Re: Re: CULT: mulch (pine needles)

>I 'always' mulch beardless irises with pine needles. We have so much rain 
>that even the dried bark mulch does gets rotten but not the dried needles.

There's something I wonder about with pine needles.  My beardless bed 
lies at the bottom of a grade down which all the rainwater from the roof 
of a large building drains every time it rains.  The rainwater floods the 
beardless bed then drains into a culvert, taking most mulch materials 
with it.  Shredded bark knits together and stays in place a bit better 
than bark pieces under such circumstances.  I wonder how pine needles 
would hold their position when flooded?  I get mighty tired of having to 
reposition all the mulch after every rain.
>
>Currier McEwen told me that even tho' pine trees like acidic
>soil, the addition of pine needles as a mulch didn't decrease
>the pH of the soil in his tests.

I've wondered about that, too, since my clay soil is naturally slightly 
acidic.

>p.s. bales of pine straw must be in other parts of the country

Yup.  I've never seen them up here, either.  Plenty of pine plantations 
for the paper mill, though.  ;-)

Laurie


-----------------
laurief@paulbunyan.net
http://www.geocities.com/lfandjg/
http://www.angelfire.com/mn3/shadowood/irisintro.html
USDA zone 3b, AHS zone 4 - northern MN
clay soil

---------------------------------------------------------------------
To sign-off this list, send email to majordomo@hort.net with the
message text UNSUBSCRIBE IRIS
Other Mailing lists | Author Index | Date Index | Subject Index | Thread Index