On 9/18/2007 1:06 AM, jbclem wrote:
I've started using mulch around the base of all my fruit trees this year, I live in a hot summer area and I'm trying to
keep the roots as cool as possible (not to mention the other benefits of mulch), but since I have some trees that will
grow in the winter time (mainly citrus) I wonder if pulling back(only for the winter months) the mulch would help warm
up the ground beneath them and they might benefit more from this than from the mulch. These are young dwarf citrus
trees I'm speaking of. The mulch is about 2-3 inches thick and I'm planning on adding to it next spring.

jc



It depends on the type of mulch.

I use the leaves that fall from my large deciduous trees: "evergreen"
ash, valley white oak, zelkova, and liquidambar. I use these as a mulch
in all my beds. I put down so many leaves that they smother the weeds
but not enough to smother the low-growing plants that I want. I also
let the leaves from my peach tree stay where they fall.

The mulch stays in place year-round. In the winter, the mulch breaks
the force of the rain (if we get any). Eventually, it decomposes and
enriches the soil.

I also mulched my front lawn, where I was trying to establish a ground
cover. This past January, that mulch was the only thing that kept the
ground cover from dying during the "great freeze of '07".

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening pages at http://www.rossde.com/garden/