Soil pH Notes. Click play to listen: Subscribe to Podcast. How to Make a Yard Waste Bin. Privacy Policy. This site is spam-free. You may handle my information as set out in the Privacy Policy Yes, I agree. Empress of Dirt Newsletter. New posts by email. Pine trees drop lots of needles, especially those foot giants!
Gutter guards protect rain gutters, but piles of needles are on the ground. What is to be done with all these needles? Since the needles themselves lean toward being acidic, it would seem to make sense that they acidify their surroundings. Not true. Pine needles do not acidify garden soils.
Many things, such as climate, rainfall, irrigation water, and the soil itself, influence soil pH. Pine needles are the right choice for mulching and really economical if you have pine trees in the yard or pine straw readily available. Because pine needles break down slowly, they are not useful additives to turn directly into garden soils. Best to use them as a top dressing on flower gardens, around roses, and places where weed and moisture control are desired.
For the last 3 years I have not used any booster or fertilizer, and each year now, I just top the raised beds with more compost. That all depends on what you consider to be organic. If you are an organic farmer, you will know the rules so I can assume you are a gardener.
I suggest we should care less about the definition and instead try to understand the under lying facts. First of all it is very likely that this pesticide is less dangerous to your health and the health of the cow, than an organic pesticide, provided the corn was grown in Europe or North America.
By the time the corn is harvested there is virtually none of the pesticide left in the corn plant. You see reports of pesticides in our food all the time, but the important fact is the concentration of the pesticide, not its presence. I am not saying a lab count not detect it. What I am saying is that the amount in the corn is so small that it does not harm us or the cow.
Now the cow eats the corn and digests the corn. All of these processes further decrease the amount of pesticide, so that by the time you get the manure it is extremely low. Now you put it in the garden, and microbes digest the pesticide molecules further. Even if they do, plants also have the ability to degrade pesticides, and so by the time you eat the vegetable, there is essentially nothing left.
Certainly there is a lot less than you will find in a cup of coffee—and we consider that safe to drink. While this is slightly off topic, recently we have been seeing issues with aminopyralid residue contamination in vegetable gardens which has arisen through the use of manures as well as straw. Aminopyralid is a selective herbicide that is used to kill broad leaf weeds. If sheep feed on the wheat stubble the aminopyralid appears to pass through them reasonably unaltered and the use of the resulting manure can damage many plants.
Straw made from wheat stubble contains high levels of aminopyralid and is causing similar problems. Being residual once the aminopyralid is in the soil it is difficult to remove so one is left with limited growing options corn and other monocots seem to be unaffected by aminopyralid..
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April 27, at am. Arthur Hau says:. November 4, at am. Ines Radman says:. Cory Fox says:. February 26, at am. February 28, at pm. March 1, at am. January 18, at am. Fred in Sydney says:. January 17, at pm. Ron Beique says:. Not true. Pine needles do not acidify garden soils. Many things, such as climate, rainfall, irrigation water, and the soil itself influence soil pH. Pine needles are a good choice for mulching, and really economical if you have pine trees in your yard or pine straw easily available locally.
Because pine needles break down so slowly they are not good additives to turn directly into garden soils.
Best to use them as a top dressing on flower gardens, around roses, and places where weed and moisture control are desired. Despite our local concentration of pine forests, rarely is pine straw offered for sale. Use pine straw just like any other mulch. Spread it around trees and shrubs and use it to dress your garden beds. If you already have native pines and junipers on your property you know how thick the layers of needles can be.
This will ensure that your trees remain moist, while reducing native weeds and infestations of bark beetles.
Pine trees need some needles at their bases to protect their health. Give the rest away to friends and fellow gardeners in the neighborhood. Use collected pine needles around fire- resistant plants like roses, lilacs, rhododendrons, azaleas, and distyliums.
The short answer is Yes.
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