[Limey153]

Hi folks,

 Yesterday I bought I load of Bark Chippings from Homebase to use as a mulch. But have today heard something about letting bark chippings rot down a bit first, does anyone know if it is fine to use it straight from the bag or if it needs to be left to rot for a while before applying as a mulch??

[penance]

Needs to rot down for quite a while.
When fresh the bark will take nutrients from the soil to aid decomposition.

[mumofstig]

Think that when you buy it by the bag it's already rotted and ready to use. The plants in my garden have come to no harm at any rate
IMO it's only fresh bark chippings that you leave for a while.

[richyrich7]

Check the bag does it say composted bark chippings ?  you can use this straight away.
Uncomposted chippings IMHO are unlikely to cause too much problems anyway, yes there will be some nitrogen robbery from the soil when used as a mulch, but there's not a huge amount of it in contact with the soil surface. Therefore only this bit will use stored nitrogen.
 Unlike if you dug it in, then there would be a far greater surface area for the composting bacteria to work on demanding more nitrogen