@Del_Griffith, that's my point , everything I read about "nitrogen depletion" never gives anything approaching a percentage figure,nor has any of it every suggested that said " depletion" has a deleterious effect on plants. but folk keep trotting out the " oh it depletes nitrogen" as if everything around is going to curl up and die, which, clearly , it doesn't.
I’m with you on this one Hosta, but I suppose a lot of people are forever putting other fertilisers on their ground that they wouldn’t know any difference. Ive put fresh wood chips on the ground, however I would not put sawdust on, mainly because I think it may clog, or seal the top of your soil, or not look very nice, all that kind of material gets put in the compost bins and mixed well. Thats all that ever goes on my garden.
Gardening on the wild, windy west side of Dartmoor.
I think we are all pretty much on the same page here, any tieing up of nitrogen from sawdust mulch is small, temporary, unlikely to have any visible effect on plants and the benefits outweigh any potential drawbacks for gardeners so nothing to get exercised about.
It is a potential issue for commerical crop growers and maybe allotment holders, as the US in particular has done loads of research and field trials on the effect on yields of certain crops - sometimes to the detriment but occasionally to the benefit, depending on the crop, wood source etc. An old study but i think this was the one I read when looking at using it in the allotment, lots of science stuff to plough through, dry as sawdust so only for the dedicated/bored
I've noticed recently that on a number of allotments at our site large bags of sawdust have arrived I assume from the local saw mill. People seem to be laying it as a thick mulch on the veg patches the intention to dig it in in the spring I guess.
I have not seen this before we get lots of free horse manure all the time, I will have to chat with somebody and find out why they have started to us it.
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog
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Ive put fresh wood chips on the ground, however I would not put sawdust on, mainly because I think it may clog, or seal the top of your soil, or not look very nice, all that kind of material gets put in the compost bins and mixed well.
Thats all that ever goes on my garden.
It is a potential issue for commerical crop growers and maybe allotment holders, as the US in particular has done loads of research and field trials on the effect on yields of certain crops - sometimes to the detriment but occasionally to the benefit, depending on the crop, wood source etc. An old study but i think this was the one I read when looking at using it in the allotment, lots of science stuff to plough through, dry as sawdust so only for the dedicated/bored
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/downloads/d217qq88q
I have not seen this before we get lots of free horse manure all the time, I will have to chat with somebody and find out why they have started to us it.
"You don't stop gardening because you get old, you get old because you stop gardening." - The Hampshire Hog