Mulch

carolintexas 5/11/2010, 3:31 am

I live in the Texas panhandle where our summers are very hot and it is always windy (today it blew hard all day with gusts 60-65 mph). I am sure I will want to mulch. Our city gives away mulch from the chipping site. I am just wondering if I would be bringing home termites or if that is anything to worry about.

miinva 5/11/2010, 10:26 am

I read in an article that wood mulch adds too much of one nutrient when it breaks down, unless it's pine mulch. I'm thinking the same thing about mulch and I've been experimenting with grass clippings on some of my potted plants. They seem to love it, but I'm worried about grass seeds. I read some articles online but they recommended some things like cotton burr (?) that I can't get around here. I thought about trying the red plastic under my tomatoes, but I don't like artificial things around my food so I'm resisting that urge so far. If I come up with anything I'll let you know, and hopefully someone else will share some great ideas! Smile

carolintexas 5/11/2010, 7:15 pm

Not much of a chance that there would be any pine. I live in the flat panhandle of Tx and the only trees here have been planted. Our founding fathers planted a lot of chinese elm so that's what it will mostly be. Thank you for replying. I guess I missed the news about tomatoes and something red...can anyone fill me in please? TIA

miinva 5/11/2010, 8:27 pm

Here's an interesting link from Texas A&M to the results of a tomato mulch study. Their results show that silver mulch works best. Surprising!

carolintexas 5/12/2010, 9:44 am

I couldn't find the link but I will see if I can come up with it. thanks for responding Smile

Jola 5/12/2010, 10:13 am

Thanks for the link. Although I'm in 5b, it was interesting to see that caged tomatoes yield the highest crop in Texas, and that all that red-plastic "mulch" craze is not important. I use aluminum foil to give my rose bush more sun, so I guess that silver plastic mulch was more "successful" than red on the same principle.

P.S. To go to the link click on the words "an interesting link".

aspiegardner 5/12/2010, 2:10 pm

Perfect solution for pine mulch.

Go to your local hardware store or a wood stove company you want to buy pine pellets.

They are the wood pellets sold for pellet stoves about 3.25-5 a bag.

I'm loving finding these and mulched the blueberries and the roses so far.

miinva 5/12/2010, 2:48 pm

I would double check there aren't any additives of any kind in the pine before using it, but if there aren't, that's a great idea!

aspiegardner 5/12/2010, 3:54 pm

It is 100% compressed pine pellet.

miinva 5/12/2010, 4:30 pm

That's awesome! There's a sawmill not too far away from us who will sell sawdust by the pickup load or even by the feed bag, as long as I bag it myself. There's no guarantee what kind you get at times, but other times they're only cutting one kind of wood so I know what I get Smile

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