5 ms·
In the southeast of the US longer pine needles from varieties of pines such as slash pine are used for garden mulch. Ironically, this was later in the season th
by lgleason 6y ago
In the southeast of the US longer pine needles from varieties of pines such as slash pine are used for garden mulch. Ironically, this was later in the season than I normally do this, I just laid down 52 bales of mulch in my garden.
Here it is common for a few reasons.
1. It is in-expensive (about $3.75 a bale).
2. It provides insulation to the plant roots to keep the soil warmer in the winter and cooler in the summer.
3. On steep inclines it tends to knit together to stay on the incline to prevent erosion.
4. As it breaks down it amends the soil with nutrients.
The only negative is that you have to add new mulch every year because it mostly breaks down after a year.
People who have pine tree farms use this as an extra revenue source.
https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/business-opportunities-forestry/harvesting-pine-straw-for-profit-questions-landowners-should-ask-themselves/ https://www.aces.edu/blog/topics/business-opportunities-fore...
https://www.carolinacreations.biz/blog/mulch-and-pine-straw/ https://www.carolinacreations.biz/blog/mulch-and-pine-straw/
- throwawaysea 6y agoIs it heavy enough to keep strong weeds like Himalayan blackberry down? I would think they can break through a layer of mulch made of this (as opposed to wood chips).
- lgleason 6y agoIf it is thick it will help.
- bpodgursky 6y agoNothing short of Agent Orange can keep the Himalayan blackberry down. My neighbors put down 3" of gravel on a new driveway. Comes right back up. If you've got a shovel, patience, and a decade of free weekends, you might make a dent... but probably not.
- hinkley 6y agoNo shovels. Mattock. You don’t want to cut the roots, you want to get them all. For bad infestations: broadfork.
- hinkley 6y agoThe trick with Himalayan blackberries is loosening the soil so you can dig them out more easily every time, Weed, amend, weed again.
- samstave 6y agoOh man - I wish I could have told my dad this in the 80s. I got grounded when I was ~13 or so - and my punishment was to rake up all the pine needles on our 2 acre property in lake tahoe. The needles had created a blanket over the entire property which was ~3 inches deep. It took me a month.
- ngold 6y agoOn a side note, same thing happened to me in the 90s. But instead of pine needles, it was a weed wacker and acres of waste high thistle weeds.
- samstave 6y agoOh yeah - and I was prohibited from the computer as well... So I couldn't play Populous or call into that BBS in San Jose to play the pit... However, I topped this grounding: I later called into a BBS in San Jose to play "the pit" and chat on PCLink so much that our long distance bill was $926 for a single month. I was grounded for a month due to that. My dad yelled at me a bit. Telling me that "computers will never do anything for you" After I ran intel's game lab for a bit and designed the Lucas Presidio data center.... my dad said to me "remember that time I said that 'Computers will never do anything for you' -- Well, I apologize" - it was one of the closest times I felt to him.
- hedora 6y agoHow do you deal with the soil acidity?
- goda90 6y agoYou might want acidity. A lot of berry bushes like blueberries love soil down to pH of 4.0
- dylan604 6y agoTomatoes like a more acidic soil as well.
- lgleason 6y agoMany flowers etc. in my beds prefer acidity. If it gets too acidic some lime can adjust things back.
- zoomablemind 6y ago> ... If it gets too acidic some lime can adjust things back. You probably mean lye [1], which is alkaline to neutralize the acid. [1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lye
- frank2 6y agoLime is alkaline, too, and cheaper: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_lime https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_lime
- apeescape 6y agoI thought limes are acidic.
- wpearse 6y agoLimes (the fruit) are acidic. Lime (the fertiliser) is basically ground-up limestone and used to reduce soil acidity.
- count 6y agoI have about 2 dozen lobblolly pines around my house. The needles definitely don't break down after a year naturally, god that'd be nice! Instead I end up with 4-8" deep 'drifts' of needles if I don't keep on top of things. And they are so waterproof they're incredibly difficult to compost - the inside of the stacks stays dry if you don't constantly churn them or shred them beforehand. We bag/bundle about 140 50gal bags of straw a year. I should sell them!