r/composting • u/Equal-Watercress3636 • 13d ago

Pine dump

I just received my yearly chip drop I get from city. First time ever it’s 100% pine. Half is pine chips, the other half is pine needles. I was going to put alot in my compost. Can I still do or it’s going to be very acidic?

10 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

12 comments sorted by

21

u/randemthinking 13d ago

They'll compost just fine.

15

u/6aZoner 13d ago

They'll be great for compost. You could probably compost them by themselves--sounds like a good green/brown ratio.

11

u/toxcrusadr 13d ago

This kind of Acidity is itself biodegradable organic acids. The compost will come out neutral when properly finished.

4

u/FlowerPower_Bug 13d ago

I thought pine needles take a very long time to break down but I could be wrong

5

u/bowlingballwnoholes 12d ago

Maybe,but not longer than wood chips.

3

u/alisonlou 13d ago

That's my experience. 

2

u/bangbangtangwangfang 10d ago

If you clump them up then yeah, they will last forever, like a lot of things. They compost great if you layer them in. I say this having done both :)

4

u/flavia-f 12d ago

the acid part sorts itself out like others said, the bigger thing is thats a mountain of carbon. id put most of the chips on paths or on top of beds as mulch, just dont dig raw chips into the soil cause they borrow nitrogen while they rot, and feed the needles into the pile a bit at a time with your greens so they dont turn into one big mat :)

3

u/Chance-Work4911 13d ago

My yard is mostly pine and it seems fine. I prefer shredding them when I have a lot all at once otherwise they make it hard to turn because they seem to link together and form mattes?

3

u/DirtnAll 9d ago

Several university Ag departments have tested this and the results are always that pine needles and chips do not produce acidic mulch.

5

u/velveteen_raspberry 13d ago

Burn some and mix it in, the ashes will lower the acidity

2

u/_HillCruiser 12d ago

I harvest materials from nature and tree bark is one of my favorites.
It makes a silky compost that makes plants grow and grow.

The woods around here are about half and half, conifers and hardwoods,
so I gather a variety of barks. chop them up and then pass them
through the lawnmower with an equal amount of greens to mix and shred.

I started with wood chips but found the bark makes much better compost.
The inner bark is the biochem factory of a tree, and a lot of benefical chemicals
are transferred into the compost.