Cedar Chips Around Trees

Reduces Soil Compaction

• Red cedar chips, not sawdust reduce soil compaction under trees. The mulch keeps people and animals from walking under or around the base of the tree. Because the chips take up to 10 years to fully decompose, they act as a shock absorber for any foot traffic, reducing compaction from daily wear, year after year. As they slowly break down, microbial nematodes and worms aerate the soil as they feed on the wood material.

Reduces Water Loss

• When you drop a layer of 3 to 4 inches of red cedar trips under your tree out to the drip line, you can save almost 50 percent of the normal water loss that occurs in the soil through evaporation. The chips also soak up moisture in the way of rain and form a damp barrier to the soil below.

Weed Control

• Any weeds that remain below a 3- to 4-inch layer of cedar chips die by suffocation even without the use of a weed mat. Since red cedar is resistant to weather, it will not decompose nearly as fast as other woods. You will not need to replenishing the layer quite as often and even then, the layer will require less new chips than other woods.

Antimicrobial

• Red cedar wood chips seem to resist the activity of some ants, moths, fleas and mildew as well as a strong microbial activity against the p. ramorum spores. The spores affect trees susceptible to this foliar blight. Using the red wood cedar chips around the trees is a natural way of reducing the spread of the spores.