2006-09-18 05:55:29 · 5 answers · asked by londontraveler02 1 in Home & Garden ➔ Garden & Landscape
It's not a good idea to put the mulch right up to the plants in the first place. It can encourage diseases, so you should have a bare area about 6" away from small plants and 10-12" for shrubs and small trees. Mulch can harbor insects and disease spores. Putting them right up against the plants puts your plants at risk. Maybe you'll get away with it--maybe not.
At any rate the mulch doesn't hold an appreciable amount of nutrients so you can throw down granular fertilizers and as they dissolve they will "wash" down to the soil.
If you do prefer not losing any nutrients you should use an extended release fertilizer like Osmocote (that lasts for 4 months). Then you can put down the fertilizer before the mulch and you're pretty much done for the season as far as annuals are concerned. For perennials you would need a second application of Osmocote.
2006-09-18 06:33:34 · answer #1 · answered by college kid 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You do need to move mulch away from the stem of flower or trunk, if you do not the stem, trunk might suffer. Mulch does keep the moisture in the ground longer so that it is there for when the plants need it. Be aware the some bugs love to hide under the mulch in the day and then come out at night to feast. The best way to add nutrients to the soil is with compost and there again do not have it right up against stem.
Also can add liquid fertilizer.
2006-09-20 13:33:01 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Aside from liquid fertilizer, there's no way to add nutrients through mulch. The OSU Hort. person has a good point, too: One should not mulch right to the base of the plants. They should have a little clear space around their stems. If you have this clear space, you then also have the possibility of using a top-dress fertilizer in granular form or compost. As to just feeding existing plants, you can do this with the products already mentioned and with various foliar feeding products.
2006-09-18 14:33:54 · answer #3 · answered by bellgoebel 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Get some miracle grow - the liquid kind and pour it on with a garden hose.
2006-09-18 12:57:48 · answer #4 · answered by Genie 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
fish emulsion miracle-gro
2006-09-18 14:09:50 · answer #5 · answered by reynwater 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