Mulch. Just do it.

[Motta-Tokka]

I am probably going to start doing this in some way or another. I have even heard of weeds being great for nutrients once hot decomposed. Grass and leaves are never short so setting some off to the side for anyone shouldn't be a problem. Excellent thread guys keep up the good work

 

[Tilt]

I just cut a square of reflectex and put it loosely on top of the soil. The soil stays moist enough that I get top running roots. It also helps when I top dress ewc slurry under it. I don't have mulch I have to take off.

 

[mad librettist]

I am probably going to start doing this in some way or another. I have even heard of weeds being great for nutrients once hot decomposed. Grass and leaves are never short so setting some off to the side for anyone shouldn't be a problem. Excellent thread guys keep up the good work

See Coccannouer's "Weeds: Guardians of the Soil", and ask Jay about "no nonsense composting", or some such thing. It's basically western bokashi, in the sense that inoculants are used (bokashi in the true sense is any compost based on an inoculant used to facilitate and expedite digestion).

 

[heady blunts]

just picked up a bag of carquest #8033. it seems to have a larger grain than the #8822 or at least less fines. i'm not even sure i''ll need to screen it.

i'm looking to mulch my community garden plot, 200sqft. what's the cheapest mulch i can get? ideally it'd be something that would slowly decompose and add to my soil.

hay or rice hulls maybe?

 

[mad librettist]

i'm looking to mulch my community garden plot, 200sqft. what's the cheapest mulch i can get? ideally it'd be something that would slowly decompose and add to my soil.

depends on what you want to grow. for veggies, spoiled hay and straw.

 

[smoketrichs]

I'm using 1 gal root pots (~smart pots), could i use pumice on the remaining 1/2" of my containers as a mulch substitute?

 

[MrFista]

This subject is very dear to my heart. Forgive me if I cover old ground (with mulch hehe).

First, if you make ice hash, the leftovers are great mulch, they are best underneath other mulch though, as they will break down rapidly and feed your microherd. I recycle all my leaf matter and most of my stem by putting it straight back on the soil.

Mulch can replace all fert regimes once a bit of knowledge is applied. This is still conceptual for me as in - I haven't sat and done the math on the nutrient content of the things I mulch with yet.

I mulch with straw, tree leaves, seaweed and broadleaf weeds. When bird manure is present (in the straw and tree leaves) there is no need for anything else to grow lots of food/herbs. When it is not present, adding guano (topdress) sparingly can help.

Ideally, I'd do the math and mulch accordingly. Get the nutrient profile of mulch plants and work out how much of each thing to add for the garden type in question. The contents, so to speak, of all the things I mulch like: Comfrey, dandelion, herb, milk thistle, plane leaves, kikuyu grass, flowers, sticks, etc. I think a garden is very forgiving once it is established and well mulched, but it's always nice to know you got the right stuff going on top of the soil for the soil food web to flourish on.

 

[mad librettist]

Ideally, I'd do the math and mulch accordingly

no, ideally we would all do what you are doing.

 

[heady blunts]

i think i'm gonna use alfalfa hay to mulch my veggie plot.

 

[MrFista]

Use the hay heady, but also all the grass and weeds you get from the garden put it straight back as mulch. Trim the veggies out in the garden and add that back too. You will be pleasantly surprised how much difference a good mulch makes. I don't compost anymore, just a worm farm for casts for teas and topdressing, and mulch.

ps - start growing good plants for your mulch requirements. Alfalfa, clover, comfrey, dandelion, borage, and use them as mulch additives. Dry out good and crush and sprinkle around the garden - the worms and ants etc will move it into the soil for you.

 

[mad librettist]

aka sheet composting

 

[heady blunts]

how do you top dress when there's mulch? in a container i can see lifting it up but that sounds a little crazy for a huge bed.

 

[Dignan]

Under each plant, clear the mulch from a little 3-6" area and apply your topdressing. Cover back up with mulch and water in as usual.

The mulch will actually make the topdressing more effective and faster acting, by virtue of it keeping the top layer of soil/fertilizer moist so that microbes can break it down.

 

[Clackamas Coot]

i think i'm gonna use alfalfa hay to mulch my veggie plot.

Organic barley straw is another viable option. A large number of enzymes in this grass.

I like adding a couple of large handfuls to a worm bin as part of the bedding when starting a new bin.

CC

 

[Str8Dank]

i use silcia rocks from past hydro runs. i didnt use it for the micros but for the watering benifits. this is my first run doing it and since i have over 100gal of silcia rocks left and 50 gal of hydroton i'll always be running these on top of my pots.

i have not taken them out to actually see if it does not "crust over" but i know water does not run down the side nearly as easy and i can just dump it on thanks to the rocks breaking up the watering panel so there are no common channels for the water to run down.

 

[Montana]

Mulching is good

I've been growing a cover crop of clover on my indoor containers, the plants love it, highly recommended!

 

[MrFista]

I got some plants in pots a few days ago. They were sick. the black pots heat up badly. I cropped long green grass and added to the tops of the pots as mulch. Two days later it was straw mulch. The plants are responding with greener leaves already.

 

[SilverSurfer_OG]

Its ok then to add grass/weeds as mulch in their fresh n green state?

I have been wondering about this as i quite often uproot 'weeds' and just leave em where they are to decompose.

Watercress for instance. Outdoors in the sun it is dry and brown in couple days. Indoors this make take bit longer and turn to mold..

Is this correct Fista?

 

[Lazyman]

Alot of folks here have recommended mulching indoors with a layer of leaf waste, but that seems insane to me - Isn't it just asking for bug / mold / mildew problems? If not, I'm game, and would love an excuse to stop using perlite as a mulch and make less waste!

How do you all go about drying and preparing your leaf waste? Do you also mulch with old stems and whatnot? I am also constantly battling a low-level PM infestation - Should I completely avoid using plants that show symptoms, or is it not a concern at the point the leaf matter is dried out?

Thanks!

Get some Eagle20 EW to kill the powdery mildew, nothing else even compares IMHO, they may kill some surface spores, but not the fungus that lives inside the plants tissue. The Eagle20 will kill the fungus dead inside the plant.

Speaking of mulch, I've read some research papers on using plastic colored mulch, different colors seem to affect different crops but when the right one is used, yields were seen to increase 10-15%. I was thinking of trying some red shredded plastic mulch indoors to see if it had any effect (besides on pot moisture) and maybe do a control vs some black mulch and some un-mulched girls.

My Blumat auto-waterers keep all of the pots evenly and constantly moist, so that's not an issue. I also run a dead res with no bio-life (micro-herd) in coco/perlite so there won't be any microbial benefits to mulching there. I'm guessing the colored mulch would have a more pronounced effect this way.

 

[mad librettist]

Its ok then to add grass/weeds as mulch in their fresh n green state?

depends on conditions. sometimes you want to dry it out first, and you would not want to do this with an invasive that spreads from cuttings like mugwort or some such.