Pine Needles for Iris Mulch (Was: Broccoli as a green manure crop...)
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Pine Needles for Iris Mulch (Was: Broccoli as a green manure crop...)
  • From: D* <p*@yahoo.com>
  • Date: Mon, 5 Nov 2012 11:57:45 -0800 (PST)
Pine needles - YES!!! They are the best iris mulch, as they don't hold
moisture like other mulches. My neighbors on either side of me have white pine
trees that drop needles every fall, and they are delighted to give them to me
or have me come take them away. I mulch everything with them - TBs included. I
don't worry about the acidity - when you mulch with something on the acid
side, it decays slowly, so the acidifying properties of the mulch material is
offset by time and leaching as they compost slowly at surface level. However,
if you till them into the soil, then you can run into issues with pH changes.
Since I started mulching, the irises are so much happier, and so am I. Soil
moisture and temperature are kept even, organic matter is (slowly) added to
the soil, and I actually have a chance of keeping up with the weeds!

Diana
Anshakov

N. Illinois



________________________________

From: Betty Ann
Gunther <bettyg@cybermesa.com>
Subject: Re: [iris] Brocolie as a green manure
crop control soil diseases

By the way, I, too, am a veteran leaf snatcher. 
But others have caught 
on in my town and you have to be quick to get the
leaves. The pine 
needles are not commonly used in Los Alamos but we have lots
of them.  
They take a long time to decay but make a good mulch for those of
us 
with alkaline soil.  In the south gathering and baling pine needles for
sale is a business, but local folklore in Los Alamos is that pine 
needles
contain too much acid.  Well, I think that is what we need!  So 
I use them. 
They decay more quickly than in my compost pile.

Betty Gunther
Los Alamos, NM

---------------------------------------------------------------------
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