Knowledgebase
Wood Chips in Vegetable Garden #848499
Asked September 04, 2023, 8:14 AM EDT
Oakland County Michigan
Expert Response
Hi Cindy,
I manage a fairly large giving garden and we have used wood chips for our garden paths for 25 years. Probably the biggest problem we had was the effort that went adding new chips as the old chips break down. You will get still get weeds, but it does help. It could be possible that some pathogens can be found in the chips; however, most wood chips would probably not carry vegetable specific diseases. Verticillium from wood chips could be an issue. Black walnut could be a problem, but very little research can be found. We have gotten chips from various sources and have not had issues of this type. Check out the following links:
https://hort.extension.wisc.edu/articles/black-walnut-toxicity/
https://www.extension.purdue.edu/extmedia/ho/ho-193.pdf
Verticillium wilt refresher - MSU Extension
I hope this helps.