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Author Topic: mulch  (Read 3069 times)

jacob and Georgina

  • Joined May 2010
mulch
« on: May 26, 2011, 09:05:08 pm »
i am very new to veg and have made several posts already, i keep reading about mulch, just wandering if anyone can explain exactly what it is and weather it is essiential? i have heard of people using grass cuttings or bark? is this a good idea? i am growing quite a lot of veg in one area so would not be easy to only cover part of it so i want to know weather to bother or not? any replies greatly appreciated!!

Plantoid

  • Joined May 2011
  • Yorkshireman on a hill in wet South Wales
Re: mulch
« Reply #1 on: May 26, 2011, 11:45:33 pm »
Ideally mulch is a blanket of well rotted or inert material that will smother unwanted plants as/ before they grow through .

You have to be carefull what you use..
 A thick mat of green grass cuttings will attract all sorts of pests such as slugs and also produce various moulds that damage your crop if the ground is wet or there is a lot of wet weather .
Well rotted , turned , loose ,aireated grass cuttings are good to retain moisture in dry conditions .

If you have established plants  a fairly fine mulch it  can be used , but I'd be wary of using bark chips in my veg plot for it takes a long time to rot down and robs the soil of nitrogen the plants need as it consumes it when rotting down. I seem to recall it takes something like 6 yrs or more to fully rot .

Be careful of using the " mulch cum garden soil improvers "  that are made in the local authority compost heaps .... they frequently tend to be full of pests and all sorts of prennial weeds as they are not composted long enough nor made hot enough to kill seeds and pests ( by adding gypsum and bacterially live animal manures. )
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SallyintNorth

  • Joined Feb 2011
  • Cornwall
  • Rarely short of an opinion but I mean well
    • Trelay Cohousing Community
Re: mulch
« Reply #2 on: May 26, 2011, 11:54:18 pm »
I'm no expert but I think of mulch as anything put on top of the soil to keep the moisture in and deter weed growth.

I think you can pretty much use anything you want - soaked newspaper, mushroom compost, wool, thick black plastic, an old carpet, and yes, grass clippings or bark.  Some materials may have a downside - for instance I do know that sawdust can deplete nitrogen so mostly is not recommended as a mulch.  I don't think bark has the same problem - being larger bits it breaks down more slowly.

I guess it's never essential - but is always a good idea, I think.  In some circumstances it would certainly be strongly recommended, eg, somewhere with light soil and a lot of sun.  However, if you are planting quick-growing plants thickly so that the plants will very soon shade out the soil with their foliage then maybe you could get away with not doing it.

My favourite mulch is a compost-based one; you get the added bonus of extra nutrients as it breaks down.  Carpets and wool don't really break down and I'm not sure that cardboard or newspaper add much back to the soil.  Black plastic certainly doesn't!  However, the non-breaking-down ones are of course better at stopping weed regrowth.

HTH
Sally
Don't listen to the money men - they know the price of everything and the value of nothing

Live in a cohousing community with small farm for our own use.  Dairy cows (rearing their own calves for beef), pigs, sheep for meat and fleece, ducks and hens for eggs, veg and fruit growing

Plantoid

  • Joined May 2011
  • Yorkshireman on a hill in wet South Wales
Re: mulch
« Reply #3 on: May 27, 2011, 12:09:39 am »
Careful with mushroom compost ..it has a high lime content and on light or chalky soils can lead to chlorosis ( sp )... It means to much lime.

Watch out for  printed shredded paper as well , for quite a lot of priniting inks are somewhat toxic . Most currently printed glossy papers & cardboard food boxes have many times over the internationally agreed safe levels of toxins from their metalic & oil based inks that leech through the carton  , through the plastic liner on into the food inside the packet .  Put that sort of stuff on your vegg or fruits and you'll be defeating the reason for growing your own healthy grub.


 Same applies for sheep wool if it has come off a  dipped sheep  , the sheep dips traces in your food are not very good for you.

