Pine Needles

What can I use pine needles for? For mulching, I mean. Raspberries? Strawberries? Lilacs? [I don't have azaleas or rhododendoms.]

Hi GL,
Put them around the plants that the slugs like, they jag their wee bums ;-)

All the best

Wintermoor

GL put them around your hosta's

you are all forgetting one thing. NOTHING grows under pine trees because the ground is way too acidic because of the pine needle mulch. You will only be able to use them to mulch plants that like acidic conditions.

Mark

Mark, do hostas like acidic conditions?
Wintermoor and Jody, I gathered up some pine needles to put around a little hosta area by the chimney. Lo and behold, part of each hosta plant had been eaten ... and I check them almost every day. So I hope the pine needles help keep those yucky slimeballs away. Thanks for the tip.

GL: Rhodos (including Azaleas) and Blueberry plants are the only things I know of that like acidic soil.

Soon we'll have the new Plants Database launched and we'll be able to browse by acidic soil, though. :-)

Dave

Well, I am growing ferns, fuscias, hosta, impatians, bleeding hearts, primroses, pacific iris , fox gloves and columbine under pine trees and heavy needle mulch. They have been doing great for the first 4 years therre so I guess they like it! But it doesn't seem to stop the snails and slugs at all. Also in that area are ajuga,polygonum capitatum and several mints that don't seem to mind. :)
oops, forgot the crocosmias that are spreading so fast in there they need thinned regularly. And the Broom makes a lovely understory planting there as well

This message was edited Tuesday, Apr 30th 7:12 PM

I mulch my hybrid tea roses and just about everything else with the needles and haven't ever had a problem. I have done it for more years than I care to mention. I have snails and slugs in my beds and the needles don't seem to be a problem for them. Maybe mine just aren't sitting down on them, huh?

Hey Mark - have you read Tom Clothier's page about manufaturing your own soil? This is quoted from him

"The theory that wood chips and pine needles and oak leaves create acid as they decompose has to have been invented by someone who is still confused by the chicken first, or egg first controversy. In nature, all decisions are based on natural selection over time. If the largest concentration of pine forests or oak forests happen to be found where the soil tends to be more acid than not, does that mean that the acidity was somehow formed by the trees? Of course not; when tree seeds are distributed by nature, those that land and germinate in areas which are favorable to their growth are going to thrive. So, as a general rule, plants of all description are going to do best in areas where they grow and reproduce the best, i.e., the plants selected the soil, not the other way around. It is just too easy to assume that because oak and pine trees prefer acid soils, that their decomposing leaves created the acidity in the soil. Those soils were acid before the trees got there, or the trees would not have thrived and created forests. Flying in the face of reported science, these opinions would probably not hold up to laboratory analysis in a test tube. But as a practical matter, your garden is your laboratory, and the results obtained there will determine what you prefer to believe. My experiments with soil amendments and Blueberry bushes indicate that changes in soil Ph can only be obtained with corresponding changes in the mineral content of that soil. Mulches composed of garden wastes, garden compost, leaf mold, composted wood chips, or any composted biodegradable materials found on your own property, will never create any significant long term change in the Ph of your soil."

If you want to read the whole article it's right here http://users.anet.com/~manytimes/page4.htm It's interesting anyways.

I use the pine needles my trees drop all the time. I mulch with them and work them into compost. They don't decompose very fast - but I don't think they hurt the soil.

We have gobs of pine trees here (and I use pine mulch a lot) and everything I've planted is doing just great. That would include daylilies, phlox, hostas, daffodils, mexican heather, dianthus, petunias, purple heart, several sedums, aster, azaleas and more.

I'm sure glad I don't need to take up the pine needles I've been putting around the plants. My DH did get me 4 pickup truck loads of mulch from the lumber co. They grind it twice. Been putting that out today.

I use pine needles around my roses garden.. Also I use regular leaves as mulch for the gardens which it will rotten in and bring good fertilzer. Every year, after the vegetable garden are over.. I filled it with pine needles and leave it until next spring then set it fire or remove it. It keep grass down. WE have plenty of pine trees around here. BUt i have to watch cause snakes likes to hid under there....