Pine bark mulch

[duajones]

It wont be long until my smaller bed is done for the year and am wondering if I should just till in the mulch or remove it. The soil is still not as friable as I would like so I do plan to add more compost. I did have some blight issues in this bed. Your thoughts?

[dice]

The safe thing to do is not do that (potentially preserve
blight spores where you grow tomatoes).

That said, a lot of people turn under any mulch that was left
on the beds (or even just leave it there and cover it up with
new mulch the next summer), whether there was blight or not.
My only relevant experience is with some blighted leaves that
I left on a bed over a winter, covered with about a foot of horse
manure. I removed about 2/3 of the manure the next spring
to use for something else, and I turned the rest under. There
was no blight in that bed the next summer.

Was it something in the manure that attacked or ate the blight
spores? Was it just that I buried them too deep for them to be
activated the next year? Was it just luck? I have no way of
knowing. I did have plenty of rain the next year capable of
splashing spores up onto the plants in that row, and I didn't
mulch it with fresh mulch until about a month into the season,
so there were planty of chances for spores to splash up onto
the plants there and infect them, but none of them got any
blight.

Even so, I still removed all mulch after the next season in
all tomato beds and moved it to beds with plants in them
that don't get any kind of blight, and then I covered it with
a new layer of shredded leaves, because that still seems safer
than turning it under in the tomato beds. I can always get new
stuff (manure, compost, shredded leaves, shredded tree
branches, etc) to replenish organic matter in the tomato beds.

There is a school of thought that says each year's mulch should
be incorporated into compost piles, so that the compost builds
up organisms that will feed on blight fungi and their spores.
Kind of like a vaccine.

[duajones]

Good info, thanks for replying

[organichris]

I would just remove it altogether, but that's just me. Composting it might not be a bad idea.

[creister]

Duane,
I would remove those pine mulch pieces if possible. If you till them in, add some nitrogen, as decomposition process will leach the N out of your soil to break down the mulch. I would add something like alfalfa pellets or meal, and horticulturla corn meal which is supposed to help feed bacteria that eat several different fungi. If you do till it in and add N source, compost, and cornmeal, cover that with straw, alfalfa hay, or shredded leaves to overwinter. When you come back in the spring, you will be amazed at the soil improvement.

[creister]

I forgot to mention, add some molasses. I know that coffee grounds attract worms. Starbucks gives them away for free, and they are a good source of Nitrogen.

[bryanccfshr]

Lots of information here. First you live in Corpus so I know a wonderfull resource if you have a pick up truck to gather lots or organic matter... The beach. As for your mulch I would rake out the big pices and either use them to mulch something else or add them to the compost (The reuse being preferable).


I would go to the island and load up a pickup load of fresh sargassum.. Go through that dollar fresh water rinse to knock the sand and salt off of it and bring it home. I would then add it to that bed and till it in real good. along with Gypsum.

I would then top it with a couple of inches of manure or stable bedding or your own compost and then cover it all with alot of grass clippings and water it in real well. Water it regularly(to aid rapid breakdown in the summer heat) until the next crop(that's nearly two months away), till again grow, repeat over winter. If you can't get manure use more grass clippings. The local st augustine has alot of moisure and nitrogen and breaks down fast.

That awfull Black clay will soon become more friable.

Another trick which I used last summer is to grow some Cow Peas, mung beans black eyed peas at this time of year.. Plant them thickly over the entire garden and let them grow right at the point past flowering wack or scyth them downleaving the roots in the ground. Plant the fall crop. The roots provide aration tunnels and organic matter in the ground. The tops privide a nutritious mulch.

Do what you can, but working on improving the soil is the fun part for me.

[duajones]

Good info guys, much thanks