Mulching

“ Three methods for this purpose are usually practiced, viz., shading, mulching, and the maintenance of loose tilth in the surface soil to such depth as may be required by the climatic conditions.
As to mulching, it is already well recognized in the alkali regions of California as an effective remedy in light cases. Fruit trees are frequently thus protected, particularly while young, after which their shade alone may (as in the case of low-trained orange trees) suffice to prevent injury. The same often happens in the case of low-trained vines, small-fruit, and vegetables. ”

“ Almost anything that will fulfill these indications will answer—either stones, chips, boards, twigs, saw-dust, tan-bark, weeds, straw, either long or cut, coarse manure, hay, freshly-cut grass, or, perhaps the very best for all the purposes of mulching, leaves themselves, except that they are difficult to retain in their place. A combination of leaves and twigs, small branches or weeds, may be made to answer a very good purpose, for winter mulching especially. ”

“ A mulch of dry hay, grass clippings, leaves, and the like will also retard rapid surface evaporation. Gardeners think mulching prevents moisture loss better than bare earth because under mulch the soil stays damp right to the surface. However, dig down 4 to 6 inches under a dust mulch and the earth is just as damp as under hay. And, soil moisture studies have proved that overall moisture loss using vegetation mulch slightly exceeds loss under a dust mulch. ”

“ The chief advantage of the mulch, however, is in the preservation of moisture. When it is given freely, all the fruit perfects, and in a much longer succession. The weeds and suckers are kept down, and the patch has a neat appearance. Moreover, mulching prevents the foliage from burning, and enables the gardener to grow successfully the finer varieties further to the south and on light soils. In keeping down the weeds through the long summer, a mulch of leaves, straw, or any coarse litter, is often far less costly than would be the labor required. ”

“ The mulching must receive the credit for much of this thrift, for it protected the soil from the rays of the sun and invited the deep moisture to rise toward the surface. Few people realize the amount of water that enters into the daily consumption of a tree. It is said that the four acres of leaf surface of a large elm will transpire or yield to evaporation eight tons of water in a day, and that it takes more than five hundred tons of water to produce one ton of hay, wheat, oats, or other crop. ”

“ If the soil immediately about the plants is covered when dry, the mulch may keep it dry—to the great detriment of the forming berries. It is usually best to put on the mulch as soon as the early cultivation is over in April, and then the bed may be left till the fruit is picked. Of course it may be necessary to pull out some rank-growing weeds from time to time. If the hired man is left to do the mulching very late in the season, he will probably cover much of the green fruit and blossoms as well as the ground. ”

“ All straw, corn stalks, old weeds or stubble, forest leaves, seaweeds, old wood, sawdust, old tanbark, chips, &c., are good for mulching. Any tree taken up and planted with reasonable care, and well mulched and watered, will live. One of fifty need not die. Cover the loose earth deep enough to prevent the springing of weeds. Put a little earth on the outer edge of the manure, leaving it dishing about the tree. Fill that occasionally with water, and you will get a good growth, even in a dry season. ”

“ But, if the impracticability of early mulching is a serious drawback to the use of mulches, so is the impracticability of midsummer cultivation under farm conditions a serious objection to dependence upon cultivation alone. ”

“ Mulching.—In muck soils it will not be found necessary to mulch the ground around the plants after setting, but some kind of a covering is desirable on sandy and clay soils. As soon as the plants are in position and before any water is applied, cover the ground for a distance of 8 or 10 inches on either side with any finely divided material that will shade the top of the soil and prevent a crust being formed after watering; half-rotted manure is preferable for this, as it aids the growth by its fertilizing qualities. ”

“ Mulching the newly-planted trees is a very valuable application, whether in summer or winter, and should be practiced wherever it is possible, always remembering that we can not well combine with it culture, which, for the summer treatment, is most essential to the successful growth of trees, and in winter we shall present a harbor to the mice if the mulch be placed too near the tree. ”

“ The banking and mulching may be combined with advantage, and with less danger from the mice, which only work under cover and are often more injurious upon older trees, surrounded with grass and weeds in neglected orchards, than upon those newly planted and mulched, if a little care has been taken to remove the straw or tramp it down near the stem. ”

“ Cultivation.—Currant-bushes should be set four feet apart each way, and the whole ground thoroughly mulched; it keeps down all weeds and grass, saving all further labor in cultivation, and greatly increases the size and quantity of the fruit. On nothing does mulching pay better. ”

“ Fortunately, for us, however, in some kinds the trees themselves provide us shade for the ground, when they are properly trained and closely planted, which will prevent the intrusion of weeds and grasses, and the falling leaves and spray will also yield a mulching of no mean value. ”

“ When the mulch was applied early in the season before the ground became thoroughly wet, it often had a retarding effect on the growth of the vegetables. With early spring vegetables, like lettuce, which require only a few cultivations, it was found cheaper and better to cultivate than to mulch; but with longer-growing crops that require frequent cultivation throughout the season, such as cabbage, tomatoes, etc., mulching usually proved more effective and cheaper than cultivation. ”

“ All weeds that have lived thru the winter should be pulled as soon as frost is out of ground. They can be pulled easier then than any other time and more certain of getting the weed root out. Mulching should be looked to. When coarse material like straw or leaves has been used, it should be loosened up so air can get to the soil and the plants can come up thru the mulch. If very heavy, perhaps a portion of the mulch may need to be removed, but don't! don't! take mulch all off from beds of set roots. Seed beds sown last fall will need to be removed about time plants are starting up. ”

