Should I mulch my trees?
Mulch is merely a covering of ground up bark or peat or straw, or even a layer of plastic or porous landscape fabric--any covering which serves to keep moisture in and weeds down in the soil around the roots of the tree.
Mulching can keep weeds down and moisture in. However, mulch can do more harm than good if applied improperly. Do not mound up bark, wood chips, or rock directly around the trunk of any tree. Such mounding has the same effect as if the tree were planted too deeply.
The most useful mulches are the more finely textured natural substances such as cedar bark, or cocoa bean hulls. A four-inch deep layer of cedar mulch spread to a width of about two feet from the tree’s trunk will keep weeds down and moisture in. As an alterative to fabric or plastic, spread about 30 pages of newspaper first.
Avoid using rock around young trees. It gets into the lawn. It seldom maintains its appearance. Rock makes it difficult to remove cut away suckers which may come up from the root.
All of this said, we haven't mulched a tree in 70 years of business here at the nursery and we don't intend to start mulching anytime soon.
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