Hügelkultur for growing food - anyone done it?

[ATCclears]

Experiences? Recommendations?


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hügelkultur


Example:

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[mrblond]

Did this earlier this month with all the fallen branches i had from the ice storm.

 

[Pete F]

Looks like a good way to start an inadvertent fire. It would be good to keep the soil warm, but may use up more nitrogen than it creates breaking down the larger un-composted branches.

We had a compost pile catch fire one year. I was turning the pile and it burst into flames.

 

[Member 5605]

The Hort and Crop Science person in me is cringing at the video.

A LOT of bad information, too much in fact to even care to breakdown.

 

[mrblond]

The Hort and Crop Science person in me is cringing at the video.

A LOT of bad information, too much in fact to even care to breakdown.

Id honesly like to know..

I pretty much used my logs as filler to take up space rather then for any sort of soil improver.

 

[Member 5605]

but may use up more nitrogen than it creates

Id honesly like to know..

I pretty much used my logs as filler to take up space rather then for any sort of soil improver.

When material in nature breaks down, the microbes that eat away at it require two things to function: carbon & nitrogen.

Carbon, often found in brown material is mixed with nitrogen in a 25:1 to 30:1 (C:N) when attempting to compost. You'd need to apply large quantities of Nitrogen to that pile to achieve proper breakdown without robbing it from your crop. The microbes will use the N before the plant roots have the ability to draw it up.

In permaculture though, they have some interesting ways of doing things that are not always the most productive. This design yes, would have some water holding benefits but knowing that nitrogen is water soluble, this will help in the leeching away the N that is present in the "composted" topsoil. This leeching of N will help acidify the soil by increasing the Hydrogen.

Compost should be treated as such and should be completely broken down for the reasons above before being added to any garden, pot, raised bed etc.

You'd have more benefit to burn the wood in place and take advantage of the phosphorus/potash but that wouldn't be the permaculture way as it releases C into the atmosphere. I'm all for sustainable and regenerative farming/gardening but some practices don't benefit like they make you think.

Burying carbon without added nitrogen is like putting a log into a cold lake and expecting it to decompose.


The above is my unofficial opinion and based off of life experiences and broad studies of organic, sustainable and large scale farming practices.
Even organic farms can use pesticides and be just as destructive as conventional farms. The power is in how they word everything.