Mulching around fruit trees
sfg_newbie
16 years ago
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bob64
16 years agoRelated Discussions
How to make a mulch ring around fruit trees?
Comments (8)Hi Ashley, There was a lengthy discussion about mulch a few days ago. Perhaps that's why you're not getting much of a response. I don't think it matters what you ring your mulch with. I'd use whatever you have, or whatever looks pretty to you. The link below talks mostly of wood chips, but you can mulch with pretty much anything you have available that breaks down. I'd recommend keeping the mulch from touching the trunk and taking it out just past the drip line. Obviously it will grow a little each year. Keep an eye out for rodents nesting in/under the mulch. Here is a link that might be useful: Is fresh mulch OK for fruit trees...See MoreFruit Tree Mulch?
Comments (35)Leaves are a wonderful tree mulch IMHO I always use them, with excellent results. Of course I do shred them very well first. Leaves contain trace minerals that tap roots pulled from deep in the earth bringing these minerals to the surface. More trace minerals are in leaves than in rock dust. Benefical fungi love leaf mulch, and you attract nutrient producing bacteria. Not to mention it is the earth worm's favorite food! It doesn't get better. Shred and lay in the fall and they keep the heat in the ground around the roots, by mid-spring they are almost completely gone. To help breakdown add coffee grounds throughout the winter. I hold them down with a thin layer of compost. Think about a forest, the leaves fall all around the trees and they do fine, to think they are harmful is incorrect, and people have pro by their name and suggest otherwise? Wow! Sounds like a way to sell other mulches and make volcanoes around trees! I guess all the different folks in these links are wrong? Not! http://www.organiclandcare.net/education/olc-articles/mulching-save-money-using-leaves-mulch http://landscaping.about.com/od/pruningtrees/f/mulching_trees.htm http://organicgardening.about.com/od/organicgardenmaintenance/a/autumnleaves.htm...See MoreSheet mulching around baby fruit trees
Comments (4)i would go closer to 2ft away from the trunk before using the cardboard/newspaper etc... plant ahead, remember the tree will grow. i use coffee grounds and grass clippings under the cardboard, (i often add a few fruit peels, lettuce scraps etc...) then i soak the area in fish emulsion including the grounds, grass... just before laying down the cardboard. it attracts worms like crazy. they aerate the soil and fertilize it for free. (you can dig up worms from other areas, and add them too) then use a woody mulch on top of the cardboard... ive found pine bark mulch works great....See MoreWhat kind of mulch (wood chips) for fruit trees?
Comments (13)I teach classes on this and the scientific evidence simply does not support it!! One of a series of articles published by a horticultural PhD (and professor at WSU) offers this: "Concern: Wood chip mulches will tie up nitrogen and cause deficiencies in plants. Evidence: Actually, many studies have demonstrated that woody mulch materials increase nutrient levels in soils and/or associated plant foliage. My hypothesis is that a zone of nitrogen deficiency exists at the mulch/soil interface, inhibiting weed seed germination while having no influence upon established plant roots below the soil surface. For this reason, it is inadvisable to use high C:N mulches in annual beds or vegetable gardens where the plants of interest do not have deep, extensive root systems." Full article here: https://s3.wp.wsu.edu/uploads/sites/403/2015/03/wood-chips.pdf Googling "wood chip mulches and nitrogen availability" will confirm countless articles stating the same thing. The N issue is more myth than reality, as is the concept of mulches acidifying soil. It just doesn't work that way :-))...See Morecowgirl2
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