Post date: May 17, 2020 12:06:27 PM
Uma Sashikanth
Mulching notes:
It is now the blazing summer and the plants are in their vigorous growth phase.
The primary need in the heat is moisture conservation. The roots will get baked and growth can stall if the feet of the plant is too warm. Mulching is the prime activity for the season. Here are some notes:
1. Your soil can hold an amazing amount of moisture. When you mulch you prevent that from evaporating in the sun or drying out in the wind. To mulch is to cover the precious top soil.
2. When you mulch, your watering needs drop dramatically. Watering once a week, deeply to deliver about an inch of water is adequate. The mulch will ensure that the moisture is preserved.
3. You have a choice of mulches: pine straw, hay, dried crushed leaves, saw dust, wood shavings, wood chips, store bought mulch. Love mulch in the form of goround covers, squashes is also great. Anything is good. Just remember that dry mulches are browns and will compete with your plant for nitrogen as they decompose.
4. If you used a softer, easy decomposing mulch like straw, dry leaves or saw dust, your plants will do fine as these decompose easily. If you covered your grow beds with wood chips, you will find serious stalling in growth of your young plants.
5. You must also mulch your walkways. And the areas around your bed. Wood chips are great for this purpose. The borders and demarcations are for you, not the soil. Rain water enters and stays under these chips and your plants will send roots out to get that water.
6. Your wood chip filled pathways also provide plumes for rain water to seep in. About 2 feet on either side of the path, capillary action would work to send water, feeding right into your beds.
7. Avoid the main stems of plants and trees when you mulch. Decomposing matter can make incisions on stems causing diseases. Mulch around the plant.
8. About 2 inches of mulch on the beds and 4 inches on the paths is ideal. You will need no watering with such a set up, if there is one good rain once in 7 to 10 days.
9. Store bought mulch is treated. It won’t decompose easily. Nor does it have food for the soil. Same is true of stones and pebbles. Natural mulches will enrich your soil.
10. If you mulch in summer, by the time it is fall, the useful nematode population in the soil would have increased. These are your soldiers killing off all the pest eggs that insects lay on your beds. To have an insect free next spring, you need a mulched summer garden.
Go ahead and wrap your garden in mulched goodness. When we begin transplanting winter crops in October, the soil would have turned fantastic.
Two points I failed to add:
11. Most beneficial soil organisms work in the dark. When you mulch you protect them from dying in the summer light and the soil thrives.
12. In permaculture we have the idea of edge. Life thrives on the edges. When you scrape or dig through mulched surfaces, you will suddenly hit the edge between wood and soil and that is where you will see the thriving earthworms. Create those edges between soil and mulch and benefit from them.
Without mulch you will have washed up, dried and caked top soil. Plants can’t grown in this soil. Cover it up and help it come back to life - dark, soft, crumble and moist.
End of Gyan.