Black Organic Mulch

Mulching For Tomatoes Helps With Water Retention and Weed Control

The purpose of mulching is to prevent loss of moisture from the soil, reduce leaching of the fertiliser, suppress weed growth and keep the fruit off the ground helping to ensure that there is less risk of disease and fruit rotting.

Other advantages associated with mulching are that there is less need for cultivation of the soil as weeds fail to come through the mulch layer, same applies to having to apply chemical weed killers. Also when you water there is a reduction in the level of evaporation, the soil consequently retains moisture better and has less tendency to develop a surface crust.

So clearly there are advantages to mulching when growing tomatoes, but one slight disadvantage of using traditional mulching methods for tomatoes is that mulch tends to prevent warming of the soil, which tomatoes like, so it is a good idea to warm the soil before applying the mulch consequently ensuring that the soil conditions tomatoes really like are established.

An alternative to traditional mulching is to use a breathable black plastic membrane mulch, this lets water and air through but prevents weeds growing underneath it along with the other mulching benefits. Use this method and you will have all the normal benefits of mulching plus the added benefit of warm soil for your tomatoes. So this is, in my opinion, the best mulch for tomatoes.

If you still prefer the more traditional methods of mulching plants, then at the end of the growing season, providing there has been no obvious problems with contamination and disease the mulch can be dug into the soil to increase the level of organic matter content in the soil.

The recommended thickness of mulching is between 3″ to 4″ ensuring that the mulch works at its optimum efficiency without preventing the air reaching the roots of the plant. That is unless you are using coffee grounds which have a tendency to cake but are rich in nitrogen. For coffee grounds the recommended thickness is 1″

Mulches on tomatoes that require special care are:

    * Bark
    * Newspaper
    * Sawdust
    * Wood chips

All of the above have a high carbon to nitrogen ratio and if used need a nitrogen fertilser application to compromise for this.

How organic is this black mulch you can usually find at nurseries and would it be good to work into clay?

I am wondering if I tilled this black mulch that you usually find at nurseries into clay dirt, if it would make it like a nice topsoil quality type of dirt or not.

I may not be able to give you ‘exact’ answers to each of your questions – but I may be able to help you help yourself.

“Organic” has turned into one of those words that is very overused and abused. For it to have meaning – you’ll need to narrow down a definition for it. A better question perhaps when looking for mulches or soil additives would be, “What’s in it?”

If the mulch comes in bags, then you should be able to either read the label for contents, or if you’re more ambitious, contact the manufacture and have them send you a list (via snail mail or e-mail) of what goes into that specific product.
If the mulch is being sold in loose bulk – the place that sells it should be able to tell you what went into it, or what company provided them with it. Then, again, you can contact that company for details. Anything that has been made with say – shredded treated lumber from building sites – should be avoided if your using it in a food producing garden because the chemicals will leach and could be absorbed into your food.

The purpose of adding a mulch into a clay soil is to improve drainage, loosen the soil for root penetration, and slow compaction. Clay soil is a good soil in-so-far-as it doesn’t loose moisture or nutrients quickly. You do fight with compaction and water logging though. By tilling in enough mulch you’ll be able to ‘fluff’ (seriously non-scientific word) the clay and improve growing conditions. What exactly you use or what combination you use can get a little tricky if your going for “great soil”. AND – what you want to live in that soil also drives that train for what you add to it. Veggies, grass, ornamental plants ….. all have different needs.

Since I don’t know where you live, or what you want to grow in your soil – here’s what I suggest:

Contact your nearest Cooperative Extension Service (web site listed in sources) and pick their brains. Most of what they offer is free. They can give you information that is for your location – soil information, plant growing requirements – pest information – and so on.

Ann

How to Compost : Learn Organic Garden Composting Online : How to Tell when Compost is Ready

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