This year I wanted to try to put the stems of grapes, obtained after crushing, as a cover of the walkways. We are in the Barolo region, one of the best areas for growing grapes and there are tons of stems and moreover some companies just throw the stems close to our garden, so I thought it was useful to exploit this material available in large quantities and especially to almost 0 transport cost.
This is the composition of the stem, also called the spine or stalk:
Water 75-80%
tannins 3-5%
Sugars less than 1%
Organic acids 0.5%
Nitrogenous substances 1-1.5%
minerals 2-2.5%
Then there is also lignin and cellulose, many polyphenols, resins and pectin, all typical of the wood components.
Since our soils tend to basic, a small amount of organic acids does not hurt, besides there being also nitrogen and minerals contributes to a small fertilizer. But the interesting thing is that being available in large quantities, its thickness and the presence of tannins can act to contain weed, without forgetting that walking on dry stalks is a pleasure, it is soft and crunchy.
From the picture you can see the dark passages, covered with stems grape, on beds I alternated spinach, corn salad, dwarf clover and straw, to have different types of mulching.
