|
| I have used for years, this type of product over the compost in my flower beds including my roses. I read some negative comments about this but no reason was given. Any thoughts on using Western Bark Nuggets (from Lowe's) over a 1-2" layer of mulch in the rose beds? Is it helpful or detrimental? Positive or negative?
Thanks Lee |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by kittymoonbeam (My Page) on Mon, Mar 5, 12 at 23:54
| I heard that they might use up Nitrogen when they break down but you can always add in some if you wanted to. There's a place called Aguinagua near me on Construction Circle near Jamboree Road X 5 FWY. in Orange County that makes a mulch that looks like this and a few other wood style mulches that have nitrogen and other goodies mixed in so nothing is lost. They will drive it out to you or you can pick it up yourself. They also sell different amendments to fix up your soil any way you like. A fun place to visit. The bark is pretty. If you buy it in bulk it saves plastic bags going to the landfills. |
|
| FWW, We've used it for years, wh no apparant problems. Jeri |
|
| Thanks Kitty for the nitrogen explanation and the OC reference for mulch. I may mosey down there sometime and see what they have. That bagged mulch adds up. Even though we recycle everything we can, I always hate to see all the packaging that gets discarded. Jeri, that's been our experience too. Never saw any harm and the rose beds don't dry out as fast and stay cleaner too. Lee |
|
| Lee, my major issues with "nuggets" are if anything runs though the beds, such as dogs, they're more easily knocked out of the beds than a shredded material. If your beds or other planting areas are on any kind of slope, they're not as stable as shredded. Otherwise, it's personal preference. Kim |
|
| I have been thinking about this subject too lately, but I am in a very different climate. If you have healthy roses and they grow and flower well I would not worry about bark topping. However, in my area where the summers are cool and wet I get a lot more trouble with fungus diseases like blackspot, and the beds where I have used bark mulch plants have been very unhappy. The year I removed the layer of bark mulch everything improved rather quickly. Now I never use dense mulch of anykind anymore and horror of horror is the fibre cloth that are meant to prevent weeds. Plants sulk, and under the fibre cloth are not a sigle earth worm to be found. |
|
- Posted by mike_rivers z5 MI (My Page) on Tue, Mar 6, 12 at 9:49
| Concerning the depletion of soil nitrogen with wood mulches: if you mix quantities of a finely-divided, low-nitrogen material, such as sawdust, down into the soil, the soil bacteria population can explode and the result can be a total depletion of the soil nitrogen. I suspect most of us add enough nitrogen to counterbalance this effect, and, at any rate, the nitrogen isn't actually lost, it just isn't available to plants until the sawdust is gone and the soil bacteria population returns to normal and the nitrogen in the deceased bacteria gets returned to the soil. My main point is that this really doesn't describe the situation with wood or bark mulches very well. These mulches are not finely-divided and they are mostly just on the surface of the soil. Attack by soil bacteria will be slow, bacterial populations down in the soil will not be affected and I would think the supply of nitrogen to a rose would be unaltered. |
|
| Almost any kind of undecayed organic material (shredded lawn waste, wood chips, leaves, bark) is good for mulch. In my experience. the cheaper bark product (less uniform, containing fines), acts faster to improve the soil than the more expensive nuggets. But the difference among various products is insignificant. Use something cheap and local to minimize the environmental impact. Regarding "nitrogen robbing" and "harboring fungus": In a natural environment such as woods or prairie. there is always a layer of undecayed organic matter at the soil surface. In other words, nature wants a mulch. The lower part of this layer is always decaying. In other words, nature wants active fungi and bacteria. Where active decay is occurring, there is always some temporary withdrawal of nitrogen within that layer--it is taken into the bodies of bacteria. This is good; it helps to discourage weed growth at the soil surface. It does not affect the root zone a few inches down. When the decay process in that layer is complete, the nitrogen will be released and will be taken up by plants. Meanwhile a new layer of mulch above is beginning to decay. "Nitrogen robbing" becomes a problem if fallen leaves, immature compost, or sawdust are tilled into the soil so they are decaying in the root zone rather than at the surface. In this case, one should add nitrogen fertilizer to compensate. Decay processes in the mulch have no effect on black spot or other rose diseases. The decay organisms are not disease organisms. However, if you cover infected, fallen rose leaves with fresh mulch, it would probably help a little. Don't pile mulch deep around the rose canes, as the dampness could encourage canker. If you are growing delphinium, parsley, or other plants susceptible to crown rot. then maybe you want to keep mulch well away from them, But roses don't get crown rot. |
|
- Posted by ken-n.ga.mts (My Page) on Tue, Mar 6, 12 at 11:50
| I've been using pine bark nuggets over oak leafs for years. My soil loves it (tons of earth worms) and happy soil makes my roses happy. |
|
| Above, sorry to repeat what mike_rivers said so well--it was a cross-post I hadn't seen. |
|
- Posted by aklinda 7 (lindanewland@myway.com) on Tue, Mar 6, 12 at 13:19
| I live in a hot, dry, windy climate - New Mexico - and I use bark mulch on my roses to conserve moisture. Every year I rake off the bark mulch, add compost or leaves or something of that nature and then replace the bark. I usually use about 4 inches of mulch. I use the largest size of bark because the high winds in this area blow anything lighter away. The areas of my garden where I've mulched show much improvement in the hard clay soil. It's dark and much easier to dig in than the unmulched areas and it's crawling with earthworms. In my circumstance the bark mulch is a good thing. |
|
| Thanks to everyone for their replies! Guess I'll keep using bark as usual.... Lee |
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 Roses 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.