Mulching

What do you guys use to mulch around your hops? Anything in particular or is mulch just mulch?

i use compost instead of mulch

Nothing now but compost last fall when I cut them down.

I use leaves and grass clippings from the bagger on my mower.

Spent grains.

shredded leaves. i'd be worried about spent grains rotting and not composting since they are usually full of all kinds of funky bacterium and fungus.

Oh, I composted the hell out of the ground I put the rhyzomes in. I think I'll just dump all the grass clippings around the plants next time I mow.

I bought a big bag of pine bark mulch at home depot for like $3. I spread it about an inch deep, in a 9-12 inch radius around my first year hop sprouts. It does a great job deterring weeds.

I compost and now use a cover crop of Dutch White Clover.

BrewDoc_Md said:

I bought a big bag of pine bark mulch at home depot for like $3. I spread it about an inch deep, in a 9-12 inch radius around my first year hop sprouts. It does a great job deterring weeds.

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I read something about not using "normal" wood chip mulch. Something about it leaching the nutrients out of the soil maybe? Maybe someone who knows something can help me with this...

when wood mulches break down they use a lot of nitrogen to do so, this is coming from your hops and is sapping your hops total biomass.

eriktlupus said:

shredded leaves. i'd be worried about spent grains rotting and not composting since they are usually full of all kinds of funky bacterium and fungus.

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I spread them out in the driveway for a few days to dry.

eriktlupus said:

shredded leaves. i'd be worried about spent grains rotting and not composting since they are usually full of all kinds of funky bacterium and fungus.

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During the winter I was dumping mine over a pile of dirt by the garage. By this spring I had some really great looking compost underneath the crusty top layer. I was so impressed by it that I will be setting up a proper composting arrangement for all my spent grain and dead hop bines.

Gila - you use a ground cover plant around your hops? How well does that work out? Do you run into problems with the clover spreading further than you want it to?

I use grass clippings around the hops and around the whole garden. If I need extra I will pull off the partially composted pile. I've also found a local stable here that has a huge pile of straw + "Extras" that they give away as fertilizer. I let that sit on the compost pile for a little while before I use it for mulch, that way it won't burn any plants. It is mostly straw.

N5629 said:

Gila - you use a ground cover plant around your hops? How well does that work out? Do you run into problems with the clover spreading further than you want it to?

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Yeah. I am playing with the cover crop / green manure approach. So far, It has been excellent. I have little to no maintenance in weeding my yard and the cover crop does well to keep the soil moist longer. The real test of this will come mid summer when Oklahoma heats up into the triples.

The clover does attract all manner of insects, which can be hard to locate and indentify but, to date, all the pests have been focused on teh clover and not the hops. If I let the clover goto flower, I'll have to be mindful of bee's.

As far as spreading goes, the cover crop is too young. I sowed the seed just this spring. However, my yard is comprised of raised boxes so unless I let teh clover go to seed I should'nt have to worry about spreading.

I am still learning about proper maintenance with the cover crop and have yet to decide how I will choose to proceed. From readings, the clover will bind nitrogen to the soil through out it's life span but, many still till the crop in to get the maximum benifit.

If nothing else, I like the live mulch aspect. I find all manner of pirate bugs and lady beetles within teh yard and find no sign of aphids or mites.......Yet. also, when I water deeply, I find earthworm come to the surface more readily. a good sign in my opinion as they will do more to keep the soil aerated and provide the plant delicacy casings.

Too soon to say really. And too late to turn back now.

When planting this year, we used mostly compost, which is comprised of, but not limited to: grass clippings, leaves, wood stove ashes, vegetable waste, rabbit manure and "used" bedding, coffee grounds, trub and discarded yeast, and spent grains. We mixed it about 50/50 with top soil to avoid having the soil be too rich.

I mulch with horse manure. I use well composted around the hops and other vegetables. I use fresh manure between the hops to keep the weeds down. Additionally, I have added 6-8" of manure over the winter over the entire garden. I also use fly predators to keep the flies down.
I think that it works really well. It keeps the weeds down and provides good nutrients.
Check out a picture from today. You can see the manure around the base of the plants: