Which of the following organic mulch is the most effective:dried leaves, tree bark or wood chips?

Question

Please also state the reasons. Thank you.

Answer 1

Expen$e:
Highest - Bark
Medium - Wood Chips
Lowest - Leaves

For plant health:
Most natural - Leaves, or pine needles. Happens on its own in forests and under trees.
Neutral, Not really bad or good for plants - Bark. It breaks down slowly. Its benefits are those of ALL mulches. They ALL help retain soil moisture, reduce weeds, & protect roots in winter.
Really bad for plants - Wood chips; unless they have been composted for years, they will rob the soil of its nutrients before the plant can get to and take up the nutrients..

Longest-lasting - Bark
2nd longest-lasting - Chips
Disinegrate quickest - Leaves or pine needles.

Answer 2

Sure, that's fine. Just make sure you add a slow release fertilizer with nitrogen. The organisms that break down the mulch feed on nitrogen and your tomato plants need the nitrogen to grow bushy and full. Mulch purchased from garden centers is almost always nitrogenated. Wood chips would probably be better than tree bark and be wary of pine shavings. There are a lot of resins that can be detrimental to young plants. Oh, and actually, mulch helps keep the soil cool, and there for more moist. Mulch is a good thing.

Answer 3

The most effective organic mulch is medium shredded bark. This keeps the moisture in the soil and weeds out. You must apply compost or manure to the soil before applying mulch. This compensates for the nitrogen loss from the mulch. Apply mulch 3 to 4 inches deep and leave about 2 inches open around plant.Water mulch generously after applying. You will be very happy with the results.

Answer 4

It really depends on what you're gonna do with the mulch. Dried leaves don't work very good for mulching around bedding plants, flowerbeds, etc but they are good for the compost pile. They mat up and decompose to quickly for mulch.

Wood chips make great mulch but are not very good for compost because it takes them so much longer to decompose.

Tree bark being about halfway between leaves and wood chips works pretty well for either compost or mulch. It takes it a lot longer to decompose than leaves.

The biggest difference between bark and chips is just the difference in their appearance. Bark lends a softer, more forest-floor like appearance to flowerbeds and gardens while wood chips generally give a brighter, cleaner look.

Answer 5

For a mulch, you need undigested organic matter to stay there for a long period. Leave rot in a week. So those are no use. Wood Chips for mold and contain a high acid content. The answer here is bark. A bark that has a long life and will not rot quickly is best.

Answer 6

Dried leaves such can be shredded and can be turn into compost for a fertilizer. Must be shredded because leaves compact together will take a very long time to compost. Compost will be incorporated into the soil .bark and wood chips can be use as a longer mulch to keep soil moist and stay put. But through the years will break down into compost to. Depending on the size of the pieces of bark and wood chips . The smaller the pieces the quicker they break down into compost. The larger pieces they a very long time to break down.

Answer 7

If you are using it as a mulch, to cover soil, not to incorporate in the soil, bark is best. Bark is already de-nitrified unlike wood chips, which can take the nitrogen from the soil in an attempt to break it down. Dried crunched up leaves won't stay in place as well and whole leaves may shed water.

Answer 8

you will be better off to use wood chips or tree leaves. tree bark does not break down as fast and does not hold water in the Summer time.But note tree leave must be disease free.And it is very hard to find this. To get wood chips is easy call a tree service and they will give you a load most likely for free. And Leaves call a company in the fall that vacuums leaves and they will most likely give them to you for free to. you can till the wood chips into the ground and this helps with soil compaction and water loss.and the chips do not smell..Do not get leaves from a lawn company the mows them and bags them. They will have Grass in them and it will smell really bad.

Answer 9

A lot of horticulture's in Australia do not like wood chips-because it changed the soil pH.

Dried leaves I would say would be the best because they would probably be natural from the plant in which they fell.

Answer 10

All have thier own merits, but I would say haveing used tonnes of it that tree bark is by far the best lasts long and looks better I think