Использование опилок сосны не закислит почву и не навредит цветам

Специалисты опровергли миф о том, что мульчирование хвойными опилками делает почву слишком кислой для растений. Эксперты подтвердили, что такой материал безопасен для большинства цветов, но не способен заменить специальные добавки для выращивания голубики.

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Q: I want to spread some wood chips on my flower garden beds. My neighbors are going to have some pine trees removed and they said I could have the chips from that operation. But a friend of mine told me that using evergreen tree chips will make my soil too acidic and will kill my flowers. Is this true? A: Fortunately, it is not true. Mulching with pine wood chips or evergreen needles will not appreciably change the soil pH down where the plants’ roots are. There are a couple of reasons for this. First off, the needles or wood chips just don’t release that much acid. Secondly, even if you put down a nice, thick layer of mulch, there’s still a lot more soil than there is mulch. The soil may become slightly more acidified near the surface, but even there, it will quickly return to the pH it had before you put the mulch down. ADVERTISEMENT This is both good news and bad news. The good news is that wood chips won’t make soil too acidic for plants that don’t grow well in acidic soil. The bad news is that you can’t use mulch to acidify the soil for plants that do like acidic soil, such as blueberries. You often hear the suggestion that gardeners who want to grow blueberries should put pine needle or pine bark mulch around them to help acidify the soil. But it won’t work. If a soil test determines that your soil is not acidic enough to grow blueberries, you have to amend the soil and might have to add elemental sulfur. Or grow something that doesn’t mind the soil pH you already have. The confusion perhaps arises because the soils in pine forests are often acidic. But that’s not because the trees caused the acidity. It’s the other way around. The pine trees grow better in soil that is naturally more acidic. Organic matter such as needles and bark falling from pine trees would need many, many decades to appreciably alter the pH of the soil the trees are growing in. Mulching your flower beds with your neighbors’ wood chips is a great idea. Organic mulch preserves moisture, helps keep weeds down, and over time, as the mulch breaks down, helps improve soil quality. You are fortunate to have a free source of this valuable garden resource!