Does anyone use moss instead of landscaping bark? I usually use wood chips or landscaping bark. Last night after I finished up planting trees I realized the Chief River bag had a bunch of what appeared to be moss in it. I spread it around my new trees & it seemed to work great.

From what I've read it seems like mulching should be done different around fruit trees than other trees

Moss is used to help retain moisture in a sapling container or ball & burlap arrangement.

Just don't volcano mulch trees

Corrrect. Good point. I spread a lot of mulch this weekend & was careful so as to do it properly

Mulch keeps the weeds down so the trees don't have to compete with weeds for water and nutrients

Mulch in all my trees, pine trees get a health pile of wood ash, got 12 inches of growth from all my small Pines this spring

The mulch also seems to help hold the water in place when I pour some water on a tree to irrigate it. It doesn't seem to have half of it run off.

I once put wet grass clipping around young dogwoods. Killed them when the grass soured..

I've heard the smell of cedar mulch can scare away pollinators.

Sawdust might work and it is free for those w/ access to it

Some use a small square sheet of what appears to basically be almost like landscape fabric.

Maybe they use something like this, but smaller.?:
VisPore Tree Mats 3’ x 3’ Bundle of 100 | eBay
https://www.ebay.com/itm/112129161569

If a tree is that noticeable, it might make it easier for deer to hone in on it though

I wouldn’t use tree bark mulch or any commercial mulch of that type. When “mulch”, if you want to call that stuff mulch, breaks down it draws nitrogen from the soil, as plant matter starts to breakdown it needs a boast of nitrogen to jump start the breaking down process. I have two actually mulch piles in the woods and 4 mulch tumblers in my garden. I will spread real broke doom mulch on my property late winter.

The only two trees I mulch with a purpose is two little pecan trees I planted last year. I have wire fence around them to keep the chickens out. We had landscaping with the barrier sheets and fake mulch, rocks and all of that. After taking free classes from LSU Ag and LDWF I decided to turn my land into a wildlife preserve, but still maintain a well manicured appearance. Grass now covers where fancy crap was, and my trees love it! Grass makes the best natural mulch for a yard.

Most grasses are nitrogen hogs and don't build soil. Much better plants for "live" mulching. For trees, or anything else really, you don't want fresh wood mulches. Aged is better, especially for trees as trees tend to like more fungal environment. Good compost needs both brown (carbon) and green(nitrogen) sources. Lot of the permiculturists do chop and drop around trees that is cutting whatever greens and dropping them under the trees.

Good Stuff

I was going to mulch my apple tree this fall with woodchips.
The thought was weed control.
Also I was hoping to hold back the spring thaw and budding until after last frost ?
Is this a feasible option ?

I've heard certain mulches, perhaps cedar, can have a fragrance that scares some pollinators away.

rotten hay works very good for me down here. It allows me to cut my watering time in half for newly planted trees.

Wood chips pull nitrogen out of the soil, so you will need to add nitrogen back.

Keith

It would be hard to know how much nitrogen to add back w/out adding too much.

I wonder if that might encourage mice though

That's why getting the soil tested is important. It will tell you what to add for what you are trying to grow.

Keith

When mulching around trees it’s important not to let the mulch touch the trunk. It can spread fungus and disease to the tree. Don’t use commercial mulches, most of them are ground up used pallets and you never know what kind of chemicals they may have been exposed to. The best mulch is the one nature designed the tree to provide for itself, leaf litter.

Will mulch hold off the spring budding any ?
I'm looking to make it thru a late frost.
It's the only tree left from the original farm orchard.
Farm was broken into subdivisions many yrs ago.
Angry Orchard type of tree.
Man are they good eating when I get any .

Yep. Donut mulch.

I wonder if moss or sawdust might be an alternative

Our company makes several hundred thousand yards of landscape mulch. Not one single pallet or stick of used lumber ever goes into the recipe. Yes mulch types have a recipe. We are certified playground mulch supplier. Playground mulch has it's own recipe. Our aged red pine shavings are ground fine for soil additives, used berry farms and orchards.

We have moles here so I mulched the trees with crushed stone several inches thick and the new trees have a plastic sheet out the drip line and the crushed stones on top of the plastic. Then a fence around them. Do you guys see a problem with that?......jk

Sounds like you may be causing it to be tough for h20 to reach the roots

The only wood mulch suitable for putting under trees is fully ages shredded hardwood mulch. The aging process eliminates the nitrogen robbing property.
You will only find it at reputable garden centers like what we have around here. You won't find it in a bag at a Big Box store.

So you buy it in bulk. ~Trouble is a lot of us only need a couple bags.

Our company makes several thousand cubic yards of landscape mulch daily. several colors and types including natural cedar. Our playground mulch is sampled, tested for and meets state standards for school playgrounds. We have never ever ground up pallets of any type.

Some places around here bag their aged mulch. Not many.

Almost all vegetation breakdown (rotting) in nature involves microorganisms "processing" cellulose fiber. You (we) need "one celled beasts" to chew up the mulch matter and convert it to a molecule that awaiting plants can use. Mulch doesn't really take or sap nitrogen from the soil. Nitrogen is the limiting element in/on landscapes for about every living plant. Phosphorous is the limiting element in water. Nitrogen is used as the elemental building block of Amino Acids which are the building blocks of Proteins which are the building blocks of both animal and plant CELLS (all life as we know it). Add Nitrogen, normal moisture and heat to your mulch and the "starving" microorganisms will take off & multiply and convert it to humus a lot quicker that if left alone.The micro's tie up any available N trying to "eat" all the cellulose in the bark, grass, chips, hay ect. you are using. Want to rot a stump in 1/2 the time it normally takes in your area? Add 1 cup of N fertilizer in the spring/early summer, every year to the stump and it will disintegrate in 1/2 the time it does naturally. Hope the trees do well for you. Remember (from Nebraska - The Tree Planter State) "You Never Plant A Tree For Yourself." Sorry for the soap box................................ the mike

The woods around here seem to contain plenty of nitrogen (I think, though I have not personally tested it, but I might)

While wood chips will draw nitrogen out of soil it mainly only happens when the chips are incorporated into the soil. Top dressing sawdust or chips has minimal effect that way.

Mature forests tend not to have nitrogen issues. Almost to the point of them having too much. New growth forests, especially after clear cutting and soil erosion might have issues.

Great thread

I prefer finer bark instead of large woodchips.

I wonder if mulch helps deter mice

I don't like the idea of landscape fabric or sheeting leaving plastic residue on my property

I live in apple country and while I have a good bunch of trees (100-plus) I am a small-timer here in NY apple country. I, too, have wanted to much the trees for weed control and mainly to keep my mower deck away from the trunk and my head and roll bar out of the limbs!

To the man, everyone advised me against introducing any foreign substance (mulch) to the trees, I think mainly because if a guy buys it, no idea what's in it where it came from etc.

I think if I made my own here or got it from a guy grinding stumps or something, it'd be fine. But haven't got the confidence to do it yet!

The Amish us "mulch" hay in their gardens and berries to keep weeds down and I will be doing that with my berries.......

Mulch hay (to them) are old round bales with no feed value that they'd use for bedding etc.

MZ

I have another order of diverse trees in transit from Chief River Nursery. Tonight I was at Hardware Hank. Anyone ever see/use this kind of mulch?:

Yesterday I received a tree order from Chief River Nursery. They had it bundled w/ a bunch of moss in the bag. I used the moss as mulch, which seemed to work good. It occured to me that commercial moss might be a good alternative-- perhaps even better than-- traditional bark mulch (for new trees)

What stores in Ohio carry your red pine shavings/mulch? I'm having trouble finding anything labeled red pine.

Whats the opinion on putting a layer of putting a layer of aged (at least a year and a half) leaf (primarily oak leaves that were collected and piled up) compost as a base layer, then adding wood mulch on top of the leaf mulch around fruit (apple, pear, peach and persimmon) chestnut, and pine trees?

I did put some oak leaves (not many) after planting. I figure it'll help keep the soil from drying out

I haven't had to think about mulching yet this year. The rainfall has been incredible this spring.

Know a couple of people who use it. They really like it. It works its way into the dirt better than other mulches and builds some really nice soil over time.

Plastic and rock under a tree works just fine. I do not recommend fabric. Don't ask me how, but water makes it thru the plastic just fine. I see it all the time where the soil under the plastic is moist but the rest of the yard is dry. Just make sure the plastic is cut back from the tree trunk a little bit. I have seen trees grow around the plastic. This creates a notch in the tree trunk. The most common problem I see with rock under trees is vinyl edging too close to the tree. If you use vinyl edging, it is a good idea to make the ring plenty wide or widen it as the tree grows. The tree roots hit the vinyl edging and begin to circle. If you put a 3' diameter ring around your tree and leave it, you may well end up with a mature tree supported by 3' of roots.

I don't worry too much about nitrogen deficiency with mulch. As has already been pointed out, it is not really an issue unless the mulch is mixed into the soil. In addition, grass sucks up lots of nitrogen. Grass competes heavily with trees for nutrients and is an invitation for string trimmer damage to the tree trunk.

The cocoa bean shells?

I mulch with mushroom soil around my apple and pear trees and it helps with holding water and builds the soil.Ever since I started using this stuff I get a lot more fruit.

Interesting. I don't know as mushroom soil is easy to find though