{"id":2457,"date":"2012-01-01T12:00:13","date_gmt":"2012-01-01T17:00:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/?p=2457"},"modified":"2011-12-28T17:52:40","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T22:52:40","slug":"volcano-mulching-harmful","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/2012\/01\/01\/volcano-mulching-harmful\/","title":{"rendered":"Volcano Mulching Harmful"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_2458\" style=\"width: 310px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5205.jpg\"><img aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2458\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-2458\" title=\"IMG_5205\" src=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5205-300x225.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"225\" srcset=\"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5205-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/12\/IMG_5205-1024x768.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><p id=\"caption-attachment-2458\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mulch Piled Up Around Tree<\/p><\/div>\n<p>Piling up mulch around trees or shrubs, called \u201cvolcano mulching\u201d, is a bad practice and is killing them. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen a neighbor or a professional landscaper doing it, and assumed that it must be alright. It&#8217;s not!<\/p>\n<p>The\u00a0deep mulch pile smothers the natural buttress flair of the trunk which breathes and absorbs air for the rootsystem. The sugary sap underneath the thin bark skin\u00a0is a food source for harmful insects which overwinter\u00a0in the mulch piled around the bark. It also becomes a haven for\u00a0critters, particularly rabbits and field mice.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Organic-based mulches aid to conserve soil moisture, moderate soil temperature extremes and reduce competition from weeds. It\u00a0also keeps mowers and string weeders (&#8220;weed wackers&#8221;) away from potentially damaging the tree trunk.<\/p>\n<p>Mulch depth is recommended at 2-3 inches and is distributed around the tree in the form of a donut. The bulk of the mulch should lay\u00a03 or more inches away from the trunk and taper off near the tree\u2019s dripline (outer extent of branches). Excessive depth of the mulch\u00a0also promotes shallow rooting by reducing oxygen\u00a0to the roots. Trees become more susceptible to prolonged periods of drought.<\/p>\n<p>Organic mulches include pine bark, hardwood bark, chopped leaves, pine needles, and composted grass clippings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Piling up mulch around trees or shrubs, called \u201cvolcano mulching\u201d, is a bad practice and is killing them. Perhaps you\u2019ve seen a neighbor or a professional landscaper doing it, and assumed that it must be alright. It&#8217;s not! The\u00a0deep mulch pile smothers the natural buttress flair of the trunk which breathes and absorbs air for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[650,645,9,816,719,716,551,597,630,1,113,162,642],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2457"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2563,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2457\/revisions\/2563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2457"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2457"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/whatgrowsthere.com\/grow\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2457"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}