Re: Pine Needles for Iris Mulch (Was: Broccoli as a green manure crop....
iris@hort.net
  • Subject: Re: Pine Needles for Iris Mulch (Was: Broccoli as a green manure crop....
  • From: B* A* G* <b*@cybermesa.com>
  • Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 06:55:15 -0700
Pine needles don't hold moisture very well until they break down. They seem to have a waterproof coating -- until they break down. Rot hasn't been a problem with pine needles in my garden with pine needles or at the Santa Fe Iris Society Iris Garden where we use newspaper covered with wood chips from the Santa Fe Environmental Services. Both methods do hold down the weeds very well and do recycle things that might otherwise have gone to the landfill. And they enrich the soil. 

Betty G.

On 11/6/2012 5:43 AM, SDAyres2@aol.com wrote:

Thanks for the reply.  My soil is alkaline so I don't mind a little pH
change.  Do you think it is a fire risk if you apply it next to the  house?
Intense moisture and little rain makes mulching a good idea as long as it 
doesn't trap moisture next to the rhizomes.  We do have a monsoon season in
August (some years).
I've written an article on the subject on the club's web site Here is a link 
_https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bx8xSRt-YuRYVjZQU0wtejNTcGs_
(https://docs.google.com/open?id=0Bx8xSRt-YuRYVjZQU0wtejNTcGs)
Scarlett In a message dated 11/5/2012 1:01:22 P.M. Mountain Standard Time, 
phantomfyre@yahoo.com writes:

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

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