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View Full Version : Would Pine Needle Mulch Work For Bananas?


BullShark
07-21-2009, 12:03 PM
The grass and weeds grow furiously this time of year, it's a bit much to keep up with sometimes. I have quite a few pines on my property and I was considering using fallen needles to mulch around my bananas to suppress the grass and weeds. My soil is fairly neutral and I know pine needles are acid. Would this be ok for the nanners?

Jack Daw
07-21-2009, 12:22 PM
The grass and weeds grow furiously this time of year, it's a bit much to keep up with sometimes. I have quite a few pines on my property and I was considering using fallen needles to mulch around my bananas to suppress the grass and weeds. My soil is fairly neutral and I know pine needles are acid. Would this be ok for the nanners?
Pine needles and needles in general include toxic (at least for other plants) essential oils.

alexizhere19
07-21-2009, 12:32 PM
The grass and weeds grow furiously this time of year, it's a bit much to keep up with sometimes. I have quite a few pines on my property and I was considering using fallen needles to mulch around my bananas to suppress the grass and weeds. My soil is fairly neutral and I know pine needles are acid. Would this be ok for the nanners?

Hey Jack,

I live in South Carolina where pines are plentiful. Now i myself have used pine needles before years ago when we had them on the property but I now use hardwood mulch and Oak leaves. But the local lowes and nurseries sell them in bales as mulch and people use them like crazy and I have notice no ill effects but then again i used for 3 years and maybe it takes longer to show effects. I have never heard of toxins causin problems. Is there something i'm missing or is there a certain type of pine. We generally use long needle pines, so if you would chime in and help us out.

alex

alexizhere19
07-21-2009, 12:34 PM
Quote by Jack Daw "Pine needles and needles in general include toxic (at least for other plants) essential oils."

Forgot to mention that these are brown needles not green so these toxins may have been leached out.

alex

Jack Daw
07-21-2009, 12:59 PM
Quote by Jack Daw "Pine needles and needles in general include toxic (at least for other plants) essential oils."

Forgot to mention that these are brown needles not green so these toxins may have been leached out.

alex
Yeo, those are dried and toxins have probably moved out of the needle. But I thought that the original question regarded fresh needles. Go for a walk to the wild and look below any pine tree (or any with needles for that matter), there's a very scarse, very typical vegetation that doesn't mind these toxins. Other than that, it's just plain soil.

alexizhere19
07-21-2009, 01:03 PM
Yeo, those are dried and toxins have probably moved out of the needle. But I thought that the original question regarded fresh needles. Go for a walk to the wild and look below any pine tree (or any with needles for that matter), there's a very scarse, very typical vegetation that doesn't mind these toxins. Other than that, it's just plain soil.

Ok, i wasn't sure either about fresh or dried. I wanted to make sure. Thanks for your input Jack.

alex

Bananaman88
07-21-2009, 02:39 PM
Pine needles should be perfectly fine for use on your bananas. We use them all the time as a mulch where I work. They are acidic, but from what I understand, the amount of acidity they add to the soil is neglegible.

BullShark
07-21-2009, 03:30 PM
I've seen them used on strawberry and blueberry so seeing as Bananaman88 isn't having any problem with them I'll give it a try.

FWIW I am talking about dry, dead pine needles. I'm not aware of any toxic effect though. Where I live it's normal to find all kinds of stuff growing around pines. Usually palmettos, beauty berry, grass, vines and blackberry. The only time other things won't grow around a pine tree is when there's a thick blanket of pine needles mulching out new growth. There are many kinds of pine tree though so some may have a different effect.

LilRaverBoi
07-21-2009, 07:21 PM
Yeah, I've been told pine needles will increase the acidity of your soil. Not sure the significance of this as I've never experimented with it. Just throwing that into the discussion.

alexizhere19
07-21-2009, 07:28 PM
Yeah, I've been told pine needles will increase the acidity of your soil. Not sure the significance of this as I've never experimented with it. Just throwing that into the discussion.

It will increase acidity in your soil over time, but dont look for a huge lift immediately. From MY experience in 3 years i saw point drop from 6.6 to 5.6 around my house where I used them. but another two years later the PH was 5.5 so in my opinion i noticed that it lowers to a certain level but it leveled of around that. now on that note thats not to say that after 10 years it wouldn' drop more. But that's nothing a little lime couldn't fix as it is a easy source of mulch here.

alex

sirmoebly
07-21-2009, 07:55 PM
I have used pine needles for 10 years and I think there great..... sometimes the neighbors come down for some.......I have heavy clay soil thou...