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Post by castanea on Jun 3, 2012 10:43:10 GMT -5
I use euc mulch mixed with other stuff without any problems that I notice - but then I don't have anything much to compare it with. I wonder if the wood is a problem or just the leaves? Of course most of the stuff in the bush here grows fairly happily under eucalypts. I'd always wondered how the emigrant eucs interacted with local flora. T Leaf litter is the worst. Root exudates can also be bad. The wood is not as bad as those two. But different species of eucs can be quite different. The species we have here in the US tend to be quite high in allelochemicals, but there are species that are very low in allelochemicals and maybe a few that have none at all. Different allelochemicals also have quite different effects. Some only inhibit germination. |
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Post by steev on Jun 3, 2012 22:45:15 GMT -5
I'm inclined to not use eucalyptus due to lack of things, apparently. in my ecosystem that break it down; it just doesn't seem to rot worth a damn. Allelochemicals are also a problem, as castanea cited.
I have recently seen mention of it as possible medium for shiitake mushrooms, for which use I would be willing to cut it some slack; other than that (and slow-drying firewood of good quality), I would not miss it much. In my experience, it has been instrumental in catastrophic fires due to the build-up of its oily leaves and bark.
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Post by castanea on Jun 3, 2012 23:05:50 GMT -5
I have two rather large eucs and lots of litter. The wood doesn't seem to break down at all. It seems to go straight to petrification.
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Post by raymondo on Jun 4, 2012 3:37:17 GMT -5
Like T, the mulch I use has eucalyptus in it. How could it not, considering. I haven't noticed anything untoward, but then I haven't tried wood chip that doesn't have eucalyptus so like T, I have nothing to compare.
As for Paul Gautschi, I like what he's doing, but it's a little misleading when he says he never fertilises. In the film, we watch him spread both bought and homemade compost!
No matter, it's food for thought. And I'm in the process of mulching all my growing space with wood chip from our town's recycle centre. They collect the town's yard waste and grind it up for mulch. I'll post an update every now and then on how it goes.
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Post by steev on Jun 4, 2012 11:59:11 GMT -5
It's my understanding that most of the organisms that co-evolved with eucs haven't made it to California, so the litter doesn't break down very fast and the allelochemicals persist worse than black walnut. Feral koalas might help.
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Post by raymondo on Jun 4, 2012 16:47:36 GMT -5
It's my understanding that most of the organisms that co-evolved with eucs haven't made it to California, so the litter doesn't break down very fast and the allelochemicals persist worse than black walnut. Feral koalas might help. That seems very likely. We have plantations of pines here where almost no creature dwells whereas the eucalypt forests are teeming with life. So too, I imagine, the black walnut glades in their home territory. |
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Post by 12540dumont on Jun 4, 2012 18:28:23 GMT -5
I'd like a Koala. I planted a Eucal for firewood. At the time the farm extension fellow had just stopped by. He told me to dig it up. That I would be sorry.
Would that I have listened. The thing is killing 3 other trees, a redwood, an elm and an apple. My brother refuses to let me cut it down, even though I've offered to plant any 10 trees instead. The thing drops lethal limbs. Leo calls it the widow maker. Nothing grows near it and it sucks water like an elephant at a spring. As things shook out, where I originally planted trees now belongs to my brother.
I do think the no till method has a lot of merit. I am using it in some places. I have always applied compost, as much as I can. I snap up any opportunity to snag wood chips when the Davy Tree Guys are on the street that has all the oak trees.
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Post by bunkie on Jun 5, 2012 11:46:08 GMT -5
holly, i was wondering about planting it for firewood. glad you posted that info. not sure iof it would survive our bitter wintres.
i'm still studying the no-till method. i find it very interesting.
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Post by MikeH on Jun 5, 2012 15:37:02 GMT -5
holly, i was wondering about planting it for firewood. glad you posted that info. not sure iof it would survive our bitter wintres. i'm still studying the no-till method. i find it very interesting. If you're looking for firewood, I'd suggest black locust. They're easy to start from seed, grow really quickly - 3 feet from seed the first year, have high BTU's, are coppiceable (cut and come again), fix nitrogen, grow in truly bad soil such as driveway fill. And the flowers in spring are like white wisteria and very sweetly scented. The bees love them. This is one of the ones that I started from seed last year. It got no winter protection and had maybe 3 inches of dieback. We had a generally mild winter but still had some nights where we saw -13F with a windchill factor making it much worse than that. It's already got 6- 8 inches of growth this year. Attachments:
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Post by steev on Jun 5, 2012 15:50:50 GMT -5
Black locust also comes pink-flowered; very nice, but eventually very self-seeding, somewhat thorny and potentially invasive; rot-resistant for fenceposts, I believe.
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Post by castanea on Jun 5, 2012 20:55:57 GMT -5
holly, i was wondering about planting it for firewood. glad you posted that info. not sure iof it would survive our bitter wintres. i'm still studying the no-till method. i find it very interesting. In your area you could grow chestnuts for firewood if you gave them a little supplemental water in the summer. They will outgrow almost anything. |
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Post by steev on Jun 6, 2012 0:05:49 GMT -5
One of my clients in Montclair has a lot that is all uphill from the back of his house, where he has a covered patio. There are blue euc on that hill. One wet Winter windy evening, he came home and went into the bathroom at the rear of the house for a nice shower; stepping out of the shower, he heard strange creaking, cracking noises. Looking out the bathroom skylight, he saw one of those eucs coming at him! Luckily, it just kissed the skylight, but it trashed his patio. Had it been me, I'd have needed another shower. Those eucs don't have very deep root systems, so they're not good with wet soil and wind, very much the same as redwood trees.
Blue eucalyptus, however, is excellent firewood, provided you let it dry twice as long as oak, up to two years; if it's at all wet, it craps up your chimney something fierce.
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Post by MikeH on Jun 6, 2012 9:20:05 GMT -5
Black locust also comes pink-flowered; very nice, but eventually very self-seeding, somewhat thorny and potentially invasive; rot-resistant for fenceposts, I believe. Self-seeding? Yep but that's not a bad thing if you're trying to build a firewood forest because you've got seedlings to transplant. I suspect that their aggressiveness is a function of where they are growing. The more temperate the climate, the more aggressively they spread. Where I am - US Zone 4b - I've never seen groves larger than a few hundred feet in diameter and there aren't many of those groves. Apparently it lasts 70 years in the ground, although I can't say I've got first hand knowledge to confirm that. The thorns aren't bad at all - nothing like honeylocust or hawthorn.  |
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Post by MikeH on Jun 9, 2012 10:51:37 GMT -5
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Post by castanea on Jun 9, 2012 12:40:04 GMT -5
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