Although it is work intensive, we leave an exposed dirt ring around our
apple and other fruit trees. This requires pulling the weeds, then
taking a trowel and digging down a few inches to loosen the soil, and
finishing off with a bit of light chopping with a hoe. What made it
easier was mixing in a fair amount of sand (heavy stuff, not the play
sand). This keeps the soil loose so that the weeds pull out easier. It
can take almost a full day to do one mature dwarf tree, but if you are
retired, like us, we have the time. Putting any kind of chemicals in
this tree
circle will surely get into the tree's system and pass it on to the
fruit.

Sherwin Dubren

Kevin Miller wrote:

I did a little landscape fabric and mulch... did well... and next year
I'll rake out the mulch, remove the fabric, and re-apply a fresh mulch

Kevin

On Thu, 26 Jun 2003 07:31:33 -0400, WCD wrote:


I have a number of apple trees with grass growing under them right up to
the trunk. I want to get rid of the grass and mulch under the trees out
to the drip line.

What is a good way to do this? I'm tempted to use an herbicide (like
Roundup) but I'm not sure what that would do to the tree. I have enough
trees that I don't relish the idea of digging around under each one of
them and possibly messing up the roots. I think if I put mulch down on
top of the grass, the grass would just grow right through the mulch.

Any suggestions?