Bit of a long story here... I bought wheat straw to mulch the garden, trees, berries, artichokes..... one month ago I placed it around sunflowers, tomatoes, peppers, onions, potatoes, maple trees, arbs, freshly planted pink lady.... Two weeks ago the sunflowers started curling up not growing straight twisting... this last weekend the tomatoes are bad.. same and dying. "Onions look fine, crops without mulch 2-4' away look great....
Called the place where I got the straw... it was grown on wheat ground two seasons ago. Sprayed with 2, 4-d when the wheat was 6" high and then irrigated, cut and baled. Stored under cover for one year +.
Any ideas on what is going on? I pulled it from everything this weekend. What a bummer... thinking that everything was mulched for the year and .... now?
I am organic on the place in Umatilla county Oregon.
Thanks in advance!
dan or
Based on what I have heard, your area has had a much wetter spring than usual. On the west side of the Cascades we have had a record rainfall for the whole month of June in just the first half. My tomatoes and peppers planted three weeks ago have not grown any. Too much water and no way for the ground to dry under the mulch equals dead or very sick plants
Dry straw can heat up when it gets wet and starts to decompose, but I've never heard of straw mulch causing problems for plants.
Out here in the desert, we've gotten a lot of rain. If you've had a lot of rain, maybe the mulch holding the water in the soil is just the straw that broke the camel's back. (pun intended)
Plants without the mulch have dried out just a smidge quicker.
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