|
| Quick root question on a few tulip poplars I have in the yard.
The trees are 20 feet tall trees doing fairly well in our clay fill slightly alkaline soil. I am now into the end of the second year that I switching from using standard hardwood shredded mulch to now using shredded leaves... which is mainly leaf mold. I have been putting down 3-4 inches twice a year. It of course quickly breaks down. The trees seem to have been doing much better, withstanding drought each year much better then with the hardwood mulch. So just yesterday my 4year old dug up a shallow scoop under the tree drip line into the just the top few inches of what i would still say is mulch at this point.. and not soil... and it was full of the small feeder roots meshed together. holding it all together in the clump. I did a few other tests and dug a few other spots and found the same thing. Is using the leaf mold giving the tree an "easy" rooting area vs having to dig through the hard clay fill? Would this cause more damage in the long term? |
Follow-Up Postings:
|
- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 15:32
| more damage to what??? i doubt the type of mulch changed anything ... tree put their roots where it is advantageous to the tree itself ... ken ps: roots dont dig .. lol ... |
|
- Posted by nevermore44 6b (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 16:08
| :-) well i know they don't dig.. unless you threaten them with salt... err maybe leave a bit of stringer line on there pillow....... and then provide a good army shovel. It's was just odd to me that they are growing in such a different way vs hardwood mulch. And by damage... meaning.. enabling them to just grow a majority of their roots in the "mulch" versus grow into the clay below... and thereby making them "babied" trees. Just wondering what would happen if i changed from using leaves later... or couldn't apply as much? There are so many of these fibrous roots that if i let the leaf mulch decompose completely without adding on a new layer later, a good amount would be completely exposed to the elements. Similar to adding good happy fancy dirt into a tree's planting hole (instead of back filling with native soil)... knowing that eventually the tree will have to face the music and grow in the native soil. |
|
| Under humid conditions inside a stand of trees some small roots may even pop out of the litter layer, like jumping fish. Does not mean that the vast majority of the roots aren't deeper down. Another aspect is that most roots are near the soil surface, where the air is. That bit about soaking the soil heavily and then letting it go quite dry, to "force" the small roots down deeper into the ground, so they will be less vulnerable to drought ignores the fact that most small roots are in the upper part of the soil, regardless of moisture conditions, because they need the air that is in the upper layer of soil. Probably most of the time all a flooding-and-drying watering regime does is stress the tree, by maybe drowning some of the small roots one time and drying them up the next. Same as when you try to force trees to behave or live differently from how they are in other ways. |
|
- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 18:08
| I'd say never worry anymore, evermore. While we tend to think of roots as these permanent structures, in reality, the fine feeder roots come and go constantly during periods of growth. The tree's not going to get itself in trouble by colonizing (Temporarily) some nice aerified stuff. Nor is there reason to think that the growth of these roots is somehow lessening the growth of other hidden roots. +oM |
|
- Posted by ken_adrian z5 (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 18:56
| i have seen roots grow into deeper wood mulch.. provided the mulch remain undisturbed.. and MOIST ENOUGH ... ken |
|
- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Tue, Oct 9, 12 at 21:43
| Oh heck yeah. We heal bare root stock into chips. Those straggler trees that remain for a spell form tons of roots in that stuff. +oM |
|
- Posted by nevermore44 6b (My Page) on Wed, Oct 10, 12 at 13:20
| Thanks for all the info. I suppose since the leaf mulch stays damp longer then the prior wood mulch, the roots are moving in.. which i just haven't seen before. |
|
| If the leaves mat down there will probably be less aeration than with the undecomposed wood chips. Below the surface of the chips it should be plenty moist, unless the layer is shallow. |
|
- Posted by wisconsitom 4/5 WI (My Page) on Wed, Oct 10, 12 at 14:49
| All such things are in flux. That load of new, white woodchips will soon oxidize and then begin decomposing, turning a darker color with each step. For a while, degree of airification may decrease (Depending on chip type, moisture, etc.) but still later, as the material becomes more fully decomposed, airification may increase. There's no absolutes in such matters, nevermore, but the good news is you're already on your way to developing that hard to quantify set of skills that allow you to notice the differences and to then make predicitions based on what you've seen before. What you'll ultimately come to realize is that most organic matter sources end up doing pretty much the same thing, but that the speed and duration of the varying steps and stages along the way varies. Sometimes I mulch with big, fresh woodchips because I want them to last longer. Other times I will use old half-decomposed stuff because I want a quicker improvement of the top layer of soil. Neither version is wrong, the goals just differ. And in the end, they will both give roughly the same results! +oM |
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 Trees 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.