“ Mulching the young orchard has some advantages over cultivation, but except in the proximity of the salt-marshes of the East, or near the great straw piles on the vast grain fields of the Western prairies, it is almost impossible to procure mulching materials for extensive orchards ”

“ Mulching, even of an old and apparently exhausted orchard, has been found to exercise a most happy effect upon its health and productiveness. Such a one growing upon a tenacious clay, which had ceased to yield any crops for years, was restored to abundant fruitfulness by covering the ground with a couple of inches of spent bark from an adjoining tannery, and similar effects have been produced by the application of straw, and of the bagasse from sorghum, where those materials could be procured ”

“ Tread down the soil well to make it firm, and thus induce the rose-trees to make fresh roots. In planting out climbers, carefully tack all loose shoots to the wall or fence behind it, else the wind may do much harm. When all is finished give a good mulching of strawy manure, which should be dug in when March comes; and if there is a likelihood of frost, protect the branches with bracken or any light covering. ”

“ Mulching, and the protection of recently planted trees by wrapping their trunks, are preventives of some damage, but can not stand up forever against the longer and longer periods of drouth now being reported, during which the water table is gradually being lowered beyond the reach of tree roots. ”

“ It may readily however, be carried to excess, in preventing not only evaporation but also the warming of the soil which is so needful to the thrifty growth of plants. It must not therefore be done too early in the season; and after cold rains it sometimes becomes necessary to remove the mulch in order to allow the ground to become properly warmed. Mulching in early spring is often used to retard blooming of trees where spring frosts are feared.
In the arid region, sanding of the surface is sometimes resorted to for the prevention of the evaporation which brings alkali salts to the surface. ”

“ Mulching with any available, airy material—buckwheat hulls or crushed sugar cane, for example—will help keep soil moist and will also discourage germination of weed seeds, thereby saving you a bit of work.
Fertilizing
Most miniature plants don’t like or need a heavy diet. A light top-dressing of balanced fertilizer, in early spring, is usually enough to nourish them without forcing soft and straggly growth. Reluctant bloomers may need a small ration of superphosphate or a booster drink of liquid-manure “tea” as flowering time approaches. ”

“ The removal of grass from the orchard as hay is poor practice and should be discouraged. The grass mulch may well be supplemented by the addition of other grass, straw, leaves, coarse manure, or other similar materials. Sometimes this mulch is put on to the depth of six inches or even a foot around the tree. Thus practiced it is very effective in conserving moisture and in adding the humus which is so necessary to the soil.
Sod and tillage have somewhat different effects on the tree and on the fruit. ”

“ As the earth is thrown gently through and over the roots it should be packed lightly against them with the foot, and water, should the season be rather dry and warm, poured in from time to time to settle the fine soil about them. The surface should be levelled at last with a slight dip toward the tree, so that spring and summer rains may be retained directly about the roots. Then a mulch of coarse manure is helpful, for it keeps the surface moist, and its richness will reach the roots gradually in a diluted form. A mulch of straw, leaves, or coarse hay is better than none at all. ”

“ Rake the mulch away from the plants that were given protection in fall as soon as the weather gets warm enough to start them to growing. Or it can be dug into the soil about them to act as a fertilizer. Get it out of sight, for it always gives the garden an untidy effect if left about the plants.
Go over the border plants and uproot all grass that has secured a foothold there. A space of a foot should be left about all shrubs and perennials in which nothing should be allowed to grow. ”

“ Laying down a fairly thin mulch in June after the soil has warmed up well, raking up what remains of the mulch early the next spring, and composting it prevents destructive insect population levels from developing while simultaneously reducing surface compaction by winter rains and beneficially enhancing the survival and multiplication of earthworms. But a thin mulch also enhances the summer germination of weed seeds without being thick enough to suppress their emergence. And any mulch, even a thin one, makes hoeing virtually impossible, while hand weeding through mulch is tedious. ”

“ When the bushes are young, not covering the ground, other crops are grown between the rows, but as the bushes attain their full size, standing after trimming, waist to breast high, the ground between is usually thickly covered with straw, leaves or grass and weeds from the hill lands, which serve as a mulch, as a fertilizer, as a means of preventing washing on the hillsides, and to force the rain to enter the soil uniformly where it falls. ”

“ It would require a very severe drought, indeed, to injure plants thus treated, and it is well known, also, that a porous, mellow soil will best endure too frequent rains. I have sometimes thought that light and air are as indispensable to the roots of plants as to the foliage.
The winter mulch need not prevent this spring culture. Let the men begin on one side of a field, and rake inward until half a dozen rows are uncovered. Down through these the subsoil plow and the cultivator can pass. ”

“ Organic matter in the form of stable manure or cover crops will be needed, and must be applied in the fall or very early in the spring to keep up the supply of humus in the soil.
Stony land that cannot be plowed or cultivated except at a great cost may be made to grow good crops of fruit.
While the trees are young, the soil should be worked about them for the space of a few feet and then the moisture retained by a mulch system, making use of any waste organic matter like straw, leaves, meadow hay, brush, and weeds cut before they seed. ”

“ Marsh hay makes an ideal mulch, but where it cannot be secured, straw will answer. Corn fodder makes a clean but rather coarse mulch, and where they can be held in place by some other material, forest leaves do well as a mulch between the rows. In the spring the straw should be removed from over the plants and allowed to remain between the rows as a mulch, or all of it may be removed and the soil worked with a cultivator. ”