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Short thread. 1. This is our 1996 Bramley orchard. Each year we prune every tree. This year we're taking quite a lot of branches off, which leads to a lot of timber in the spaces between the trees. Today I'm chopping up the prunings into small pieces using a tractor-mounted prunings pulveriser. #orchard #pruning #apples #Bramley
2. After two passes of the chopper, the prunings are ground down. Over the course of the year (or more) they break down and are incorporated into the soil. This increases the soil carbon content more than almost any other crop. Sequestration in Irish apple orchards has been measured at over 11 tonnes CO2 per ha per year. Carbon sequestered into soils is great for soil quality and soil life too. #orchards #soils #carbon #sequestration #humus #CO2 #sustainability
@theapplefarmer that sounds amazing!
I read up on soil health last year and am trying something similar this year myself, on a much muuuch smaller scale - in my container garden on my roof 
I used to trash away prunings and fallen leaves every week - but starting this season ive decided to dry em, ground em up into tiny bits, and then incorporate them into my pots.
Hope it works 
@SiR_GameZaloT With the woody prunings, try to balance the compost with a nutrient rich addition such as grass clippings or green vegetable matter, or the breakdown of the woody material can lock up too much nitrogen from the compost, also slowing the composting process.
@theapplefarmer hmmm. Alright, will do.
Thanks for the tip!