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Re: Newspaper Mulch

I  have been using longitudinally shredded office paper (all  kinds, mixed)
in the garden for five years.  It works well as a moisture-retention mulch,
as a weed-control mulch, and as a keep-the-fruit-off-the-soil mulch.  

However, nesting birds, particularly robins, love it, and you will find
shredded paper in bird nest's around your neighborhood.  It's not
especially attractive, and your neighbors may complain.  

The shredded paper does not blow around.  At least not after the first
rain.  

Shredded paper tills into the soil at the end of season reasonably well. 
How well depends on how deeply it has been applied, and how much rain has
occurred during the season.  If you apply a foot, and it stays fluffy
because of lack of rain, it will wrap around the tiller tines pretty well. 
But if there is a lot of plant material to till in, the paper shreds pretty
well.  If the paper has formed a mat, it will till in without difficulty. 
You could always wait until spring to do the tilling.  

Shredded paper is not terribly attractive for use directly in the garden.

Shredded paper had almost no nutritive value.  It is a carbon source, but
cellulose is slow to decompose.  Think of it like sawdust in the compost
pile.  

Mylar coated paper shreds well but lasts forever.  The good news is that
crows and jays like it, and will take it away for you.  But your neighbors
may complain.

This season, we have switched to a two-way shredder so that I now have bags
of confetti, rather than bags of 1/4" paper strips.  I suspect that these
will work better as a mulch all around, and will work into the soil easier.
  

Jack and MaryEllen, I have a source for shredded paper.  Using it as mulch
keeps it out of the landfill.  I am not sure that it would not be
worthwhile to shred paper just for the mulch.  But it does work
effectively.

Are there bad things in the paper that is shredded?  I do not think so.  I
manage a laboratory that conducted the analytical work for a university
study that looked at what happened when you use shredded mixed newsprint
(including the colored Sunday sections) as animal bedding.  We examined the
paper, the waste, the animal products (milk, meat), and samples of the
living animal's blood.  This was a study which compared paper-bedded
animals vs standard (hay, straw) bedded animals.  There was no difference
between the two, for any of the parameters measured.  And we looked for
anything and everything.  This was 5 to 8 years ago, when the use of
shredded paper as animal bedding in the Northeast was increasing
dramatically.   

At that point, I decided to use shredded paper mulch routinely.  

Rick Grazzini
central PA
USDA 6a
----------
> From: Jack Allen <Tippy@cyberenet.net>
> To: veggie-list@eskimo.com
> Subject: Re: Newspaper Mulch
> Date: Friday, May 02, 1997 8:49 PM
> 
> mbroome@freya.berry.edu wrote:
> > 
> > When mulching with shredded newspaper, do you have to avoid the color
> > circulars and use just the black and white parts?
> > 
> > Also, can you mulch with any shredded paper? ie. shredded computer
> > green bar paper
> > 
> > Mary Ellen Broome
> > Database Manager
> > Development Services
> > Berry College
> > Rome, Georgia
> could someone explain the entire mulching process using newspaper? I've
> heard conflicting directions.  I am mostly interested in the question of
> shredding.      
> 
>                    Thanks
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