Exoten und Garten Forum               Hardy Palm and Subtropical Board


9,766,978 Messages displayed since 03/03/2007

Re: I split the straps...LOL:

Message from Jim Wilmington DE 7a

You're a cheater, Mike! A no good, palm-having cheater! Splitting strap leaves for the full-frond effect... That's like me stretching out my cat's ears so I can have a rabbit! Wait! I don't have a cat! Then what's that furry thing in my house?!?

Rubber mulch. Jeez. That may have been my first real flame war (me on the receiving end) on this board.

I like the stuff. I use it all the time. But, depending on the plant, I also use raked leaves, fallen White Pine needles, and regular wood chip mulch. For protecting my Sabal Minor volunteers, it's 100% rubber mulch. My larger Trachy & Palmetto get a LOT of raked leaves with a top dressing of rubber mulch. Then, those two get a bottomless trashcan over top of them with a plexiglas lid. But, for the little guys, the "volunteers", I bury them in rubber mulch and it works out really great. Rubber mulch may not be as good an insulator as woodchips, but what it lacks in that department is made up for in the fact that precipitation drains through rubber mulch and gets to the ground whereas more organic mulching material becomes soggy and waterlogged. Of course, waterlogged mulch (of any kind) loses much of its insulating capacity.

I was mildly attacked about 8 years ago here for saying I used rubber mulch. People posted links telling me that when rubber mulch breaks down, bad stuff leaches out from the mulch and goes into the soil, actually making it more dangerous to plants and other living things, etc. I recall zinc being one of the "bad actors" involved. At any rate, get informed, and then make your own choice. I still use it.


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