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permaculture - Re: [permaculture] from N-starvation to mulch approach

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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] from N-starvation to mulch approach
  • Date: Sat, 27 Oct 2007 02:21:49 -0700 (PDT)

It is clear that woody mulch or leaves will encourage fungal growth
like in forest soil, while straw or hay will encourage microbial activity
like you normally have in garden soil. I have always wondered
whether the excessive use of leaves or wooded mulch could not
have a negative effect on garden soil. For example, earthworms
don't seem to like it. I think it is also clear that woody mulch can
suppress germination of some seeds.

I don't do sheet mulching. I prefer to add small doses of mulch
or compost + mulch frequently. Hence, amounts of woody material
or leaves are never so large as to make a difference. I live in a
semi-arid region, and in order to prevent the mulch or compost
from drying out, I put down the compost first cover this by a layer
of green mulch and top the whole with a layer of woody mulch.
This always works well.

Your idea of using mulch from one plant community to plant or
sow a member of that community seems like good common
sense. Talking of Ericaciaea, according to the literature, plants
in this family need the mycorrhizae specific to this family to grow
well. When I plant blueberries, which are not native to my region,
I usually cut a few plants of the Ericaciaea family that are native
to my region, wait a couple of weeks and then dig the soil from
under the cut plants and use it and some of the fine roots for
planting the blueberries. Hopefully, this will inoculate the soil
with the right mycorrhizae.

Dieter Brand
Portugal

Paul Cereghino <paul.cereghino@comcast.net> wrote:
I getting ready for another wave of mulching in zone 1-2 areas..
appliance store boxes, purchased straw, local horse manure, and rock
powders and sea weed. My source of arborist chips hasn't been coming
through.

As i begin to plant up sheet mulched areas, I am finding that straw
mulch seems to call for herbaceous plantings, and lends itself better to
seeding. While woody mulch calls for woody or rhizomatous plantings or
conifer forest understory spp. I just don't like plugging perennial
divisions into the woody mulch because of the nitrogen issue, but
live-staking cuttings seems fine. And infill with self seeding species
(ever popular parsley, calendula, etc..) seems like it makes more sense
in straw mulches compared to woody mulches. It seems like there is a
need to align your mulch approach and your target community composition.
Is this a pattern others have found or thought more about?... it seems
like it might relate somehow to the distinction between moder and mull
humus types common in soil ecology literature and perhaps whole
associations of plants adapted to different soil carbon environments
(lots of our local Ericaciaea (blueberry family) fruits seem to like
woody moder soils, but most of our edibles are more field species...
mull soils)... any thoughts for plants that like to seed into woody
soils? (then theres mushrooms...)

Paul Cereghino
Olympia, WA


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