North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[mIEKAL aND <qazingulaza@gmail.com>]

Evan, I plant comfrey & harvest 3 - 4 crops a year from the plants
after they are established.  It works really nice as a mulch because
after you lay it down it all melts together & forms kind of a gley on
the surface for a month or two.

I also plant it in rings around the more vigorous trees such as the
nuts.  Then it's even easier, I just go around & drop it with a
machete after it flowers & I don't even have to move it.  It doesn't
work as well around things like saskatoons until they are established.

~mIEKAL

On Tue, Mar 23, 2010 at 9:53 AM, Evan <kodama@riseup.net> wrote:
> This may be a silly question, but as I've begun planting and planning
> my modest orchard, I've run into a lack of available mulching
> materials (or more likely, I'm just blind to what's staring me in the
> face). The orchard's in a rural area and there aren't the abundant
> flows of woodchips and leaf-litter found in the urban areas. But, in
> consideration of a future with much less energy to spend on
> woodchippers, I've been wondering what I could use for mulch.
>
> Right now I'm thinking I'll plant a coppice-or-pollard field
> downslope where I can take the shoots and lay as mulch around some of
> my fruit and nut trees upslope. I'm not sure which species I'll use,
> but possibly a mix of Basswood, Black Birch and maybe even Willow. My
> thinking is that if I coppice or pollard them on a fairly regular
> basis I can have a good supply of small woody shoots that will act as
> a decent mulch, break down relatively quickly and possibly enrich the
> nutrient content of the soils around my food-trees (I think Black
> Birch accumulates K, P, and Ca; Tilia P and Ca). I guess I'm
> wondering if anyone has experience with this sort of thing, what
> species you use, and how it works.
>
> In case it's relevant the orchard is/will-be comprised of primarily
> Hazels, Chestnuts, Crabapples, and Juneberries.
>
> Or maybe there's blindspot I have and this isn't a good idea?
>
> Thanks!
> Evan
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