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Why Wood Chip Piles Steam: Microbial Heat

Steam from a wood chip pile is water vapor from heat generated by billions of fungi and bacteria decomposing the wood. Decomposition is slow oxidation—just like a billion coworkers eating lunch in a closed room would generate heat.

About Gardening: Diagnosing Yellow Stains on Robellini Palm: Insects, Sap, or Fungus?; Plant Diseases: Cancer, Viruses, and the Myth of STDs; Lodgepole Pine Pink Stain: Fungus and Beetle Association; Reviving a Forced African Violet: Can a Plant with Shriveled Leaves Recover?; Little Black Ants on Houseplants? Look for Aphids or Scale; Hundreds of Daddy Longlegs on Back-Porch Impatiens? Just a Spider Thing; Peonies Sprayed with Weed-B-Gon: Recovery Steps and Future Care; English Homes and Gardens from Medieval Fortification to Tudor Elegance; Water Features and Garden Structures in Early English Pleasure Grounds; Garden Sculpture and Fountains in Ancient Roman Gardens

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