My county gives away free mulch. People bring in downed trees,
branches, etc. to the county dump, where it is ground up and put in
huge piles. Up here in Appalacia, there's lots of downed wood.

Thus, we have an essentially limitless source of free mulch. The mulch
isn't all that pretty, and is probably considered low quality; it is
mostly ground hardwood with a sizeable minority of pine and a
sprinkling of random woody brush.

The other day I was down there shoveling the stuff into the back of my
pickup (the county has a frontloader that provides a filling service on
an irregular basis, but I always seem to miss it), and the caretaker
came running out of his shady spot yelling at me to stop.

He said that I was taking the mulch from the wrong pile -- that the
stuff I was loading had just been ground that day and would kill my
plants, particularly if there was a lot of pine in it. He said that
mulch had to sit for a couple of weeks and ferment a little before it
could safely be used. He strongly suggested that if I was using the
mulch for flower garden that I use the next pile over, which had been
sitting for a couple of weeks. He said that the pile I was digging
from would be good for driveways and walkways, but that I should
be careful about using it around plants.

I had never heard of that. Is that so? Does mulch have to "age?"

billo

Bill Oliver wrote:

My county gives away free mulch. People bring in downed trees,
branches, etc. to the county dump, where it is ground up and put in
huge piles.* Up here in Appalacia, there's lots of downed wood.

Thus, we have an essentially limitless source of free mulch.* The mulch
isn't all that pretty, and is probably considered low quality; it is
mostly ground hardwood with a sizeable minority of pine and a
sprinkling of random woody brush.

The other day I was down there shoveling the stuff into the back of my
pickup (the county has a frontloader that provides a filling service on
an irregular basis, but I always seem to miss it), and the caretaker
came running out of his shady spot yelling at me to stop.

He said that I was taking the mulch from the wrong pile -- that the
stuff I was loading had just been ground that day and would kill my
plants, particularly if there was a lot of pine in it.* He said that
mulch had to sit for a couple of weeks and ferment a little before it
could safely be used.* He strongly suggested that if I was using the
mulch for flower garden that I use the next pile over, which had been
sitting for a couple of weeks. He said that the pile I was digging
from would be good for driveways and walkways, but that I should
be careful about using it around plants.

I had never heard of that.* Is that so?* Does mulch have to "age?"

billo

We only use fresh chips for walkways and along fence lines to keep weeds
down a bit.*** Since we chip our own, we can do a batch that's just* -*
long dead
if we want to put it around trees.*** New wood, especially pine has always
been
termed..................turpentiny................ ......not my word believe
me.
But no one uses it in garens.

Ma
*
*

Bill Oliver wrote:

I had never heard of that. Is that so? Does mulch have to "age?"

If you plan to use wood chips around actively growing plants, it's best to
let them sit for a year or so. The surface area of the raw wood chips
begins to decompose and the microbes that do the decomposing need nitrogen
to do their job. The nitrogen they use is not available to the plants.
After a year or so, most of the surface area has a layer of decomposed
material and decomposition proceeds more slowly.

Some people have had luck with mixing some nitrogen fertilizer in with the
raw wood chips. I prefer to let nature do the work.

The more finely ground the material, the greater the surface area, the
greater the problem. A certain highway department on the East Coast lost
hundreds of thousands of dollars of trees and shrubs along highways when
they used green-tinted pallet sawdust for mulch. Between the fine texture
and the chemical preservatives, their plants were toast.

I find most people tend to use too much mulch. Mulching deeply may
suppress weeds and conserve moisture, but it will also keep any but the
heaviest rain from penetrating down to the root zone where it's needed.
In areas with plentiful rain and poorly-drained soils, mulch can
contribute to root rot and fungus problems.

-- Karen

The Garden Gate http://garden-gate.prairienet.org
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"If you have a garden and a library, you have everything you need."
^and cats -- Cicero
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In article ,
Karen Fletcher wrote:

I find most people tend to use too much mulch. Mulching deeply may
suppress weeds and conserve moisture, but it will also keep any but the
heaviest rain from penetrating down to the root zone where it's needed.
In areas with plentiful rain and poorly-drained soils, mulch can
contribute to root rot and fungus problems.


Maybe. I have noticed in the four months since I started this that
the areas where I have mulched heavily and planted have *never* been
dry under the mulch. When I noticed that the soil was always moist, even
when it hadn't rained for awhile, I wondered to myself if I hadn't
bought myself a fungus problem down the line. It's been raining in the
afternoon for two weeks straight and I am seeing crops of mushrooms
sprouting up through the mulch.

But... The plants seem to be thriving, and there are lots of worms and
bugs and such in soil where I turned it, so I'm crossing my fingers and
moving on.



billo

"Bill Oliver" wrote in message
...
In article ,
Karen Fletcher wrote:

I find most people tend to use too much mulch. Mulching deeply may
suppress weeds and conserve moisture, but it will also keep any but the
heaviest rain from penetrating down to the root zone where it's needed.
In areas with plentiful rain and poorly-drained soils, mulch can
contribute to root rot and fungus problems.


Maybe. I have noticed in the four months since I started this that
the areas where I have mulched heavily and planted have *never* been
dry under the mulch. When I noticed that the soil was always moist, even
when it hadn't rained for awhile, I wondered to myself if I hadn't
bought myself a fungus problem down the line. It's been raining in the
afternoon for two weeks straight and I am seeing crops of mushrooms
sprouting up through the mulch.

But... The plants seem to be thriving, and there are lots of worms and
bugs and such in soil where I turned it, so I'm crossing my fingers and
moving on.

If you look hard and long enough you may find Jesus under there also! ;-)

John

(Bill Oliver) wrote in message ...
My county gives away free mulch. People bring in downed trees,
branches, etc. to the county dump, where it is ground up and put in
huge piles. Up here in Appalacia, there's lots of downed wood.

Thus, we have an essentially limitless source of free mulch. The mulch
isn't all that pretty, and is probably considered low quality; it is
mostly ground hardwood with a sizeable minority of pine and a
sprinkling of random woody brush.

The other day I was down there shoveling the stuff into the back of my
pickup (the county has a frontloader that provides a filling service on
an irregular basis, but I always seem to miss it), and the caretaker
came running out of his shady spot yelling at me to stop.

He said that I was taking the mulch from the wrong pile -- that the
stuff I was loading had just been ground that day and would kill my
plants, particularly if there was a lot of pine in it. He said that
mulch had to sit for a couple of weeks and ferment a little before it
could safely be used. He strongly suggested that if I was using the
mulch for flower garden that I use the next pile over, which had been
sitting for a couple of weeks. He said that the pile I was digging
from would be good for driveways and walkways, but that I should
be careful about using it around plants.

I had never heard of that. Is that so? Does mulch have to "age?"

billo

It depends upon how thickly it is applied, and what material it is.
Initially the fresh stuff goes through some heating as it ferments and
some wide swings in Ph. This can be fatal to plants. Also there are a
lot of volatiles like terpenes and such which are not plant friendly.
Given a choice take the aged stuff.

OH NO NOT FUNGUS AMOUNGUS!!!

Come on Mr. Science there's losts of data on the important
relationships plants have with fungi. You've got a good thing going,
worms are likely the best indicator of a healthy soil food web.




On Tue, 29 Jun 2004 01:33:56 -0000, (Bill Oliver)
wrote:

I wondered to myself if I hadn't
bought myself a fungus problem down the line. It's been raining in the
afternoon for two weeks straight and I am seeing crops of mushrooms
sprouting up through the mulch.