"manatbandq" wrote in message
oups.com
If the shreddings are woody then doing so can rob Nitrogen from the
soil as they decompose. It is always best to compost, at least
partially, any woody shreddings.
This is especially true where the people in charge of the land treat it
the way that farmers in the west of europe have been doing since Haber
invented the Haber Process before moving on to a quicker method of
wiping out lots of creation.
In a wild wood or in an orchard that has gone to seed, the soil is full
of all sorts of fungii that is missing in fields and orchards where the
"green revolution" has performed it miracles.
From "A Year At Kew":
There are 50 times more species of fungi than there are species of
vegetation and there are 6 times less scientist studying fungi than
there are studying vegation. (Only the quote used big words and I don't
remember what they were.)
It wouldn't suprise me in the least to find that global warmin/climate
change was down to the amount of water the soil was able or rather not
able to absorb because of this absence of fungus.
The only reason not to put the shredding on neat is that it might
attract rats. If there is that danger then by all means compost - if you
can keep the rats out of the compost.
Once the shreddings have begun to decay they will return the nitrogen
that they had absorbed and increase the ability of the area to deal with
nany more that it may recieve.
On the other hand, not all fungii are good to have, some may kill the
host. Honeydew for one. The hope is that other organisms encouraged by
the mulch will enable the soil to deal with it.
There are farmers that "fallowed" their land by giving up on
it. (Having drained it's ability to support life so badly by over
production and the use of factory made chemicals.) Then the weeds
and worms etc., encourage natural recouperative processes that rekindled
fertility in the soil.
I don't have any links though, as if that would prove much -or change
anything.
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