Hugelkuture using Eucalypt

[Adrian1976]

Couldn't find much on the web about using Eucalypt in Hugelkuture. With Australia filled with so much of it, I hope someone out there has some good news if this would work. As for me living in an area that the Red Gums dominant the landscape, it would only benefit if they could be used as a more reasonable resource than just firewood

[deee]

Hi Adrian,
we've done some very small scale hugelkulture with mixed native scrap wood: melaleuca, callistemon, and eucalypt. It worked brilliantly, both for getting rid of junk and building soil in a really degraded area. But I'm talking garden scale, not large scale. The only impediment I can see to eucalypt is its reputation for alleopathic retardation of surrounding planting - probably have to use a suck it and see approach if no one else has done it, but this is the way the Aust bush works, and everything seems to get on all right. And I'd observe the usual precautions if you were in a termite hotspot.

I'm curious, though: why do want to use red gum this way?
Danielle

[S.O.P]

It will work fine. How else does a rainforest Ficus get established in dry sclerophyll? Usually in a log, or rotten stump from a Eucalypt.

Alleopathic properties will only last for a short time, from my limited research 6 months is the roundabout. Your logs should be older than that.

[Adrian1976]

Danielle, thanks for your feed back. I had a feeling that it should be ok, and the country was covered in them before the "English Cottage Gardens" started to take place. My reason is simply, use what you have to the best of the products ability. Red Gums love water, and here they thrive. So thinking that way even when after being on the ground as dead wood for over 6 months they should do the same again once buried. The termite problem with red gum is much as if you see older houses built from this wood the termites don't go for it. Around here it's more of the Peppercorn trees that harbore them even though the DSE are poisoning them and removing the Peppercorn.

[Adrian1976]

It will work fine. How else does a rainforest Ficus get established in dry sclerophyll? Usually in a log, or rotten stump from a Eucalypt.

Alleopathic properties will only last for a short time, from my limited research 6 months is the roundabout. Your logs should be older than that.

That's the news I was looking for. I didn't want to use green wood as i think there could be a chance with the Red gum, if kept wet it could have a chance of shooting off again.
Thanks S.O.P

[S.O.P]

No worries. I often reflect on a piece of forest near my house, regrowth Eucalypts of varying types, including dead Scribblys (remnants from when they dammed the creek and created the lake) and myself being a Ficus fan, explored the entire area to see if there were any. Could not find one in this particular piece of land until I came across a large fallen log, well-rotten with a young Ficus peeking out through a crack. Rotten Euc holds a lot of water, even 20+ metres up, the inner rotten heartwood will be moist to the touch, hence how 'strangling' Ficus gets started.

[gardenlen]

g'day adrian,

use whatever you can get hold of, nothing wrong with euc' just may take a little longer to break down, we are presently gathering timber material from pushed down trees to use in our garden, hugelkultur is only a process not a following of sorts, means hill culture in germany, we have been doing similar for over a decade now, just had no name for it. anyway we are putting everything bar the radiata pine into the gardens, that will become our char, making lots of fire wood to give away, and maybe some posts as well. don't envisage any issues as we will be planting on top of the timber.

just throw a good feed of gypsum down and maybe a tad of dolomite?

len

[Nickolas]

thanks guys, i was just about to ask the same.

[gardenlen]

g'day nickolas,

like your einstein quotes, quite relevant, there are many who might pay heed to them, keep it simple hey, and sue common sense or sense in all actions.

len

[Adrian1976]

g'day adrian,

use whatever you can get hold of, nothing wrong with euc' just may take a little longer to break down, we are presently gathering timber material from pushed down trees to use in our garden, hugelkultur is only a process not a following of sorts, means hill culture in germany, we have been doing similar for over a decade now, just had no name for it. anyway we are putting everything bar the radiata pine into the gardens, that will become our char, making lots of fire wood to give away, and maybe some posts as well. don't envisage any issues as we will be planting on top of the timber.

just throw a good feed of gypsum down and maybe a tad of dolomite?

len

Thanks for your input len,
My theory would be using the Hugel beds as a swale medium, as the material breaks down the goodies from inside can seep down helping the ground down hill to regenerate into a positive and then flow on affect towards then next swale.