|
| I've recently watched the Back to Eden Garden movie and am eager to give it a try. I've read little bits here and there that palm and eucalyptus wood chippings are bad for mulching, but have yet to get any clues as to why this is so. Does anyone know why those woods are bad for mulching? |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by gardengal48 PNW zone 8 (My Page) on Fri, Oct 26, 12 at 17:08
| Both products make very good and rather long lasting mulches. You will see some comments about eucalyptus having allelopathic properties but that simply has not been verified to have any significant impact with mulching. The bulk of a euc's allelopathy is contained in the foliage, not in the wood. As far as I have read, the only issue with palm mulch - and I assume you mean palm frond mulch - is that the fronds can be very fiberous and difficult to shred. But otherwise, it is highly rated. Doesn't wash or blow away easily and scores several points above pine straw. FWIW, any organic mulch is better than no mulch at all and IMO at least, also better than most non-organic mulches. |
|
- Posted by lazygardens PhxAZ%3A Sunset 13 (My Page) on Sat, Oct 27, 12 at 12:27
| Palm trunk mulch is a lot like soggy shredded cardboard, but it's a mulch. It's a very soft tree. Unless you have a really great chipper-shredder, the fronds are too tough to shred. The strings wrap around the blades and it strangles. Eucalyptus? I've used lots of it as a mulch and had no problems. |
|
| mulch is mulch it all breaks down, i've used both over time, we had a shredder that was designed to do fibrous material as well as regular material. gum's will in hard times prevent other competing trees from growing near them by laying lots of leaves probably higher acid content at the time, this is why many say they can't be used, but they are confusing the trees survival instinct with normal times, they won't prevent grasses and woody weeds, in our case on our past property there was quiet an eco' system of good grass etc.,. contained within the drip lines of the gum trees. there are 2 zones one inside the drip line and one outside, outside they have no control over, all to do with protecting nutrients for the feeder roots, they get their water from teh sub-aquafa. our new gardens have gum tree(eucalyptus) branches in them in a hugelkultur method. len |
Here is a link that might be useful: lens garden page
|
| Several research trials have been looked at using eucalyptus mulch in gardens and landscapes. No problem at all. |
|
- Posted by darthtrader 10 SoCal (My Page) on Sun, Oct 28, 12 at 0:15
| Thanks for all the responses, all! Living in SoCal, it's pretty hard to avoid either of those when getting it free. Wanted to make sure it was okay to use. |
Please Note: Only registered members are able to post messages to this forum. If you are a member, please log in. If you aren't yet a member, join now!
Return to the Organic Gardening Forum
Instructions
- You must be a registered member and logged in to post messages on our forums.
- Posting is a two-step process. Once you have composed your message, you will be taken to the preview page. You will then have a chance to review the contents and make changes.
- After posting your message, you may need to refresh the forum page in order to see it.
- It is illegal to post copyrighted material without the owner's consent.
- HTML codes are allowed in the message field only.
- No advertising is allowed in any of the forums.
- If you would like to practice posting or uploading photos, please visit our Test forum.
- If you need assistance, please Contact Us and we will be happy to help.