"Dan L." wrote in message
...
In article
,
Billy wrote:

In article ,
The Cook wrote:

I seem to remember that wood as it decomposes uses up the nitrogen in
the soil. Not really good for the garden. Old wives tale or true?

In terms of both its physical and chemical properties, wood is an
exceptionally difficult substrate to degrade. One of the principal
reasons is that wood contains very low levels of nitrogen, which is
needed to produce the enzymes that degrade the main structural polmers
of wood - cellulose (about 40-50% of the dry weight of wood),
hemicelluloses (25-40%) and lignin (20-35%).

The lignin component also presents a barrier to wood decay because
lignin is a complex aromatic polymer that encrusts the cell walls,
preventing access of enzymes to the more easily degradable cellulose and
hemicelluloses. In addition to these points, wood often contains
potentially fungitoxic compounds, which are deposited in the heartwood.
In broad-leaved trees the toxic compounds are usually tannins, well know
for their ability to cross-link proteins, making animal skins resistant
to decay. In contrast, conifers contain a range of phenolic compounds
such as terpenes, stilbenes, flavonoids and tropolones. The most toxic
of the tropolones are the thujaplicins which act as uncouplers of
oxidative phosphorylation; they are particularly abundant in cedarwood,
making this a naturally decay-resistant wood for high-quality garden
furnishings, etc.


http://www.biology.ed.ac.uk/research...iology/woodrot
s.htm

When the nitrogen is no longer needed for enzymes or fungal growth, it
is released back into the soil environment for use by other microbes,
and plants.

So I have a follow up question to that very interesting question!
Is it Ok to BURY freshly cut wood, logs and chips, under the vegetable
garden soil? Your opinions do count. Lots of great advice here.

I have this book, "Gaia's Garden, Second Edition: A Guide To Home-Scale
Permaculture by Toby Hemenway" ISBN-10: 1603580298. On page 84, "Woody
Ways to build soil" Its called "Hugelkultur". That freshly cut wood can
be instantly used in vegetable gardens. The buried slowly rotting wood
feeds the plants and improves the soil.

One link about this:
http://hubpages.com/hub/Hugelkultur-...-in-Composting

I am not sure if this is sound advice or not.

--
Enjoy Life... Dan

Garden in Zone 5 South East Michigan.


19th century market gardeners near Paris used a very similar technique.
Adding enough manure or green material to the wood created a hot compost
pile underneath the soil. This allowed earlier planting and much higher
prices for the early veggies.
Steve