If we are talking apples at this point the mulch helps leach out a bit of nitrogen, which depending on what you want your apples for it is a good thing. Too much nitrogen creates large, watered down apples with less intensity. On hard cider it creates recognizable off flavors.
This one of the reasons a lot of supermarket apples can be sub standard, large pretty apples fetch a better market price which you can get with fertilizer, at the expense of taste. Traditional hard cider orchards are not fertilized.
I have a problem with trees that do not want to push out growth so I’m still fertilizing mine.
it leaches it out where the soil and mulch contact but whats down below that isnt affected. if you turn it into the soil then it will affect the N available near the roots. its a common misconception about mulch. the worms then feed off the composting mulch and transfer the nutrients throughout the soil in their castings. their tunnels improve air getting to the roots.
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That is correct, but eventually the tree itself helps to deplete the rest of the nitrogen. The thing is that you get to amend/condition the soil without adding a lot of nitrogen to it.
My compost is very high in nitrogen, if I keep adding that as a soil conditioner it would keep building up available nitrogen on the soil. Green mulch can create a similar humus without the nitrogen payload.
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The frost-to-frost dates in my area are 5/15 to 9/15. I thought super heavy mulches slowed the tree down by keeping the soil too cool for too long.
Just sitting there on the surface doesn’t hurt anything from a fert standpoint, at least in my not-terribly-fertile area.
If you are trying to get it to where the decomposed chips can be incorporated in the soil, the chips will consume N for quite a while, even though you composted it quite a bit for a few weeks. Maybe not to the point where it can’t be used, but where you have to give it extra fertilizer.
You are correct. I mentioned on the way I do it that I remove the mulch in the early spring. I didn’t quite spell out that this is so the soil can warm up faster. I basically pile it up to the side and a month later mix it with compost and lay it back down to decompose under a thick layer of fresh green mulch.
Here even after things warm up the snow coverage can last for weeks. I have a few lengths of landscape fabric that I lay on the snow around the trees. The dark color absorbs heat from the sun, melting it faster. If you have a persistent snow cover you can help your trees wake up faster by getting the insulating snow out of the way. Then again; most of what I grow is pretty immune to the occasional late spring frost, you don’t want to pull that trick on plants with tender buds.
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ive been putting down around 5in. of mulch around everything here for 6 years. at 1st. it broke down slowly. about 2in a season then as time went on lt broke down more quickly. now it all breaks down to maybe 1in. left by spring. i wait until mid/ late june to remulch. by then the ground has time to to warm and dry out some.
Excellent source for great mulch!