Mulching Plants is Important

Mulching Plants in your Garden

Tom Ingram: Ask a Master Gardener

Friday, May 1, 2020

Q: I have my vegetable transplants in the ground, now what should I do: DK

A: Congratulations on getting your young veggies in the ground. This is an exciting time. One thing you can do, maybe one of the most important things you can do, is surround them with a layer of mulch. Here is why.

Mulch helps your garden in a variety of ways; one of these is water conservation. A good layer of mulch surrounding your plants will directly correlate to how much time you need to spend watering. Mulch helps hold moisture in the soil by reducing evaporation, and water that does not evaporate is still available to your plants. Seems simple, but you would be surprised how many people don’t do this.

Soil temperature will also be much more consistent with a good layer of mulch. Research has shown that on a hot summer day, the temperature of your soil may rise as much as 30 to 40 degrees, while properly mulched soil temperatures may vary as little as 10 degrees during the same time period. A more constant soil temperature is going to help keep your plants happier and more productive. And to the previous point about water conservation, water evaporation will be much more consequential with a soil temp of 120 degrees than with a more comfortable 80 to 90 degrees.

A mulch barrier between the leaves of your plant and the soil will also help reduce disease. Many of the fungal diseases of vegetables originate in the soil. Without mulch, as it rains or as you water, these diseases can splash up from the soil onto the lower leaves, enabling the disease to find a place to grow. Mulch provides a barrier between the soil and the lower leaves, reducing this splashing and therefore reducing the opportunity for disease.

Additionally, mulch decreases the ability of weeds to grow in your garden because it covers the soil, discouraging those tiny, pesky weeds from breaking through to the outside world. Weeding must be one of my least favorite things, so anything that reduces my time down on my knees in the garden is golden in my book.

There are quite a few options concerning what type of mulch to use. Personally, I mow the leaves from my trees in the fall with a mulching mower. I bag them and save them till now when I can scatter them around my plants. However, I know that ship has sailed for many of you.

The primary recommendation on type of mulch is to use something organic, such as leaves, straw, cotton seed hulls, etc. We say this because most soil in our area is low on organic matter. If you use an organic mulch, it will deteriorate naturally and can be tilled back into the soil at the end of the season. This helps increase the organic matter in your soil, which is always a good thing.

For more information on different types of mulch and best practices, go to the Hot Topics button on our website (tulsamastergardeners.org) and click on the Mulching Garden Soil link.

Garden tips

·        After moving potted plants from inside to outdoors, irrigate the pots with 2-3 pot volumes of water to remove salts that may have accumulated from fertilizers.

·        Spring-blooming bulbs are best fertilized in fall and late winter when leaves emerge. After blooming, they go dormant and cannot use fertilizer applied at that time.