Re: CULT:TB: Iris Mulch
From: Steven Pihl <akasha@midusa.net>
What about sand as a mulch? I heard that it did not retain moisture.
Michelle Pihl
Smolan, KS
Zone 6
HIPSource@aol.com wrote:
> 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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