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  • From: Dieter Brand <diebrand@yahoo.com>
  • To: permaculture <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [permaculture] mulch and arthropod herbivore habitat
  • Date: Wed, 20 Jul 2011 15:57:14 -0700 (PDT)

Hi Neil,

I live in a Mediterranean-type semi-arid climate with mild winters and a very
severe dry season during the summer. Our soil hasn’t been tilled in 16
years, and I feed the soil exclusively by mulches and green manure, i.e.
weeds, without any external inputs. There are plenty of earwigs and sowbugs.
Damage done by sowbugs is minimal, and earwigs are good against aphids.

I did have, and still have, a lot of problems though – some due to keeping a
permanent cover, some due to other factors. It is true that, when we convert
from bare-soil cultivation to covered-soil cultivation, the changed
environment will result in the increase of numerous wee creatures. Still,
seeing just how hard traditional dry land farming is on the soil – and on the
back. I feel that there is no alternative to keeping the soil covered in
order to achieve soil building.

Some problems will go away on their own, while others need our intervention.
The two most common problems associated with converting to covered-soil
cultivation are slugs and voles. I have had to struggle with both of these
problems during several years, sometimes with near total losses for some
crops. But I feel that it has been worth it. I tried numerous methods to
cope with these problems – mostly without much result. In the end, both
problems disappeared with time. When I go out at night now, I sometimes see
more toads than slugs, even though I had a severe slug problem only a few
years ago. I tried building habitats for predators as described by others,
but these creatures seem to have a will of their own and mostly ignored the
luxurious accommodations I provided. But they will multiply in the end, even
without our help, if they find enough food. I recon it takes about 3 to 5
years for a toad population to catch up with the slug
population. So we do need a bit of patience.

Right now I have a problem with green caterpillars eating my garbanzo beans.
If I don’t harvest the beans while they are still green, they will bore a
hole into the pods and eat most of the beans. This is the third year running
I’m having this problem, which my neighbors don’t seem to have on their
ploughed fields. For the time being, I’m content to pick the caterpillars by
hand, since I don’t grow garbanzo beans on a large scale. I don’t know, if
there will be a solution in the end, still nothing is going to make me go
back to bare-soil cultivation.

Cheers,
Dieter, Portugal


--- On Mon, 7/18/11, Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com> wrote:

> From: Neil Bertrando <neilbertrando@gmail.com>
> Subject: [permaculture] mulch and arthropod herbivore habitat
> To: "permaculture" <permaculture@lists.ibiblio.org>
> Date: Monday, July 18, 2011, 9:56 PM
> HI all,
>
> Have people dealt with the situation where mulching areas
> in Zone I and II
> leads to excessive pest problems which eat all seedling
> starts?
>
> We consistently have this problem here in Reno, NV in the
> high desert, and
> have stopped mulching our gardens for the most part for
> this reason.
> Sometimes we do light straw mulches, but we are straying
> away from deep
> mulch beds and no-till regimes.
>
> Here's my assessment of the problem, and perhaps other
> people have dealt
> successfully with this issue.
>
> pest populations increased by deep mulching
>
>    - european earwigs
>    http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/creatures/veg/european_earwig.htm
>    - sowbugs/rollypolly isopods
>    http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/ent/notes/O&T/flowers/note11/note11.html
>
>
> most info I have read does not include these as major crop
> pests however
> through direct observation we have seen them here to be the
> culprits.
>
> they prevent seedling establishment eating them at the
> cotyledon stage, and
> even eat small trees when planted in an area with dense
> populations.
>
> Strategies tried:
>
>    - traps:soap and sugar, soy sauce and
> oil, beer, etc.  work for
>    established plants but don't drastically
> diminish populations and are time
>    consuming
>    - diatomaceous earth: also works for
> established plants when applied at
>    night to feeding insects, time consuming,
> needs reapplication consistently
>    - chicken food: grazing with chickens in
> late fall and early spring.
>     chickens eat them happily and we tried to get
> them in when small veggies
>    are not growing and at key stages in the
> insect life cycle to minimize
>    reproduction.  still not effective
> at diminishing populations to a level
>    where we can get seedlings established.
>    - transplanting in established seedlings:
> still get heavily eaten
>    - get plants established before the
> populations boom as weather warms:
>    works fairly well, but not a strategy for
> warm season crops and makes fall
>    cropping difficult.
>    - raised beds: works for a while until
> populations get established (1-2
>    years) in the beds and structural
> material
>
> so now we've stopped mulching heavily in Zone I and use
> mostly on-site
> generated mulch in Zone II, using only a scattered straw
> mulch to decrease
> wind and sun evaporation and a focus on row covers instead
> of mulch to
> achieve this function.  any off-site woody mulch needs
> to be composted
> through hot compost piles before being applied to the Zone
> I and II gardens.
> and this seems to work well since there is no habitat for
> them in the
> garden.
>
> My conclusion is that sheet mulching (and deep mulching) is
> not an effective
> strategy in our climate context for Zones I and II. 
> Has anyone else found
> this to be the case?  or are we just applying the
> technique incorrectly?
>
> some thoughts are
>
>    - that N is being tied up in the mulch,
> and the insects are relying upon
>    seedlings to fulfill this need, although
> this occurs in mulches with
>    relatively high manure content as well.
>    - natural foods and predators of these
> organisms are not in balance and
>    take years to come into balance (or are
> not present at all in our climate?)
>    - mulch increases the humidity in summer
> and decreases the cold in winter
>    which allows populations to grow rapidly
> out of balance with plants.
>    - there is some other factor that is
> causing plants to lack hardiness and
>    become attractive to these organisms
>
> This situation has been very disheartening to many
> beginning Permaculture
> gardeners who read about the wonderful benefits of mulch
> and have their
> veggie gardens decimated.  Any thought and suggestions
> would be very helpful
> for gardeners in our region.
>
> Thanks,
> Neil
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