It's also another reason for not using council /local authority produced compost/soil improver .. you never know what toxins poisons are in it, for it comes from hundreds and hundreds of domestic sources that have had all sorts of stuff chucked on them when being loaded for the journey to the recycling tips/centre.
 If you notice I said " Inert "  material  that means stuff that does not cause or is not likely to cause a damaging reaction when used on your crops as a mulch .
« Last Edit: May 28, 2011, 12:59:07 am by Plantoid »
International playboy & liar .
Man of the world not a country

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: mulch
« Reply #4 on: May 27, 2011, 01:15:40 am »
As the others have said, mulch is a layer of a material put onto the soil to keep down the weeds, and/or feed the soil and keep in moisture.
Whether it is essential or not depends on why you want to use it.  I use a weed suppressing fabric round many of my veggies - this is because we live in a very wet area with a fertile soil, so weeds grow rampantly, but the soil is rarely dry enough for hoeing to be effective as a weed control measure.  I use a different type of mulch around my tomato plants - chopped comfrey leaves which have the double action of helping to keep down weeds and feeding the soil/plants.  Around my potatoes I use a 3" layer of grass clippings, from our own lawn which I know is not treated with any chemicals.  When I earth up the potatoes this mulch is buried and I put down another layer.  Around my strawberries I use yet a different type of mulch - either straw or weed-suppressing fabric, both of which keep down the weeds and protect the fruit from the wet soil.  Another type of mulch works to clear very weedy ground or grass - I put a very thick layer of strawy manure over the weeds, about a foot deep, then cover it with a tarpaulin or similar and leave it for a year; after that time the soil is weed-free and light and crumbly, ready for planting into.
So you can see that the mulch you use depends on its function ie the reason you want to use it.
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

jacob and Georgina

  • Joined May 2010
Re: mulch
« Reply #5 on: May 27, 2011, 08:25:30 pm »
well our soil is very dry her  as the patch is in full sun most the day. I read in a vegtable book to put grass clippings around squash and courgette plants and this got me wandering, however i would worry that my grass cuttings would encourage pests which is the last thing i need! still undecided what to do! i dont think weeds are going to be to much of a problem so will perhaps i will just try it around a couple of plants and see the results!! many thanks for all replies!

doganjo

  • Joined Aug 2012
  • Clackmannanshire
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Re: mulch
« Reply #6 on: May 27, 2011, 08:27:32 pm »
what about using home grown compost?  would that work?
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Hopewell

  • Joined Apr 2011
Re: mulch
« Reply #7 on: May 27, 2011, 11:06:21 pm »
We quite often use the cleanings out from the rabbits as mulch around fruit bushes. Rabbit muck can be used without having to compost it first. We don't use woodshavings which take ages to break down but the muck will be mixed with straw.

Fleecewife

  • Joined May 2010
  • South Lanarkshire
    • ScotHebs
Re: mulch
« Reply #8 on: May 27, 2011, 11:18:03 pm »
well our soil is very dry her  as the patch is in full sun most the day. I read in a vegtable book to put grass clippings around squash and courgette plants and this got me wandering, however i would worry that my grass cuttings would encourage pests which is the last thing i need! still undecided what to do! i dont think weeds are going to be to much of a problem so will perhaps i will just try it around a couple of plants and see the results!! many thanks for all replies!
Squash and courgette plants tend to shade out most of the weeds and the ones which do grow tend to be long and spindly so quite easy to pull out by hand. Inside my polytunnel, which is as dry as your outdoors  ::) I don't use a mulch for them, but outdoors I do.  Grass clippings can be very slimy if too thick a layer is used.  However, I like Hopewell's idea of using rabbit hutch cleanings - if you happen to have any rabbits  :bunny: 8)
"Let's not talk about what we can do, but do what we can"

There is NO planet B - what are YOU doing to save our home?

Do something today that your future self will thank you for - plant a tree

 Love your soil - it's the lifeblood of your land.

suziequeue

  • Joined Feb 2010
  • Llanidloes; Powys
Re: mulch
« Reply #9 on: May 28, 2011, 07:54:10 am »
I make mulch out of chipped hedge and tree brash and cut grass. I have to mulch our young apple trees and am planning to mix this with some fruit tree fertilizer stuff that I got form the shops.

I have a cement mixer to mix all my composting stuff in - an absolute godsend.
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