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1. Wood chips are a good covering for the soil.
2. Wood contains many of the same things as leaves. These same basic things (elements) are simply configured differently.* In other words, wood is simply and mostly a thicker version of a leaf.
3. Wood chips do not leach nitrogen from soil or rob the soil of nutrients. Wood chips provide a net benefit to the growing environment for plants.
4. When soil is covered, the microclimate of the soil is enhanced. This habitat allows lives to thrive in the soil. The net effect of all the processes these lives go through is the net addition of multiple elements. In an ecosystem where multiple lives exist according to natural processes, the net effect is always abundance. This means whatever is taken and used in the system is always given and returned in a greater amount. As a result, even if it is true that wood chips take nitrogen from the soil, the soil ecosystem it enhances will return that nitrogen.
5. Here is just one example. In 2014, I piled 3 to 4 inches of wood chips around an entire area of several tomato plants planted in red, clayish soil. I did not water or add anything from start to finish. The plants thrived and produced a bunch of tomatoes each. The deer came and ate all the tomatoes and a lot of branches. I fenced in the tomatoes. The plants regrew, re-blossomed and produced an abundance of tomatoes. All this happened without adding any “fertilizer” and while all those fresh wood chips were decomposing all around the tomatoes.
6. If there is a problem with wood chips “robbing nutrients” from the soil, there is a problem with the soil to begin with. The problem is not as a result of the wood chips. If the soil ecosystem is out of balance and/or being interfered with by someone doing things that works against the ecosystem, there will be problems of many types, not just nitrogen deficiency.
7. The human act of covering the soil (mulching), is just one part of the process for plant growth. I don't think anyone believes that just because the soil is covered naturally by nature (not by humans), that that covering by itself is responsible for all the benefits to the soil or all the problems in the soil. In other words, if the philosophy being used to nurture plants is not an ecosystem approach, there will be problems trying to understand what is happening, why, and what to do. There will be problems due to trying to add natural things to an unnatural approach. There will always be gaps and conflicts in getting everything to work together. This, of course, is a metaphor for human behavior and interaction.
8. Remember, plants grow in a lot of ashes after a volcanic eruption and after forest fires. This ash is wood chips and leaves and other stuff providing a heavy layer of concentrated mulch.
9. Everything breaks down in the soil no matter what type of mulch is used – some faster and more noticeable than others. As a result of decomposing, elements must be used and elements must be released. No one accuses leaves or straw of leaching nitrogen, potassium or phosphorus from the soil. This is because, fundamentally, it doesn't add up.
10. Furthermore, why is it that when something is “robbed” or “leached” from the soil, it is always nitrogen (N) and not P or K or any of the multitude of micronutrients. It is never said that water is leached from the soil by wood chips even though wood chips absorb and hold moisture and even though the breakdown of leaves requires and uses water in the soil.
In a thought process that considers these things, it becomes clear that there is misinformation about wood chips and manipulation by those who want to sell more fertilizer and more false notions in order to get people to buy into the belief of many other things.
11. Many problems with understanding occur in the beginning – with context. If we begin by believing there is a limited supply of nutrients in the soil and that plants and other things compete for nutrients, what we hear next must either agree with or disagree with that context. Truth is, the context we are using in today's world of miseducation, is one based on a commercial agricultural context that has depleted the soil and defeated its intended purpose - as part of an ecosystem. Truth is, we are using a context that comes from a suboptimal worldview. This context will always confuse and mislead every single time.
This context interferes with our natural ability to grasp the multi-dimensional truths of our higher purposes and reasons for being. In other words, plants do more than just take up space, nutrients and provide food or pleasure for humans. Plants do more for creation and return more to creation than they use – even in an unbalanced system.
12. Plants are life. Life requires adherence to interconnectedness and interrelatedness. There will be problems when persistence, then patience is not a general rule to allow things to happen the natural way. There will be problems when persistence, then patience is not used to allow the ecosystem time to recalibrate and self-heal – something necessary in many of the places we attempt to nurture life that is a plant.
13. In an ecosystem, if there is a process that requires nitrogen, there are also multiple supporting processes that supply nitrogen. It's not just about the plant we are trying to grow and it's not just about the wood chips or their decomposing. It's about everything being in harmony. The only time there is a shortage of anything is when a system is out of balance. This of course, is a metaphor for what humans are experiencing in terms of basic needs.
14. The Initiate, through the process of gardening and farming knowledge of self, will grow, as a plant, into understandings of elements forming themselves into genetic combinations supplying anything needed in the ecosystem.
Health & Nutrition: Information Stupid. Food Fight #24 – The TKO
*See Simple Nutrition | Natural Sources of Nutrients, Food Fight #59
Slime Mold in Wood Mulches – Not Harmful, Likely Beneficial, Definitely an indicator moisture is being retained.
