Oak bark mulch

[Wi-sunflower]

After reading something in a SWC thread, I thought I would see if I could find some finly shreaded pine bark mulch to add to my potting mix for bigger pots ( like 2-3 gal size) in part because my peat - perlite - vermiculite source has raised prices and those big pots really eat up the mix fast.

After searching on the internet for something in Wisconsin, I realized that the piles of stuff the landscapers have might be OK. So I went to a place not very far from me. that has pile of lots of stuff.

Unfortunately the pine bark was fairly large shred.

They have several other things tho like a couple of cedars and Oak bark mulch.

The Oak Bark was the finest shred of all of them. But Hubby is concerned that the Oak might be detrimental to the plants. Does anyone know if the Oak Bark would be OK or not.

Another option would be hardwood sawdust from a pallet factory nearby. But I don't know what kind of wood that would be.

I know both would tie up nitrogen but i think I could compensate with fertilizer.

Any thoughts on either ??

Thanks,
Carol

[mjc]

Check out the pallet factory...if they have piles of old, almost black sawdust, go for that...it won't 'tie up' nitrogen, it's 4/5th of the way to being soil and any 'acid' issues would pretty much be neutralized.

[David Marek]

Why not experiment with a few in each? I have used "hardwood mulch" in a few 5 gallon containers without problems and pine bark mulch in larger ones (and 1 and 2 gal pots, too- they just dried out faster). Pine fines seem to work better, though.

[rnewste]

Personally, I would avoid the Hardwood mulch, and go with any Conifer type mulch instead. The Cedar would be my first choice.

Raybo

[dice]

For the hardwood, you have to ask if they mill ash or walnut
(contain chemicals toxic to many plants).

I have used masses of oak leaves to fill part of a raised bed
before, no problems.

[Wi-sunflower]

Thanks for the info.

Hubby had the same concern about Walnut possibly being in the mix.

I never heard of Ash being a problem too. Around here we are having a problem with Emerald Ash Borer and they are cutting Ash trees everywhere. But I don't think anything is getting into the mulch as they want that stuff burned right away so the bugs don't spread. At least I would think that's what is done.

As far as the different mulches available - some were rather large size chunks. Probably OK for an Earth tainer or something else LARGE, but way too big for anything smaller than a 1 gal pot. Unless I can find another source with something smaller.

The sawdust is from a totally different source and I think they don't have anything left outside to rot. It's just the storage / clean up rules around here. What they have is in a shed in containers (pallet boxes).

So far I haven't had a chance to try anything but I want to try out something to see how it does before using it on more stuff maybe next year.

Carol

[dice]

Ash is not as well known for allelopathy as Black Walnut,
but there is some information on it. If you skim the document
linked to in this post and check the tables, you should find it:

http://www.tomatoville.com/showthrea...tion#post91987

(I would not risk shredded ash leaves/branches in my garden,
even if I do not have scientific evidence that it will kill
tomatoes or other vegetables. It is known to suppress the
germination or growth of some kinds of plants.)