Should I mulch a 3' or 4' diameter around my dwarf fruit trees?

8 years ago

My new orchard of 18 dwarf fruit trees is planted in a quincunx design with 12' between trees. The trees were planted bare-root in early May, and we are preparing to put the finishing touches on the orchard with some pine bark mulch and edging around each tree.

I've read that mulching to the drip line is ideal for maximizing all the benefits of mulch. My trees have an expected mature size of 8-10', but I'm not prepared to mulch the entire floor of my orchard, which is what would more or less be required were I to mulch all the way to the anticipated drip line of each tree.

I've already purchased enough pine bark mulch and edging to mulch a 3' diameter circle around each tree, but I'm on the fence as to whether to mulch 3' or 4' diameter circles. I'm not planning on ever expanding the size of the mulched circles beyond what I initially install, due to the fact that I opted to purchase relatively expensive commercial-grade plastic edging and will be investing quite a bit of sweat equity in the installation.

Would a 4' diameter circle give my trees a significant advantage over a 3' diameter circle, or only marginally so?

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Comments (5)

speedster1
8 years ago
I'm not sure it makes that huge of a difference. I'd think you'd be fine with a 3' mulch bed for dwarf trees. It's what I did.
schwartzy18510 thanked speedster1
Matt Tucker
8 years ago
There seems to be mixed thoughts on the benefits of Mulch and fruit trees. It does provide a neat and tidy look. I put a 2' diameter circle of pea gravel around mine, the theory being it deters insects from climbing to your trunk and getting up into your tree. I am curious what others think?
schwartzy18510 thanked Matt Tucker
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Kimmsr, perhaps if one thinks of "good", "better", "best" one can imagine the soil in a field. The north end of the two rows of trees is somewhat better soil, that area had the least die back but it still had die back. The south end soil is not quite as good and it had the worst die back. The rows immediately to the east and west that had no mulch applied had normal die back along the entire length of the rows. These rows are only 18 feet away, they were planted at the same time and they are the same kind of seedlings.. Trust me, the mulch somehow contributed to the die back. As I stated twice already and now for the third and last time, I do not know what caused the increased mortality but the mulch had something to do with it. I understand you are a soil test proponent, I have seen the several hundred references you have made regarding it therefore I understand your point of view. I didn't intend to get into a 10 post discussion about my trees. I applied mulch on some trees, those trees had a greater mortality rate than those that did not get mulch applied, the mulch somehow contributed to the increased mortality. Cause not known. Lloyd
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Snuffles, How's your longan doing now? The little plant there looks gorgeous--leaves are healthy and blooms fantastic. If you decide to keep the blooms, I hope you get some fruit forming for you. I would keep the blooms too .. just because blooms aren't always guaranteed year on year. Right now, I have got 3 juvenile longans growing in the ground. One of them actually isn't too juvenile. I got it 9 years ago when it was about 2-3 ft tall. So, it must be about more than 10 years old now. I planted it in the ground at first, but it kept getting sick with white flies. So, I dug it out again and nursed it to health. A couple of years back, I planted it back into the ground and since then it has grown to 8 ft tall with a lot more new leaves, but the white flies came back to attack it. Now that it's bigger, I think it's also more hardy to withstand the white flies attack. I used to clean the sticky stuff off the leaves, but now that it's bigger, it's hard to do that. Anyway, here's a picture of it bearing some fruit now: Longan Kohala at 8 ft now: close up of the little fruit formation: The second longan I have is a Biew Kiew (slightly more than 5 ft tall). I'm guessing the age is less 5-7 years. It was blooming last year, but I got no fruit from it. This year, no sign of any blooms. Longans have a habit of growing long floppy limps. I just chopped off two of the lanky limps in the middle. If you look closely, you'll see the old dark green leaves beneath the new flushes that shot up. Here's a third longan which is also a Biew Kiew. It's a little over 5 ft too. No blooms this year. The problem I noticed a while ago was this tree was in a "frozen" state, meaning the little budding shoots from last year got dried out. I was waiting to see if they would grow, but they never did, so I decided to rub them off the branches. A few weeks later, I saw lots of new flushes coming up. So, I did learn something new. I was having so much troubles with my lychees and decided to pay more attention to my longans to see if they will perform better for me. At least, with the lychees, they are pretty pest free except for web worms ... which unfortunately is prevalent when there are mature hard wood trees around. Oh yeah, we have some humongous Oak trees around here ... lol. I hope you enjoy your little longan tree now and hope it'll do well for you in the years to come.
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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.
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copingwithclay
8 years ago
The old expression "You only have to floss the teeth that you intend to keep "comes to mind. Slowly decaying piles of wood chips/leaves do enough good that entire forests grow continually with that enhancement and the accompanying life that hangs around the decaying matter. Add rain and Sunlight and you are good to go...and go...and go... Whether you choose to invest in a small or larger mulch ring, wherever you do set down the thick mulch ring and keep it moist, the soil in that ring will be much more inviting for your tree's roots. You only have to mulch the area that you want the tree to happily inhabit. On the other hand, if you prefer to artificially nourish the tree with various nourishments brought in from elsewhere, it's up to you to keep up the systematic, possibly pricey nourishment for as long as you want the tree to be on your particular life support. Lots of giant redwoods never get 13-13-13 or TLC from a human planter, but manage to make quite a good living from decaying plant stuff, Sunlight, and rain.
schwartzy18510 thanked copingwithclay
Matt Tucker
8 years ago
Well said copingwithclay...I do throw piles of mulch/compost around the bottom of my tree leaving homes for all the important critters. The mulching does help make mowing easier and also lets you see what is falling off your tree.
drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
The reason i mulch is that grass steals water and nutrients from the tree. Keeping the drip area or farther open helps the tree. Yes 4 feet beats three and is worth it IMHO. I mulch to slow down the grass and weeds. Everything else is gravy.
As far as Redwoods and 13-13-13 is people forget we are not talking about forest trees here. A peach tree left on it's own will bear so much fruit it's branches will break and invite disease in. Needless to say it will die. We are talking about feeding domesticated trees, not wild ones. The fruit trees will not survive without our care. Well many of them.

Also don't let dwarf fool you, not many trees are genetic dwarfs, so they are reduced by rootstock selection. This method doesn't work that well. 15 feet tall is very possible. Unless you have genetic dwarfs the best way to control size is by pruning to the height you desire and forget about rootstock, use dwarf, semi-dwarf or regular. I find the non-dwarfing rootstocks are darn good, and I prefer to use them. Like Lovell for peaches. I do like using dwarf rootstock for cherries though. They bear faster and produce well.
schwartzy18510 thanked drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a

Should I mulch a 3' or 4' diameter around my dwarf fruit trees?

Comments (5)

speedster1

Matt Tucker

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drew51 SE MI Z5b/6a

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