Composting Wood Shavings

[SuzieV]

I've been searching the internet to find information on composting euculuptus wood shavings - wanting to know if there could be a problem with it like with black walnut. Can anybody give me some information on it?

[oldjerry]

Are you thinking that they are both oil rich and so the gum could be toxic also? Well I,m not 100% but I don't think so.There's probably as much eucalyptus in Cornwall as anywhere else in the UK (I think the national collection is or used to be at Rosewarne) and as I remember most gardens had it mixed in with other shrubs,so shading aside,it's probably not toxic........but there are Cornish inhabitants on site,they'll tell you better.

[frozenthunderbolt]

Try a search for "eucalyptus " + Allotoxcicity - trees that are allotoxic detrimental affect the others around them - like walnut and chaparral.
You will need a lot of free nitrogen to effectively compost wood. Try collecting pee and pouring it over everyday :-)

[oldjerry]

Best of all poultry manure,agree about the above as well.,

[Millymollymandy]

And tons of green stuff, and lots of hard working turning it regularly , and an awful lot of patience as it takes years to break down to usable compost.

[madwitch]

It is not composting but I have just made a whole years worth of firelighters out of eucalyptus (& other) shavings and all my old candle ends + some beeswax from a friend. They are wonderful and smell good while waiting to be used.
If this is not the right answer.....forgive me, I am new!!

[Green Aura]

It's fine - we often go a little "off piste" - oh OK well I do quite often The fire lighters are great - I've put a little pine essential oil in to make them smell good - plus it's combustible. But I haven't got a eucalyptus tree - it's full of oils too.

[oldjerry]

I've never seen 'off piste spelt like that before.Eucalyptus burns really well I seem to remember something about some hill railway in India where the steam engines run on eucalyptus wood,the smoke should smell good.Also in Basilicata,Puglia,Calabria etc. all the prunings from the olives are kept for fuel.

[Treelover]

thanks for the tip about firelighters; my fire can be very temperamental when we have a west wind, i've been shaving wax into 'crackers' made from folded newspaper, the way my great aunt taught me, though i don't know anyone else who does it! i just gave my eucalyptus a bit of a hair cut so now i know what to do with the left overs.

[Green Aura]

I've never seen 'off piste spelt like that before

Are you sure they're not usually the other way round OJ?

[JulieSherris]

I get a bit worried when I read posts about folks 'doing' stuff with their eucalyptus trees. Should I be doing something with ours then??

Ours are 20 to 30 foot high & apart from when they shed their bark or lose the occasional small branch which goes onto the stanley, I don't do anything with them - not that I could reach anyway, but IS there anything I should be doing?

(Every year the trees shed the bark & every year hubby says 'those trees look like they're dying' - he might get the idea in a few more years! )

[Treelover]

you don't need to do a thing to your eucalyptus except enjoy it; i pruned mine purely because i had to move it and the top hamper was inconvenient since circumstances changed and i didn't want the poor thing suffering where it was - it's quite young, and was only about ten feet max before i lopped a few feet off. it had got spindly and unhealthy looking because it had hit builder's rubble with its roots and threw a wobbly. i didn't know there was rubble there as the builder died of old age about a hundred years ago. it's perked up no end over the last year and is busy regaining its former height. i'd use the dropped bark as fire lighters personally; a bit of 'punk' is always good![Girl Guiding term meaning punk......]

[grahamhobbs]

I used eucalyptus clippings as a mulch, about 2" thick, around my celeriac this year with no detrimental effect. I had hoped that the smell might distract the slugs from the seedlings - but unfortunately it didn't, although more than enough survived.

Normally I wouldn't use tree prunings around veg. but think they are fine as a mulch around soft fruit.