A neighbor has access to a lot of pine needles and wants to use it as a mulch around his palm trees. I told him to keep it away from the trunk and not too thick. I don't think the slight acidity would be of concern. Am I right ? Someone else told him not to do this.

if you really want to test if a type of "mulch" is harmful.. take a plant thats in a pot, that you dont really care much for.. pile your new "mulch" in the pot / around the plant.. water normally for 2 weeks or so, and see if any negative effects occur. just an idea :P

but i have also heard bad things about doing it.. id avoid it just to be safe

I agree with you Elfie. The mulch should not be piled up against the trunk to avoid fungus/insect damage to the palm. It is best to keep the mulch about 5-6 inches back from the base and should be spread loosely no more than 2 to 4 inches thick over the surrounding area. We have lots of pines in our area and use both pine needles and fine pine bark mulch throughout the garden.

http://homeguides.sfgate.com/g...

http://www.pbcgov.com/newsroom...

Elfie, generally speaking, along the coastline of Fl. our soil tends to actually benefit from some acid mulch. As long as he keeps the pine straw back from touching the trunk I would say he should use it. I have used pine straw mulch & love it. It's easy to work with & stays put, doesn't float & doesn't tend to blow away.

Good -- I will see if he can get me some also.

In natural areas, like where we go camping in a state park nature preserve in FL, pine needles are the main source of 'natural mulch.' There are tons of pine trees, some oaks, and various palms, all surrounded with tons of pine needles. A natural, native situation.

If used alone, they take a long time to degrade because they are so 'fluffy' and dry so quickly. For the first year or 2, until there develops a layer of much smaller, mostly and partially degraded bits that fit much more closely together, pine needles don't offer much in the way of moisture moderation and/or weed suppression. Stepping all over them after laying them would help flatten them somewhat, helping them to stay more moist and degrade more quickly.

If it's possible to add some leaves to the pine needles, the results would probably much more enjoyable/successful, more quickly. Organic matter degrades much more quickly when moist, and adding leaves would help with that (as well as balance the acidity, depending on the type of leaves.) Adding grass from mower bag when possible would also help. (Mow before grass forms any seeds to do this.)

too.

Thank you all for the input.