Top 3 Mistakes Made When Mulching Trees

[Music] what is going on everyone welcome to another very exciting episode right here on me on my gardener Channel it is springtime I know a lot of people are messaging us wanting to plant some beautiful fruit trees or you might already have some that you want to put another fresh layer of mulch down so I wanted to make this video about mulching and the mulching techniques for best practices they're going to give you the best results because I see a lot of people making very very novice mistakes and to be honest you're not alone so don't feel bad if you make some of these mistakes I'm going to show you we have here a beautiful tree we just got mulched and I want to go through some of the mistakes that people make with mulching because I cannot tell you how detrimental it is to the tree and so let's jump right on into it it's not gonna be a long video because it's getting pretty cold out right now so I got myself on a t-shirt and so I want to get this video out to you so you can get growing bigger going home and preventing some very very simple mistakes that they can cost you your tree so let's go the first mulching mistake that a lot of gardeners make with their fruit trees is they mulch too close to the base fruit trees do not like mulch but a'right up against the trunk fruit trees will not set roots all along the stem like a tomato would and if you put your mulch right up against the trunk of a tree what will often happen is the mulch does hold on to moisture that's why we mulch to suppress weeds but also hold moisture where the roots need it most which is you know which is right around the tree but the fact the matter is is there's not any roots right now at the trunk at the trunk area they're going to need any moisture or nutrients all the care needs to be focused on the outside of the tree because that's where the drip line is of the tree you'll notice that the leaves when they come out they stop at a certain point and that's actually because there's a direct relationship to where the where the branches are and where the roots are that's called the drip line because water when it sheds off of the tree will drip from here on in no further out but also you don't see leaves really close to the trunk and that's because water does not need to be a right around the trunk and when you put your mulch right up against the trunk of a tree that mulch holds onto moisture and that causes trunk rot that is almost an incurable problem that once the trunk starts rotting you'll notice that the leaves will begin to drop it will begin to turn yellow a lot like a nutrient deficiency or nitrogen deficiency and it'll start working its way up or what will happen is the top will die and start working its way down depending on how severe it is sometimes the the entire tree will drop all of its leaves and like I said it is something that is so easily preventable by simply pulling the by pulling the mulch away about an inch and a half to two inches away from the trunk to make sure that there's no moisture that's going to be touching the trunk of your tree now another mistake that a lot of beginning gardeners will make when with their fruit trees is they mulch way too high you see all those medians and the roads or in the parking lots of grocery stores and you see this giant mound of mulch coming do five six inches up the tree sometimes even higher and the fact of the matter is is just as we stated before with the the trunk of the tree not liking moisture near the trunk of the tree that will also hold on to way too much moisture and over time that that even if you have your your mulch pulled away two or three inches away from the trunk eventually mulch will slough down there is absolutely no need to mulch that much number one you're wasting mulch which means you're wasting your time and your money and you can be better putting your mulch on a bunch of other trees and not having to buy as much because you do not need a foot of mulch there's no benefit that is going to that it's going to come from adding six plus inches of mulch at most you should have three inches three inches and no more or no less than one if you most like one inch you're really not going to do much much good but with a really good quality mulch you should never mulch more than three inches because it just doesn't need it it's going to hold all that moisture that it's that is needed in the soil it's going to protect the soil from from high temperatures it's going to insulate that soil and it's going to allow the the tree to have enough you're drying out period to where the trunk is going to be safe from all the trunk rot another mistake that a lot of gardeners make whether you're very experienced or totally novice at growing fruit trees is the type of mulch that they use if you are growing a fruit tree that is for your consumption the most dangerous thing that you can do for your health and the trees health is to go with a synthetic mulch like a rubber mulch or something that's made from tires that are broken down or a dyed mulch things like cedar mulch which is pine mulch dyed to look like cedar or a cherry mulch that is your dyed with a red tone or brown dyed mulch black dyed mulch those dyed mulches have chemicals in them that are infused into the wood to give them a color and that coloring once it breaks down it doesn't just disappear it breaks down as the wood breaks down and it goes into your soil which kills off soil bacteria those chemicals are killing your soil those chemicals are also going to be killing your tree because they weaken the immune system of a tree and they also they also lead to to buildup of chemicals within the tree meaning that when your tree fruits you're also consuming those chemicals and so there's actually many people that that warned you never to grow with with some of these commercially available dyed mulches because the chemicals when they build up in the tree are carcinogenic and so I cannot caution you enough to just go with it just go with a natural mulch it is totally far cheaper but it is also far better for the tree it is something that you can get at any tree company they have mulch typically in giant piles you can just back your car up to take a bucket or you can call them out they'll bring a couple yards for free and we've gotten tons we've got almost 30 cubic yards of or 30 yards of mulch that we got for free from our local tree company because they just take it to landfills or waste management facilities where they pay to dump them and so they'd be glad to give them away for free get yourself some good free mulch and it's going to do wonderful for you it's not only gonna break down it's gonna feed the tree it's going to insulate the soil it's gonna feed the microbes it's also going to host beneficial fungi like mycorrhizae which which which helps the tree all in all to to be health your tree which is the kind of the goal of mulching is not to hurt the tree but to help the tree so those are the big three mistakes I see so many gardeners making with their fruit trees and their mulch if you have made some of these mistakes in the past just know that they are obviously mistakes that even I have made and we all learned for our mistakes but the big thing is do not repeat them the next thing is if you've made this mistake this year just know it's not too late you can fix the mistake by simply using the kind of using the opposite of what you've done and the things I've outlined in this video and you will have better success I promise and it will avoid you'll avoid so many headaches later on down the road so I hope you all enjoyed I hope you learn something new remember to share this video with a friend if you enjoyed it and if you found it informative it always helps this channel grow give this video a big thumbs up because we are going daily now it really does help the channel grow and help spread this content out to people that really would like to see it so as always this is Luke from neon my gardener channel reminding you to grow big or go home we'll catch you all later see ya [Music] you [Music]

Channel: MIgardener

Views: 283,947

Rating: 4.8793311 out of 5

Keywords: how to mulch, migardener, trees, mulch trees, mulching, three, laying mulch, mulch, fruit trees, top 3, mistake, Premiere_Elements_15

Id: 6XmeVlnGsZA

Length: 8min 9sec (489 seconds)

Published: Fri May 11 2018