CULT:TB: Iris Mulch

From: HIPSource@aol.com

In a message dated 6/18/99 7:13:27 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
William.J.Bendick@nan02.usace.army.mil writes:

<< 	I'd like to find out if it is a good idea to mulch TB iris with say 
cocoa hulls. >>

Hello, William.

Although some will say their garden is the glorious exception and never have 
their irises reached such perfection as when they were mulched, it is 
generally considered a bad idea to mulch bearded rhizomes with anything, 
except for a winter mulch in the coldest areas. Mulch can hold moisture on 
the surface of the soil, impede ventilation at the soil line, harbor insects 
and small rodents, foster disease, and prevent the sun from reaching the 
rhizome to ripen it. If you get rain followed by some heat you can get a 
steamy situation which is very conducive to rot.

Also, based on my experience I would not advise anyone to mulch anything with 
cocoa hulls. They may do better in other parts of the country--I'm in the 
humid Mid-Atlantic--but I used them on one small area of the yard under some 
roses and it was an expensive disaster. They matted up with mold and became 
felted with it almost immediately, great clumps of the stuff.  Nasty evil 
foul-smelling mess it was, too, but substantially less of a nasty evil 
foul-smelling mess than the one at the local botanic garden where they used 
cocoa hulls over several acres and had the same thing happen. Both the garden 
and I discarded them and never looked back.

If you feel you have to use something for aesthetic reasons in your beds 
because the  soil is looking bare, try a one chip thick layer of bark mulch 
between the plants and keep it well away from the rhizomes. I do this. If 
weeds are the problem, use a pre-emergent herbicide. 

If you are determined to try mulch in the summer then it is critical that you 
use something large and coarse textured that will not pack down, steam up, 
harbor critters, or impede airflow at the most vulnerable part of the TB 
plant, the elbow where the fan meets the rhizome at the soil line.

Perhaps if you told us where you are growing your irises we might able to 
help you further. Advice for Albuquerque is not the same as advice for 
Manitoba, or Savannah, or Sussex or Capetown or Portland or Stockholm.

Anner Whitehead
HIPSource@aol.com

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