Hello,
We have an orchard of about 25 trees, 11 are dwarf apples espaliered. The orchard is three years old. It is quite weedy. Cardboard, leaves and wood chips have helped but the weeds still pop up between the cracks. It has not kept down the Canadian Thistle which we are battling along with some big rye grass clumps, blackberry and Queen Ann's lace. I don't mind the weeds but want to keep the thistle down as it spreads all over our site so easily especially if you miss some going to seed. The weeds also make taking care of the espalier trees difficult as the first row of wires are at 12" from the ground.
We get large 15 yard deliveries of leaves each year and was wondering about really mulching it heavy this year getting down 6-8" of leaves over the entire orchard, that is a couple loads of leaves. Should we go to the effort of doing cardboard again? Any risk putting this thick a leaf mulch down as long as we keep it away from the tree trunks? Any other thoughts to keep the thistle down? Also we do not want to us Roundup.
Thanks,
Bruce
Bruce, as far as the cardboard and heavy mulch, you may want to check out the following threads; I searched “Meadow Volesâ€:
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=4035&p=8466&hilt
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=1201&hilit
I battle Canadian Thistle, too. Problem is, it’s coming from somewhere else. So no matter how efficiently I remove mine, it returns. And, its tap roots are too long to kill without a Round-up like product… What I do is chop it off with a shovel or hoe at ground level where I need to access something near it, and make sure I hack the heads off any other plants before they go to seed. Actually, the stuff has been my ‘green mulch’ for years as I rotate between two garden spots; the deer won’t touch it and just before it sets seed - I till it in. Like I said, I never get the roots, but keep down the seeds …then deal with it by hand as it pops up in ‘next years’ garden…
Not much new to add on the vole concerns… other than they loved the thick mulch around my (former) blue berry plants. …And my uncle has reminded me of the importance of adding additional nitrogen when composting heavy or amending the soil with ‘woody’ material, as it consumes so much nitrogen breaking down the material. Though he dumps 80 pound bags of ‘urea’ on his massive garden plot …I try to remain a bit more organic, which can be quite expensive when it comes to nitrogen.
After mulching my fruit trees for years with sawdust or heavy plant material, for the last decade I’ve simply had a ‘scorched earth policy.’ I use a ‘commercial’ weed-eater to cut off anything from the trunk to the drip line at ground level. Twice a season should be plenty. …and I’ve got a nice little ground-breaking tool to hack out/off anything that remains aggressive. But for most folks, ‘grass’ is the biggest enemy, as fruit tree roots ride very near the surface and easily lose out to competition from grass. In a ‘field setting,’ I’ve suggested others use a mad-ax and ‘pop’ out the entire clump - our hot summers keep it at bay after that…
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