Help Me Compost recommends avoiding the use of green or freshly fallen pine needles as mulch for this reason.
Composting pine needles is easy when you already have a healthy compost pile set up. Dump them straight into the pile and follow your usual practices for layering or folding in new material. They'll decompose much quicker than freshly dropped needles. If you're not interested in using pine needles as mulch for a season or two before composting them, you can speed up the composting process by physically breaking down the pine needles first.
Rake them into a pile, set your lawn mower to an appropriate height and run over the pile a few times to chop up the needles. A mulching bag attachment is recommended to contain the pine needles, but if you don't have one, place your pine needle pile on a concrete driveway before using the lawn mower to make it easier to sweep up the debris.
Pine needles represent just one type of ingredient necessary for successful composting. According to Cornell Waste Management Institute, all compost piles require a mixture of green nitrogen-rich material and brown carbon-based material — plus adequate moisture, heat, volume and air — in order to succeed. Although you should always err on the side of having more brown material than green material in your compost pile, experts like Help Me Compost don't recommend overloading your compost pile, whether new or old, with pine needles.
Moss also grows well in infertile soils, which includes acidic low pH soils, but more importantly it also includes nitrogen-deficient soils. Lawns, like a lot of cultivated plants prefer nitrogen-rich soils. Regular fertilizer applications four applications per year, two in the fall and two in the spring with products containing nitrogen, combined with improved sunlight will result in a green, dense lawn that can out compete moss.
The truth is pine needles do not make the soil more acidic. It is true that pine needles have a pH of 3. If you were to take the freshly fallen needles before the needles decompose and turn them into the soil right away, you may see a slight drop in the soil pH, but the change would not be damaging to the plants. For those of you that leave the needles there on the ground, they will begin to break down naturally and the microbes decomposers in the soil will neutralize them.
They are a good mulching material that will keep the moisture in, suppress weeds and eventually add nutrients back to the soil. You can also add them to a compost pile; they will slowly break down over time. If you run them through a shredder they will break down faster.
A general rule of thumb is not to add more than 10 percent of pine needles to your compost pile. If you are having difficulty growing other plants under your pine trees it is likely due to the fact that evergreen roots are numerous and shallow and compete for water and nutrients.
The shady conditions under a tree cans also make growing other plants a challenge. REALITY: Adding organic matter to soil in the form of compost helps to improve soil structure and promote long-term plant health, but adding too much compost at once or over time can lead to problems. If the soil organic matter is much higher than ideal 5 to 8 percent , the soil can have too much available phosphorus, which can stunt plant growth and potentially leach into the water table.
Also, some composts can be high in salts, which can also impact plant growth. Research out of Canada shows that most cavities in bee houses are colonized by native wasps that help control pests , and not native bees. So, bee houses still do good, but not necessarily the good that you might think. For instance, magnolia extends 3.
In most soils and gardens, they can do more damage than good. MYTH: When you plant a new tree or shrub, dig the hole and add an amendment to the soil before you backfill the hole. Adding an organic amendment to the soil only in the planting hole will tend to reduce growth of the plant. REALITY: Although amendment of soil with organic matter is often a good idea, it should be done on an area-wide basis, not just in a planting hole for an individual plant. This happens because roots may stay within the amended soil and not grow into the native soil, creating a root-bound plant within the amended soil.
If the organic amendment is not completely decomposed it may require nitrogen for further decomposition, which will compete with plant roots for minerals, thereby resulting in reduced growth. And in the case of large shrubs or trees , decomposition of the amendment will cause the plant to settle and the root collar will sink below the soil. REALITY: It is commonly thought that hobo and brown recluse spiders cause necrotic bites in this state, when in fact the brown recluse is not found in Oregon and the hobo spider does not cause necrotic bites.
The black widow is the most harmful spider to humans in the state. More of an issue is that the irrigation water will evaporate and not be as effective. Note though that sensitive houseplants like African violet can show leaf damage from very cold water applied to the leaves. As you clean the fireplace, do your plants a favor and sprinkle the ashes in the garden instead of throwing them in the garbage.
Oct 22, News story. Gardeners tend to think of fall as the time to put bulbs in the ground, but the warm soil and increasing moisture make it a great time to plant most anything. You want the things you put in your bin to rot in order to make rich nutritious compost.
And most people want this to happen relatively quickly. Moisture is necessary so that the bacteria responsible for decomposition can feed correctly. Good structure , and correct density, means that air can circulate through the compost. The composting microbes need oxygen to do their job properly. Green feedstocks are anything which has a good moisture content, is quick to decompose, and contains higher levels of nitrate.
Browns have a higher carbon content, take a longer time to decompose, and help provide structure to the compost. A balanced mix of green and brown feedstocks is required for good composting. Browns are generally considered good for adding structure to compost. Because they break down very slowly, browns tend to maintain their form and help introduce oxygen into the compost by improving air circulation.
When decomposed, browns contribute the humus part of the soil structure which helps to retain moisture and nutrients. Even if you use green or freshly fallen pine needles, they lose their acidity and become fairly neutral after approximately three weeks.
Older pine needles continue to reduce in acidity over time.
0コメント