Viewing post #1249869 by sooby

signet said:Sooby , if you have to buy nitrogen to add to the soil to replace the nitrogen removed by the decomposing wood chips/fines ......what is the point ? I could see having the fines decomposing in a compost heap until ready to use but still makes no sense to me to have to spend money on the fines and then money on the nitrogen needed to add in to replace the nitrogen used by the decomposing fines . Why not just use compost ?

I do not use pine fines nor do I have any reason to, so I was just explaining how people get around the problem if it occurs. If one has to purchase compost does it work out cheaper than buying pine fines plus fertilizer? Compost doesn't necessarily have a lot of nitrogen, what there is tends to be slowly available, and if the carbon:nitrogen ratio of the compost is too high then compost can also cause nitrogen deficiency if incorporated.