Get rid of mulch?

I know zilch about gardening, but I will hopefully get my rhizomes from Midwest soon. I seem to be in the minority, in that I haven't gotten a notice from them yet.

I've got an area next to my house that I plan to use for my hops. My MIL says that I need to strip off all of last year's mulch first, as I don't know what sorts of fungus may be growing in it. I had't heard/read anything about this anywhere else, but I guess I haven't read anything about planting hops in previously mulched soil, either. Anyone have any experience/thoughts/advice.

In unrelated (and admittedly off topic) news, I've got my first yeast culture growing successfully from the dregs of some Sierra Nevada bottles. At the same time I discovered that my tolerance ain't what it used to be. If you want a good time, I recommend putting away a few beers and purusing the Motivational Posters thread.

I do not remove the previous years mulch.

I dont, the old mulch wil actually start to compost over time.

I don't mulch my hops at all & neither do any of the hop farms around here. Too much of a chance to pickup molds/mildews. In the winter, the fields are bare dirt.

It probably depends on where you live, there's a reason all the hops are grownin the Northwest. And just as importantly, how you mulch. From researching on planting a tree, they suggest that the mulch doesn't actually touch the plant, but just covers the ground around it; that way it will hold the moisture in but no mildew/mold problems on the plant.

Then you certainly want to remove it. It takes way to long to breakdown and will consume allot of nutrients doing so. It can also harbor fungus and molds. Not what you want.
I, like some others here, do not mulch my hops in any way. If your in a really dry area, your could mulch but you want to think about it first. Good watering will serve much better than mulching IMHO.

If you don't use wood mulch, you don't have to worry about it. If you use shredded leaves, they'll break down and fertilize before the next season, so there's nothing to remove.

http://www.gardensalive.com/article.asp?ai=760

Fungi (molds are fungi too) in your mulch are nothing to worry about. The fungi in your mulch are not the same ones that are going to cause diseases on your plants. Any diseases might be from the mulch retaining too much moisture, which favors the growth of pathogenic fungi and bacteria carried in by the wind or splashed off neighboring infected plants. What you do want to do is remove any of last years plant debris. This is where many of the problems arise. Spores on last year's plant debris gets splashed onto the new growth and causes problems. Remove the debris and you've gone a long way to preventing disease - same for your vegetable garden.

The fungi in the mulch are saprobes - they get the nutrients from dead plant matter only, that's why they are in your mulch, they don't kill it themselves. Pathogens on the other hand, like their food to be alive.

With the switch to lots of no-till farming, diseases problems have also increased. Now there is less labor and less soil erosion, but it has beeen a trade off. It used to be that the old plant material was plowed under so it was more difficult for the spores to get on the developing plants (many attack only leaves, not roots). In fact, there is lots of research into using compost and mulches (and the beneficial microbes they contain) to help to control plant diseases.

pjj2ba said:

In fact, there is lots of research into using compost and mulches (and the beneficial microbes they contain) to help to control plant diseases.

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Thats very cool. My local landfill gives away mulch and compost fron their mulch piles. Was going to pick up a load today to mix with my soil.