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Vegetable Gardening

Pine needles falling on our garden

nickjoseph Milwaukee, WI

9 years ago

Hi, our neighbors old, huge pine/fir tree is dropping dried (yellowish) needles onto our vegetable garden. I heard needles are acidic. Can this affect our garden adversely? We are growing cukes, tomatoes, green peppers, pole beans, radishes, onions. Thanks!

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Comments (9)

seysonn
9 years ago
Pine needle are slightly acidic but not to extend to make a significant change in pH. The effect will be when they are composted. I used to garden near pine trees canopy and the garden soil had a pH about 6.5. Even then I used to mulch my tomatoes with pine needles/straw. They are good soil amender.

But some falling needles can make holes in the leaves. Nothing serious there either.
digdirt2
9 years ago
Many use pine straw to mulch their gardens with no issues at all. I wish I could get my hands on a truckload of it. :)

Dave
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I can see how in the South with such extended heat so many backyard veg gardeners make use of mulch but I was raised that the health of the soil requires exposure to air,sunlight and rainwater. Husband came from a family of farmers and his Dad was possessive of my small veg. garden and taught me the same respect for the soil that my own parents had. This was up North but Mom was from down South and she from a family who never used a lick of mulch on flowers or vegetables. I never saw or heard of voles until I came South to an area where every neighborhood was newer and every house was 'landscaped' and embalmed in pinestraw. Wonderful habitat for voles. Doing all their damage out of sight of owls and hawks and snakes. I've been through 4 major droughts here and what little rain we did get went directly to the soil instead of soaking/dampening inches of pinestraw only to evaporate the next day while the shrubs suffered further. Mulch saves you time and labor which is what generations before us accepted as part of the soil husbandry required to feed our families. If your tomatoes don't produce as expected, you have options those previous generations did not have. me..I like to feel the tilth of the soil in my hands and smell its richness and know when it is ready to accept seeds I need to grow food or beautiful flowers. I don't want to pull back the mulch, organic or black plastic and find that stinking white filiment fungus that grows in the damp, out of sunlight.
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Comments (14)
The tree was fine less than a month ago ===>>> no it wasnt .... it could have been dead for months.. but being evergreen.. it didnt brown until winter weather dried the dead needles ... i presume you have no clue how it was planted.. when it was planted.. nor if it was a recent planting.. whether it was properly watered all summer and fall ... thank goodness you dont need to blame yourself about it all ... presume the prior owner killed it ... get it out .. and come back here is you want some suggestions about a better replacement ... that plant was not z5 appropriate for me .. and if you are in z6.. a good chill/freeze ... could have done it in.. who knows ... who cares.. its the prime focus of your house... if it were outback on my 5 acres.. i would leave it as an experiment.. to see if it rebuds ... but not in the prime location of the front of your house.. EVEN if it does recover.. it might be 5 years before it climbs its way back to be a beauty ... i would give it until mid may or so.. and if less than 90% of it shows active buds.. i would be done with it ... good luck with your new house and the poop machine... i am so glad i am past that part ... lol ken [stay at home dad]
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
9 years ago
pH is an exponential function ...

its a wild exaggeration... but i like to say... to change pH you would need about ten feet of pine needles.. for about 100 years... to SIGNIFICANTLY change soil pH ...

as i said.. its an exaggeration... but i hope you get the drift ...

as noted.. pine needles for garden mulch are really big.. in certain geographic areas ... apparently not yours...

free mulch dude.. dont fight it.. go with it ...

ken
Donna
9 years ago
Pine straw is my mulch of choice. It's easy to manage, easy to move. And free, as stated above. I have used it for twenty years and my soil Ph has remained constant. Count your blessings. (Put it on about six inches thick for best results. it will settle to less depth quickly.)
elisa_z5
9 years ago
Nice neighbors to share their pine needles with you :)
howelbama
9 years ago
I rake up the fallen pine needles in my back yard and compost them and also use them to mulch with.

The only thing you need to watch for is ticks, they seem to love them as well. They are something you should be on the look out for while gardening anyway though.
Molex 7a NYC
9 years ago
we should all be so lucky, all I get are millions of (MILLIONS) Tree of Heaven seedlings.
nickjoseph Milwaukee, WI
Original Author
8 years ago
Molex, I just looked out our window today after a complete day of raining to glimpse our garden. We have twice over raked out & blown out the needles. Lo and behold, what do I see, an entire garden filled with little green seedlings from our neighbor's other tree. It does look like the Tree of Heaven leaves & seedlings. In all our 22 years of living here and having a garden, I do not ever remember the trees dropping seeds & needles like this quantity....ever. Tomorrow we will try to pick up, rake off as many as we can. Do you know if these hurt the tomatoes & cucumbers? Thanks. Arghhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
Molex 7a NYC
8 years ago
old thread, but needles and seeds are fine, just an annoyance. In fact I tend to let some weeds be for a few weeks on end, something is eating them and not "my" actual plants, so I've got that going for me.

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