HOUSTON – Don’t think about a volcano when you’re mulching your trees. Do a doughnut instead.
What are we talking about? This.
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When you’re mulching your trees, you want to create a doughnut shape around them with the mulch so they will receive vital nutrients and receive water at the roots without dampening the tree’s trunk.
Penn State Extension, a government-funded educational organization for science-based information, notes that mulch should not be mounded around the trunk and mulch should only be a few inches deep. Experts advise the root flare should be visible and the mulch should extend, if possible, to the edge of the tree’s crown, or the drip line.
“More than 4 inches may harm the tree’s root system,” the agricultural reference website adds. “If using finely textured or double-shredded mulch, use 1 to 2 inches since these materials allow less oxygen through to the root zone.”
Overmulching or “volcano” mulching landscape trees is common, according to Penn State Extension.
“This is most obvious when mulch extends up the trunk, smothering the root flare and root zone,” the website reads. “(It) is never recommended and should not be utilized. As beneficial as mulch is, too much mulch is harmful. Deep mulch may suppress weeds, but it wastes time and money and can cause major health problems that lead to tree decline and possibly death.”
The North Carolina Forest Council agrees and has some great guidance on its website: “Just say no to volcano mulch!”
But we’re in Texas, right? What does the Lone Star State experts at Texas A&M Forest Service say. The same thing, y’all.
We especially love this simple advice/warning: “Volcano Mulch - BAD, Proper mulching - GOOD.”
If you didn’t get the memo fast enough and you need to help your trees return to health, here’s some great help on what to do.