This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Wood Shavings in Manure
NewBoy2
Posts: 1,813
Good or bad or indifferent
What affect do they have on the benefits of manure
Everyone is just trying to be Happy.....So lets help Them.
0
Posts
As long as the quantity of wood shavings are not excessive then little difference at all.
Wood shavings will rot over time and can cause short term loss of nitrogen as bacteria in the soil will use it to decompose the wood before returning the nitrogen to the soil.
However, the extra nitrogen in the manure will more than make up for this short term loss.
Last edited: 03 October 2017 16:35:03
Doesn't make a blind bit of difference in my experience.
I bring home loads from work (my work is in the same place as an equestrian centre) and a few years ago, I created a new border which had previously been compacted, weedy grass. Stripped off the grass, shoved a layer on it, then planted it up the following year.
I've had to remove a few plants because they grew even more quickly than I expected, and there's no sign of the shavings. They've all rotted down. The soil is brilliantly healthy.
Far better than any stuff you can buy in bags etc too. Wish I had gone and got some for my previous gardens when I was creating them!
I live in west central Scotland - not where that photo is...
Many thanks you two
One thing I noticed was about 1 hour after I had added some to my raised bed I saw that spiders had already made some horizontal web lines across the bed
The sun was reflecting off them and I could see a tiny tiny white spider hard at work
Aint Nature amazing
Build it and they will come
“It's still magic even if you know how it's done.”
One definite plus to wood shavings in manure, compared with straw, is that you won't have a load of seed in it.