Re: CULT: borer and mulch
- Subject: Re: CULT: borer and mulch
- From: B* S*
- Date: Tue, 03 Nov 1998 14:39:29 -0400
From: Bill Shear <BILLS@hsc.edu>
>Mulching with soil is not the same thing at all and should
>not be used as a justification for using organic mulches. I
>am guessing but I would imagine that Schreiners use an earth
>mulch to divert water away from the rhizome. I lived within
>a few miles of those fields for several years and my skin
>begins to turn moldy when ever I recall those rainy winter
>days.
I don't have the reference here but in an AIS Bulletin of some years ago in
which Ray Schreiner described their operation, I recall that this was
indeed the purpose of the soil "mulch": not frost protection but to shed
water into the depressions between the rows and keep it off the rhizomes.
Surely someone can check on this before I get home to look it up!
>
>Liberate yourselves and liberate your iris. Quit mulching
>and both you and your iris will benefit from it.
>In a nutshell after quite a number of years growing BI
>commercially in a variable climate, I can not come up with
>either logical or experiential reasons for mulching.
I couldn't agree more. Protection from freeze-thaw is needed only if
bearded irises are planted too late to become well-established and if
reliable snow cover is not expected.
Bill Shear
Department of Biology
Hampden-Sydney College
Hampden-Sydney VA 23943
(804)223-6172
FAX (804)223-6374
email<bills@hsc.edu>
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