Re: CULT: borer and mulch
- Subject: Re: CULT: borer and mulch
- From: J* B*
- Date: Tue, 3 Nov 1998 14:24:18 -0500
From: "John Bruce" <jbruce@infinet.com>
>John Montgomery wrote:
>But does it actually work? You mention 30 degree swings in
>temperature. It is going to take some pretty heavy duty
>mulch to maintain freezing temperatures.
Yes, it would take a heavy duty mulch to moderate temperature swings
that lasted for a week or two, but those quick-change temps that last a
day or two (where the frost heave happens) are handled by the mulch.
Does it work? Before I mulched, I had a good percentage of irises
that were out of the ground, standing on their roots, sometimes nearly 2
inches. I lost a lot of them when spring finally arrived. I have not changed
my soil preparation or planting times/techniques, but since I began mulching
a few years ago, I rarely lose an iris. The first year, I used hardwood mulch.
It was very labor intensive and expensive, not to mention having to pull it back
in the spring. I took a tip from a local grower and started using 3/4" of coarse,
washed builders' sand. It is cheap and does not have to be removed. I have
had no more iris on "stilts" since then. Last year, I lost 2 rhizomes out of 500.
These two were questionable when I planted them.
>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.
Another nice feature of the sand is that it helps to reduce weeds, and makes
those that do grow easier to pull. It also looks good.
Before anyone goes out and does this, I am only relating my experience in
my climate, and what has worked for me. If you want or need to mulch,
try it in a small area and see if you like it. Sand is cheap, but also a bit of
work to load and spread. My back still aches from the memory of 20 tons
of sand spread on the 6000+ irises planted this summer.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
John Bruce
jbruce@infinet.com
President, Miami Valley Iris Society
AIS Region 6 / SW OH Zone 5 / Sunset Zone 35
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
