[Brian]

I know this is an odd idea, but I have fairly heavy ground in my field/woods. I have some soft fire wood, mostly maple, that I want to get rid of. I am thinking about digging a shallow long hole and putting the wood in there and then covering it up. I was hoping that over a year or so it would soften up and compost. Kind of like what you step on in the woods when hunting. That mushy soft ground.

Anyone see any negatives to this?

 

[Kennyd]

Sounds like a good plan, but I would mark the area.

 

[dellwas]

Maple is actually a hardwood. It will break down but will take longer than softwood such as pine or spruce to do so, because it's much denser. Are these full trees, or mostly stumps? If trees why not advertise on Craig's list for "free wood" if you just want to get rid of it. Betcha there will be takers.

 

[Brian]

Its silver maple, so its a soft wood. I am kind of into using it to get some better ground in some areas rather than giving it away. I have spent a ton of time cutting it down.

 

[dellwas]

Thanks, I had assumed that all maples were classed as hardwood. There is a chemical "stump rot" that breaks down wood very fast, but i don't think it would work for your idea:

http://www.baileysonline.com/itemdetail.asp?item=136NT&catID=

Its silver maple, so its a soft wood. I am kind of into using it to get some better ground in some areas rather than giving it away. I have spent a ton of time cutting it down.

 

[Spudland_Dave]

Anyway you can chip it Brian? 5 Years ago I cut some Spruce & Pine here...never rotted. Last fall while I was hauling stumps to a friends "stump dump" I hauled a 1 Ton Dump full of it outta here...I had cut it all 2' expecing to just burn it/let it rot.
2 years ago I had a large pile again and this time because I still had a pile of wood, I chipped it with a rented 12" Vermeer chipper...spread the chips out and put tons of Nitrogen down....passed the tiller thru the groud 2 or 3 times and its all gone now.

So my reccomendation would be to chip it. Also, the decomposition of wood sucks N out of the ground, so stick the N to it to both speed up decomp and to help with the fertility later on.

 

[Aaron]

How about putting it on Craigslist? There always seems to be plenty of people looking for free wood.

I bury my stumps, burn the trunks and chip the limbs. Mostly pine though. Otherwise i would try to sell it.

 

[RandyM]

I would think the key to this plan is moisture. There is a reason that forest floors are the way they are, they do not dry out. You will need to be sure the wood stays wet all the time. If it doesn't it will take for ever to decay. Rather than covering it with dirt you may be better off with leaves and yard waste. Remember you are composting.

 

[Brian]

Good point randy. My "new" plan is to scrape some of the black dirt off the area. Maybe 5"s or so. Then spread out the wood evenly in the area I plan to do this in. I am then planning on bringing in 4 dump truck loads of wood chips to cover the wood. That will keep the moisture and aid in the bacteria needed to eat away at the large pieces of wood. All said and done, in a few years, I should have a nice little spot of compost.