   up talking boy what he did was he analyzed how  bees always go to certain kinds of trees that have   different kind of funguses and mushrooms in them  and then what he's doing is taking some of those   funguses and giving them to some of the bees and  stuff and these funguses are helping the bees to   prevent a lot of the viruses that that they're  coming down with so again using fungus to our   advantage and working with nature to come up with  that solution or I didn't try to come up with our   own made-up one and our own brains so if we can  get the right wood chips down or just wood chips   down in general we can have the microorganisms and  the worms also working for us the fungus creating   that perfect soil once we have the perfect soil  gardening becomes easy all it's about is taking   the plants and plugging them into the ground  so what we do is we take a living plant with   living roots and plug it into the ground which is  basically fungus so we're taking the living roots   of the plants and plugging it into essentially the  hyphae the fungus the living roots of the fungus   that life connection life supports life that  idea of plugging the roots of plants into the   soil and having the life support life that made  me think of that when I was watching Avatar one   day it's like the same exact thing where he plugs  like his hair into the so it's it's like that I   think it is really our world is more like Avatar  than we think it is so many things are connected   we just don't have the eyes to see it we got to  open them up a little let's grab some wood chips   start moving them into the garden and answer  some of your questions we got our first load   of wood chips right here looking good we're gonna  bring that into the garden and drop it there are   a lot of questions that I get about wood chips and  oftentimes they're the same ones over and over I'm   gonna answer a few of them now hopefully we clear  it up for you the first one I get is what kind of   wood chips are best so basically the best wood  chips in my opinion or what are called arborist   wood chips see these are the wood chips of freshly  cut down trees that have the needles the leaves   all that kind of stuff the sticks the twigs you  don't just want wood shavings that's not what   you want at all you want the arborist chips and  ideally it's good if you could have those aged   for a little while so if you just had a tree cut  down in the fall that's why I'm doing it right   here if you have a tree cut down in the fall  it's excellent to have your wood chips down on   the fall this way when spring comes down they'll  be broken down a little bit after they're broken   down they can retain moisture better which is  important you really don't want to put fresh   brand-new wood chips that are have all the grease  and stuff around annuals it's not ideal although   you could do it another question I often get is  will wood chips acidify my soil nope not I've used   the right application what I mean by that is wood  chips are meant only to be used as a mulch never   never mix them into your soil or it will acidify  it people ask me can I use cedar wood chips can   I use black walnut wood chips yes you can use any  wood chips pine wood chips work great too if you   layer them if you put them down as a mulch they  will not acidify your soil in my opinion though   if you have a choice I like the broadleaf trees I  like things like oaks maples Bradford pears those   would be the best ones in my opinion if I can  get them but again all wood chips will work black   walnut wood chips have the juglone in them in the  roots but they're not gonna it's not going to go   to your plants because that allopathic chemical  in the roots of the black walnut that's only when   it's alive so you're really going to be taking  the leaves and all that you're gonna put them on   top of the soil it's going to break down and it's  not going to affect your plants at all I've tried   black walnut walnut wood chips before they work  great a lot of you will wonder how often do I   have put wood chips down and how deep that's gonna  really be circumstantial for instance if you have   a brand new annual garden that you want to put in  I suggest contractors paper then about four to six   inches of wood chips if you're gonna be growing  fruit trees in a brand new section I suggest about   six to eight inches of wood chips with contractors  paper down if you're in the food forest like me   if you've got established trees already you can  go 812 inches of wood chips as deep as you want   basically the thing is when you're growing an  annual garden you don't want eight to ten to   twelve inches of wood chips because you want to  put you have to plant things into the ground so   if you've got 12 inches of woodchips you're gonna  have to pull back 12 inches of woodchips in every   section or the plant into the ground that's why  it's not gonna be ideal you'll ask me will weeds   come through ever yeah they will sometimes for  instance right here you'll see the woodchips   broke down to the point that we basically have no  wood chips left now there are some weeds coming up   but what I like to do is I'll pull that weed out  by the roots if we wanted to we could just cover   it with woodchips the first year after you good  boy good boy he wants to play a little bit the   boy the first year you put the wood chips down  in this spring there's gonna be some annuals   coming up and there might be some perennials  too what you want to do is just remove them where's your boom tuck so what you want to do  is pull those weeds or you could just cover it   with woodchips the idea is that whenever you see  anything green growing that you don't want point   out pop it with more chips then it can't keep  growing as you can see in this section then whoops   is barely any left so we're gonna come back come  our with a couple loads of woodchips we're gonna   get this whole garden about five or six inches  maybe eight at least of woodchips especially under   these fruit trees before I put the wood chips  down I want to make sure I go through and collect   these peach pits because they could have insects  overwintering in them and insects we don't want   pests like the plum curculio which is definitely  not a good one around here people ask me how quick   the woodchips break down that really depends on  your situation on your particular situation so   if you're in a section like this where the wood  chips have broken down this much you definitely   need more I wouldn't even suggest letting them  get like this three or four inches about as low   as you want to go or you're gonna start having  weeds like this as you can see growing through   people ask me about using manures with wood chips  also so I think that's a great idea in the right   application in the right scenario so I've got  my hazelnut trees over there I'm gonna put some   manure under them this year chicken manure from  my chickens to do that first I'm gonna put about   three inches of woodchips down then I'm gonna lay  our manure over top of those woodchips and then   about six more inches of woodchips over top of the  manure this way the manure will seep into the soil   over the fall over the winter in the rainy season  and the spring will come and the Haysom that will   be ready just you know rejuvinated ready to grow  so I think that's a good idea and it's also having   the wood chips on top of the manure will kind of  cover it so you don't just have sitting manure to   other things people mention me all the time or  question or what chips gonna bring termites in   no not any more than any other mulch would for  instance of you of rocks as a mulch or anything   that's going to be a location for termites to  actually live in but wood chips can be a location   if returns to live in yeah but they're definitely  not going to eat them that's because these wood   chips are soggy wet and full of fungus termites  like dry dry wood that's what they like to eat   so they're not gonna be eating your wood chips so  you don't have to worry about that when it comes   to a fire hazard if you've ever grown with wood  chips then you know that's that's crazy there's   no way these wood chips again the reason we love  them is because they can retain moisture they can   hold it they're wet they have funguses that I'm  definitely not gonna start a fire that's today's   viewers thanks for watching I hope you enjoyed it  I hope you got something out of it the ultimate   goal though is to build the system that provides  us with the highest quality food with the least   amount of work and that's why I think mulch  is just so vitally important you guys enjoyed   the video hit the like button hit the subscribe  button share with your friends don't forget to   check out the merch down low talkin G whoo-wee  back at you with another one real soon we out!

Channel: The Gardening Channel With James Prigioni

Views: 826,956

Keywords: garden, gardening, mulch, wood chips, wood chip garden, back to eden garden, organic, organic garden, organic gardening, food forest, permaculture, migardener, self sufficient me, david dorbik, logan paul

Id: TnBrFYnDY2U

Length: 13min 10sec (790 seconds)

Published: Sun Dec 01 2019