chippings

[dicky3706]

can wood chippings ( not bought but out of a chipping machine) when put on the soil as a mulch kill conifers planted as a hedge( castlewellen type) , as 4 weeks after putting them on my hedge appears to be going a bit brown.

[Clanad]

Usually it shouldn't be a problem, but wood chip mulches can have a high carbon : nitrogen ratio. This means that in the process of decomposing they may temporarily reduce the supply of soil nitrogen for plant uptake. You can compensate for this loss by adding nitrogen fertilizer to mulched plants. (Source: Horticulture, CCE - Suffolk County (Virginia))

[RATTER15]

I used to be a tree surgeon and we would cut down old diseased trees and limbs and put it all through the chipper!! the trouble with these wood chippings is the wood chips contain all the diseased wood and all the fungal spores etc, this is why the wood chips you get from garden centres etc has been sterilised.

[True Blue 36]

Yes it can!!!!
I put wood chip around my willow tree about 3-4 years ago - this year it died. When the tree surgeon came to cut it down he told me the same as ratter15, the bark around the tree is from diseased old trees and he is almost certain that it infected my willow and killed it. He also said the last few years of drought hasn't helped