Mulch
Mulch is as old as agriculture itself, long used to improve soil quality and protect plants. Nature builds the best soils by covering bare ground with leaves, dead plant material, and more. By employing this natural method in agriculture, we can experience the same benefits in crop production. Mulch can be made of various materials, each with its own pros and cons.
All About Mulch is a great opening video on the basics of mulch. This comparative video goes over the time mulch types take to decompose, the soil fertility and PH of each mulch, as well as sourcing and pest control for mulch. How to Use Every Mulch: The Ultimate Grower’s Guide covers what type of mulch is best for specific growing situations. The video includes time stamps for each mulch type covered: hay, straw, cover crops, compost, leaves, cardboard, grass clippings, wood chips, plastics, and living mulches. Each topic goes over the pros and cons of each mulch type, and the best timeline to apply each mulch. Mulching Your Vegetable Garden - The Definitive Guide dives into the benefits mulch brings to your crops, including erosion prevention, water retention, and temperature control. Knowing what mulch is doing to your soil, it can assist in problem-solving.
Using Mulches in Organic Vegetable Production is a video on a demonstration plot that shows the benefits and disadvantages of different mulches. Each mulch has its own advantages, but all mulch can help reduce wind and water erosion, as well as act as a weed control. Different mulches can have drawbacks, as elements, including soil temperature, can be impacted based on mulch type. The use of your mulch and what you wish to gain can be deciding factors in what mulch you decide to use in your fields. A similar resource that goes over research on mulch types is Organic Mulching: A Sustainable Technique to Improve Soil Quality - a scientific article on organic mulch as a weed control. Using a plot without any mulch as a control, the researchers studied the effects of organic mulches—wheat straw, wood chips, spray cellulose pulp, compost, and a cover crop mixture on the soil properties. The effects of this research might vary based on the climate and soil conditions of a farm.
Organic Mulching Materials for Weed Management focuses on mulch as a tool for weed suppression. The various mulch materials the article goes over include grain straw, fresh or old hay, fresh-cut forage or cover crops, chipped brush, wood shavings, tree leaves, cotton gin waste, rice or buckwheat hulls, and other crop residues. By exploring these different types of mulch, you will learn the characteristics, the best application methods to use, and the drawbacks these mulches could bring to production.
Knowing what mulches are available, how to mulch, and what mulch does will not only benefit crops but also your whole production. Having healthy soil is key, and mulch is another tool to make that possible. This blog is only a chip in the world of mulch. To learn more, check out our other mulch-related organic production blogs on wood chips, leaf and grass clippings, cardboard, and compost, which is coming soon.
To learn more, check out these links below:
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This resource was funded in partnership with the Transition to Organic Partnership Program