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Soil, Compost & Mulch

Using The Ruth Stout Gardening

14 years ago

I have heard that if you use Ruth's mulching in the deep south you get a build up of bugs. They say the first year or two the bugs just eat the mulch. But when they get over populated they start eating what you plant. I dont want to cause a problem. I do want to mulch. Any help would be appreciated. Red

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Comments (6)

digdirt2
14 years ago
In many of the discussions here on mulching, especially when using straw or hay, there is always one or two who claim to have had a bad pest infestation because of it - usually it is slugs, snails, and flea beetles.

But that isn't the commonly held belief. If you pull up those discussions and read through them you'll find that most feel the many benefits of proper mulching far outweigh any possible problems IF those problems arise.

Personally I have used thick layers of old spoiled hay for many years with no increase at all in any pest problem. Slugs and snails, the most common mentioned problem, aren't nearly the problem for those of us in the hot south as it is for northern gardeners. What slugs and snails we may get are easily controlled and the benefits in moisture stabilization, weed control, and overall soil improvement more than outweigh any problems.

{{gwi:8327}}

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Ruth Stout Mulching discussion
cathyd_gardener
14 years ago
Nice bed, Dave.
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I used this method for many years and found it most useful for paths and walkways between beds or growing areas. Small seedlings tend to get lost in the straw, so the straw has to be pulled away and well marked. I would use either tomato cages or sticks next to each plant. When I wanted to seed an area it needed to be completely cleared of straw for seeding. After the seeds sprouted, I usually used grass clippings to mulch around them because soft, short grass clippings are easier to manipulate around delicate seedlings than straw or hay. It worked well with my very large, sandy soiled garden. Now I garden in narrow raised beds - intensive type gardens. I do continue to use straw or hay, but it is well rotted. I buy the bales in the fall and pile them around the well house for insulation. In the spring they are transformed into cold frames. From there they become the walls of my compost piles. I cold-compost, so by the time the compost is ready, so is the straw/hay bale - usually 2 summers. Anyway, yes, it was effective for a large garden space (50'x60') that is mostly organized in traditional or wide rows with walking paths. However, I find that the intensive, raised bed method I currently use more productive, per square foot, and more attractive by miles. Kay.
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While I won't argue against the chemical oriented discussion about soybean meal, I would suggest that it is much easier to understand if you forget about pounds of nitrogen and think in terms of pounds of FOOD. Soybean meal is food, first and foremost. So is cottonseed and other grains like corn, wheat, rye, and others. As a food they "decompose" when microorganisms grow on them. I've used the term 'eat' before, but microbes don't exactly eat like we think of eating. In any case what happens is the microbes grow on the soybean meal and convert the soybeans into more and healthier microbes. Microbes are made from protein compounds just like all animals, and it is the protein which stores the nitrogen molecules (amino acids involve nitrogen). When those proteins are shed or digested by other critters that shed them, eventually they return to the soil as plant food. This is the plan that Mother Nature has been working on for billions of years. Another aspect that throws a monkey wrench into any nitrogen calculation is that some microbes have the ability to absorb nitrogen from the air and deposit it in the soil. Thus you might apply 1 pound of theoretical nitrogen and receive 1+ pounds back to the soil. There is no way to predict what the outcome will be from organic fertilizer. Instead of thinking in terms of pounds of nitrogen, I think in terms of pounds of fertilizer. The suggestion for organic lawn fertilizer made from grains is usually 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. How this translates into pounds of nitrogen I could not tell you. For plants I use a heaping handful scattered under the canopy of the plant once a month.
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When I have used "almost compost" I get more squirrels and critters poking around in the beds searching out the kitchen scraps I bet. I don't mind that as much around shrubs and such, but around my flowers and SFG veggies I don't like the critters digging. This spring I "stole" yard waste bags from my neighbor who had raked up the "thatch"/dead grass from his lawns - he uses Milorganite as lawn fertilizer/no pesticides - and I used 1-2 inches around my SFG veggies and it seems to be working nicely as a mulch. Also used some bagged fall leaves - sucked them up with leaf vacuum out of the bags and it made a nice mulch.
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I have always been organic, ever since I was a kid and my grandma and grandpa showed me how to plant a few seeds way back in the early 60's. I ran across Ruth's book in 1978 and it revolutionized my gardening. No more turning the soil! I was already toying with "no till" methods but her simple solution is the ticket, and I've done it basically that way ever since. Hay is not the only thing that works, any sort of mulch will do. You can check with local tree services that have chipper trucks and they will often times drop a whole load (or part of one) off for you at no charge (saves them a fee at the dump). Get your wheel barrow and pitch fork ready and mulch like crazy. The main way I differ is instead of putting the mulch everywhere, I make beds that are mulched and run 2 drip lines over the top, down the length of the bed. (I use T-tape, and use the heaviest gauge) Each time I add mulch, I top dress then use an old hoe handle with just the hook (blade broke off) to lift the line back over the mulch. Beds should only be as wide as you can reach from both sides WITHOUT having to stretch to reach the middle. I lay my drip line over the mulch so that water runs down through it and gets more of the mulch wet. It works with it under though, as enough water still keeps the bottom of the mulch moist. I just like the mulch to break down a little faster so it's feeding the soil. I love Ruth's book, and have recommended it to many a fellow garden keeper. There are also several threads on this site about "lasagna" gardening which is basically the same thing by a more recent author. The term lasagna was one I came up with years ago, but I used the word to describe the way I make a compost pile, with layers, and then "cook" the pile. The author of Lasagna Gardening heard me use the phrase and asked if she could use it and I said sure, so Lasagna gardening was born. Another good book is by Max Alth, How to Farm Your Back Yard the Mulch Organic Way. BTW, I don't do that much compost piling, although it seems I always have a huge pile going somewhere on my 5 acres. Its to much work to move the material twice, plus turning. It's easier to just put it in place as mulch one time and be done with it. Let us know how your garden grows. Arthur
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Kimmsr
14 years ago
Organic gardening methods very often, especially at first, do see an increase in the insect population and with the constant mulch method espoused by Ruth Stout pests such as slugs can be a problem until the population of beneficials gets in balance. This is as true in the far north as it would be in the deep south. When you create an environment that is "bug" friendly both kinds will move in and the beneficials (provided broad spectrum poisons are not used to control the pests) will soon be able to handle the pests.
gardenlen
14 years ago
g'day chao,

dunno what stout's methods are but using heaps of mulch has never caused a build up of bugs that eat the plants, one bug that comes to light often in the forums is the pill bug but that is only an issue where the organic material that they live on is not kept up.

for us mulching is continuous and ongoing as it breaks down.

len

Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
tcstoehr
14 years ago
If most people feel that the benefits of mulching outweigh the disadvantages, that is because it works for them in their bit of the world. Those that feel it doesn't work for them is because it doesn't in their situation. This isn't a vote. I for one have found mulching leads to an extreme infestation of wood lice. If most people don't have that problem, that doesn't change the fact that it's a problem in my area.
Don't tell me wood lice only eat decaying, dead matter. In reality, they happily devastate small plants. Earwigs too.
Wood lice defy any notion of "balance" and reach plague numbers that are truly astounding as winters here are too mild to cull their numbers. And the mulch provides a constant shelter and food supply when tender vegetable plants aren't available.
chao
Original Author
14 years ago
Tcstoehr thanks. I was told in another Forum that I could use Slug-Go Plus it has a naturally occurring soil Bacteria called Spinosad that gets the wood lice. Red

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