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Mulch, Trees and Woody Shrubs
About Mulch

Mulch, when the right material is used and applied properly, mulch is
very very very helpful in maintaining and increasing a tree’s
vitality. Vitality is the ability to grow under the conditions you
find yourself. Training without education makes robots while
education without training is waste. Waste is a human term for
improper management of a substance or thing. Please allow me to train
as well as educate you with respect to mulch. When mulch is applied
improperly it can greatly reduce the trees vitality over time. First,
lets take a closer look at the mulch itself. In a forest the soil of
trees receives a steady supply of mulch. This mulch would be made up
of many ingredients - shed leaves, flower parts, twigs, branches,
trunks as well as shed root hairs, non-woody roots, mycorrhizae and
woody roots. Wood is mostly cellulose. Many microorganisms in the
soil can breakdown cellulose back to glucose as food. In addition,
animal feces and animals that have died also constitute the mulch in a
forest. This amounts to the ingredients which make up the horizons in
the soil. This is where trees receive their genetic makeup. Trees
and woody shrubs come in groups. The best way to help a tree is by
providing as many of the natural ingredients which they would receive
in a forest. In the urban environment I choose to use composted tree
trimmings as mulch. Not fresh chips and not all bark mulch. The
reason is that fresh chips have protoplasm smeared all over the place
which attracts micros that attack defenseless living tree cells.
These micros can and do, do nasty things to trees above as well as
below ground. Second, outer bark of trees is made up of primarily
suberin which is long chains of fatty acids. While this bark mulch
has aesthetic value, the bark is of little value for providing energy-
releasing compounds to soil microorganisms. We can feed the soil with
composted wood chips and leaves. Composted manures are fine as long
as composted and applied correctly. Mixing mushroom soil with
composted wood chips and leaves is also fine. Trees are autotrophs
meaning that they manufacture their own food in a process called
photosynthesis. We do not feed trees, though we can feed the system.
There are always exceptions in nature. The ghost flower, which has no
chlorophyll, is a heterotroph, relying on someone or something else to
manufacture its food for them (animals are heterotrophs). Again, the
ghost flowers get their carbohydrates, food, by way of the
bicarbohydrate transfer of plants under ground. By feeding the soil
with mulch we are enhancing or feeding, the microorganisms in the
soil. These microorganisms help alter chemical elements in the soil
which are essential for healthy growth. They must be altered in order
to be absorbed by the tree or woody plants. There are 17 known
essential elements in which 14 come by way of the soil. Soil is a
substance made up of sands, silts, clays, decaying organic matter,
air, water and an enormous number of living organisms. Is it alive or
dead? Yes, is the answer. We have no word for a substance that is
both living and dead - wood, soil. In a forest, mulch comes in
different gradations from fine duff to large woody debris. Tree
absorbing roots will grow in large woody debris (nurse logs) and will
receive water during dry times. In the urban environment people
usually refer to the finer gradation when speaking of mulch. We do
bring ecoart nurse logs in on many occasions. Next we will talk about
proper application. http://www.treedictionary.com/DICT2003/M/mulch.html

Sincerely,
John A. Keslick, Jr.
Consulting Tree Biologist
www.treedictionary.com
and
http://home.ccil.org/~treeman
Watch out for so-called tree experts who do not understand tree
biology.
Storms, fires, floods, earthquakes, tornado’s, volcanic eruptions and
other abiotic forces keep reminding humans that they are not the
boss.