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| I know that the commonly advised practice regarding mulch is to keep it over the drip line of a rose but not over the crown, graft point, or canes.
Would you change that practice in an extreme drought, and move the mulch right up to the canes? Our soil is getting compacted to the point where it's breaking water pipes. I mentioned last week that we were having some plumbing done, and with our recent heat wave, plumbers and electricians (specifically HVAC workers) have been booked to the max and losing their minds. The plumber said that they have been working nonstop on digging up broken pipes, digging new trenches, and putting in new pipe. The heat is turning the ground to concrete and compaction in the soil is rupturing plumbing. I freaked out a month ago when I saw what the soil was doing around the grafts & canes of each rose. It looked like I had planted all of our roses in cracks in concrete, and I feared that with our high winds, 95+ heat for weeks, and lack of rain that the canes would get sawed off at the ground level by rubbing against "sharp dirt". It sounds ridiculous until you cut your foot on a piece of dirt or hear that it's rupturing plumbing. So....thoughts? Is it reasonable under these cirucumstances to pull the mulch in closer to the canes, or will it destroy the roses no matter how dry the soil is? |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Hi Flaura, isn't this drought miserable? The creeks are even going dry up here. I've never understood the practice of not mulching around the crown. As far as the graft, mine are buried 6" below the ground, so that's a moot subject. All my roses have a healthy hardwood mulch covering, and it's serves the dual purposes of both winter protection and moisture-loss barrier. The roses still send up new basals through the mulch, doesn't promote canker, and the wood breaks down and makes the clay more friable. I've been gardening this way for 20+ years here, but you've seen my gardens. I say cool off that hot soil and put down some mulch! |
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| If you are going to mulch to retain moisture, make sure you put down at least 2-3 inches of mulch--maybe even more. A lot of gardens I see, the mulch is thinly scattered--1/2 inch to 1 inch at most--most for looks. In Kansas, at least, we need more mulch than that if we are serious about discouraging weeds and retaining moisture. I guess I would just avoid piling up mulch at the base of the canes. I usually start tapering off about 1 inch from the base of the canes. Don't know if that is necessary or not--it's just what I've always done. Kate |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Wed, Jul 11, 12 at 12:26
| Terry, this drought is a nightmare. Our creeks are now just long, ugly ditches. Our lake is way down & many of the boaters say they can't get their boats out of their docks; Lake Decatur is less than 4 feet deep in many of the coves where people congregate. Most of my grafts are buried as well, and I had 2 to 3 inches of wood chips down from last year. In late May or early June I added shredded leaves that I'd composted over the past winter, and they're jammed in all the way to the canes now. I haven't noticed any damage and the ground is back to being soft around the roses now. Some of the lower leaves are turning yellow, but that's normal at this point & the tiny, bottom branches with the yellow leaves weren't blooming anyway. I appear to be having a minor issue with a stubborn rabbit, but I think I can eradicate that problem with some stragically placed prunings under the leaf mulch. I have about 5 inches of mulch now in all the rose beds. Good grief, I never thought it would need to be that thick, but in the other beds with other perennials, where the mulch isn't as deep, things are looking sad and miserable. |
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| Flaurabunda, it seems as though for climates such as yours, where you need to bury the bud unions, and particularly with the outrageous evaporation and water stress issues you are currently suffering, mulching around the crowns of the plants may well be advisable. I'm wondering if this, too, is rather climate specific? In most of our climates, we don't get the severity of cold you experience, so pathogens are active much of the year, particularly so when we experience our "wet season". Perhaps "wetter season" is more accurate? Here, wet organic material in too close, continuous contact with bud unions and canes frequently leads to canker. Burying them frequently eliminates new basal growth, rapidly leading to very old, "played-out" canes and unproductive, rapidly declining plants. What is appropriate in a climate where soil borne diseases are mainly kept in check by lack of moisture instead of cold, may well not be appropriate for environments where conditions and specific pathogens are vastly different. It does seem, from your description, moving your mulch to around the base of the plants, where they can benefit from the moisture preservation may be advisable. Many of our soils don't respond the way you're describing. I think I would move it to maintain your water. Kim |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Wed, Jul 11, 12 at 15:21
| I have noticed absolutely zero effect (positive OR negative) on basal breaks. Those that do it are still doing it, and those that never do it...still ain't. Things are upside down & backwards also, as far as normal disease conditions. Humidity generally is high during the day; like, oppressively high, around the 60 to 70% mark. It's been under 50% and often under 40% while the sun is up. At night, though, it skyrockets into 75 - 85%. This normally would be a disaster for us, but with high temps and dry days with lots of wind, I just don't think conditions warrant fungal infections right now. That could be why I see nothing negative right now with the mulch up to the ladies' petticoats. If it were a normal year, I'd have the wood chips up to the canes but not a fluffy, dense mulch like (sometimes) wet leaves. |
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| I've always maintained the mulch right up to the canes. I think the reported problems might be from winter protection in wet, freeze-and-thaw winters where you cover bark that isn't used to staying wet all the time. A different kind of bark seems to develop when canes are buried permanently. |
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- Posted by kstrong 10 So Cal (kathystrong@gmail.com) on Wed, Jul 11, 12 at 16:25
| I killed some roses with too much mulch around the canes a few years back. I couldn't for the life of me figure out what was going on as the roses slowly turned crispy. After I pulled back the mulch to remove them, I suddenly understood. The mulch (which had a layer of nitrogen rich alfalfa meal under it) had cooked the cambium layer of the plants for the whole 4 inches where the mulch was up against the base of the canes -- the mulch was too fresh compost (i.e. still cooking) and I'm sure the nitrogen-rich material under it just added fuel to the fire. So I lost about half a dozen roses this way. I learned my lesson the hard way. Never again. No hot compost against the canes. Ever, ever, ever. |
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- Posted by floridarosez9 10 (My Page) on Wed, Jul 11, 12 at 17:47
| I mulch right up to the canes. Too hot compost can kill a rose whether you put it up to the canes or not. Ask me how I know. |
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| I agree 100% with terryjean's comments. This is assuming it's mulch (shredded pine bark, for instance), not compost/manure. IMHO, those are different things. |
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- Posted by burntplants 8/9TX (My Page) on Sat, Jul 14, 12 at 22:05
| Rose gardening in hot concrete? I may be able to offer some advice (in Houston we've just come out of a multi-year drought, and mostly have clay soil--the heat goes without saying!) 1) Use 2-3 inches of shredded wood mulch right up to the canes. (nuggets & bark don't insulate as well, and compost burns) 2) Bury a soaker hose under the mulch & turn it on a low dribble a couple times a week in the *evening* to cool down the soil and keep it moist. |
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- Posted by flaurabunda 6a, Central IL (My Page) on Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 10:44
| Currently I have exactly that--2 or 3 inches of shredded wood mulch up to the canes. I added the shredded leaves on top of that about a month ago as our soil was still baking with only the wood chips. Honestly I added the leaves because they are softer to walk on & I was tired of getting wood chips stuck in my sandals. We added a soaker attachment to the garden hose and it has been doing a much better job of putting out the desired quantity & direction of flow. |
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