[Paul Plots]

Knew you wouldn't let that one go past unanswered  

   

[savbo]

at risk of heading off at a tangent (think of it as Very Big Woodchips), did people see the hugelkultur article in The Guardian last Saturday?

I'm not convinced but there are plenty of fans of this approach...

sav

[Gareth J]

wow, Iv'e only been away a few days and lots of comments! What I forgot to mention is my plot has loads of marestail. I have been pulling it out for three years to no avail. EC please not that the following comments are NOT directed at using illegal or banned substances for the purpose of weedkilling.  What I thought I would do is cover the plot with 4 inches of woodchip, add ammonium sulphamate fot thr purpose of accelerating the composting process and breaking down the woodchip. This would then return the nitrogen to the soil and have raised the level of my plot. Not sure if the marestail would like it though

[Yorkie]

It will have no impact on the marestail.

It is a prehistoric organism that will grow through concrete.  And despite your purported disclaimer, adding ammonium sulphamate is not adding it to compost and you know the score there!

[allot2learn]

What will get rid of marestail is lime.

[Yorkie]

What will get rid of marestail is lime.

Have you actually experienced this?

And what was the pH of your soil afterwards?

[mumofstig]

John's advice on marestail is here
http://www.allotment-garden.org/grow-your-own/weeds-and-what-to-do

[ilan]

Just a more logical thought on the use of wood chip , yes go for it . there will be an initial reduction in nitrogen then it will be a gain . Think of burning a stick initialy the outside chars then burns but the inside remains intact. the heat generated by the stick chars the next layer heating it till it to burns. so to  when rotting down the outside decomposes first taking nitrogen from the soil as it further decomposed it adds nitrogen back this is used then to decompose the inside of the wood chip ie the wood chip does not decompose uniformly

[allot2learn]

What will get rid of marestail is lime.

Have you actually experienced this?

And what was the pH of your soil afterwards?

Sorry, Yorkie. What I should have said is that horse/marestail prefers acidic soils and that liming reduces that.