Re: CULT: mulch

Chuck Chapman in ?Canada wrote:
> I am playing with the idea of planting my plants deeper in the fall. The help
> that I had last year planted some plants deeper then instructed and they
> seemed to survive better. Does anyone have experience with this? 

Chuck I've forgotten where you are - could you add your location to your
signature each time you post, especially when talking about culture?
Sounds like it's cold in the winter where you are...

Anyway, yes, after being on this discussion forum, I was able to figure
out that most of the rot problems I was encountering resulted from
rollercoaster warm winter spells into the 70s & enthusiastic growth
followed by regular winter spells with nights in the teens and
rollercoasters in spring with periodic freezes into the low 20s.  Some
folks mentioned mulching with soil & removing it later in the spring,
others mentioned mulching with sand.  So I started covering all my
rhizomes with soil or coarse creek sand (whichever seemed to be less
trouble at the time - usually soil when planting, sand when noticing a
small rhizome needing some cover.  This soil is very gravelly and is
excessively well-drained - not sure that burying rhizomes in clay would
be a great idea, but who knows.

I have a lot less rot since doing this but also have been using alfalfa
pellets, working hard at selecting what to grow that is less likely to
be vulnerable to freeze damage, (including not buying mixed collections
of stuff from west coast dealers - I miss out on the newer good stuff
that way tho).  Plus who knows what else might be different.

I've noticed that some cultivars are 'divers' and some are 'climbers' -
the increase on some will be underneath the soil surface, others will be
above & some are ambivalent <g>.  So once they are established, I don't
usually cover the increases if they are at the surface, UNLESS it's an
early or midseason bloomer I'm trying to give a little extra
protection.  These also benefit from Reemay blankets or water filled
cola bottles as bed warmers.  None of this does any good once the bloom
stalks are out of the rhizome.

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA zone 7/8


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