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Old 03-06-2008, 12:51 PM   #12 (permalink)
JoeReal
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Default Re: Best Mulch For Banana Plants????

Quote:
Originally Posted by hydrojeff View Post
hi all, my good friend has a tree service and have used alot of the mulch before, but 2 years ago he gave me a load of it and it was full of spider mites, its been the worst battle ive ever been in and still not won yet, alot of the trees they cut are dead or dieing limbs because of bugs,mites or what have you, so i keep the stuff away from my plants now. just my thoughts, i like the way pine bark breaks down, and its cheaper if you get 3 or more yards delivered and the large pieces i think look nice.
I sometimes order redwood bark nuggets by the cubic yards, delivered. What I do if there are mites or other bugs, I would soak the nuggets in water inside big trash bin. Laborious, but it kills mites and washes off a lot of weed seeds. I then spread it over the driveway to dry a little bit, then spread it around. But often, the bark nuggets are clean, but I did it once when I saw several crawling critters, and it worked. One thing for sure, spider mites don't like water.
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