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Home → Publications → Tree Planters' Notes → Tree Planters' Notes Issue 41 (1960) → A Test of Wood Fiber Pads as a Seedbed Mulch

A Test of Wood Fiber Pads as a Seedbed Mulch

Newly planted seedbeds, especially fall sown ones, are often covered with a mulch. These mulches serve a number of purposes--protection from wind and water erosion, retention of moisture, prevention of frost heaving, retardation of weed growth during the pregermination period, and reduction of premature germination in the spring. A variety of materials have been used, with burlap, straw, and pine needles probably the most common. None of these has all the properties that a nurseryman desires in a mulching material. Recently a company in Cloquet, Minn., has been experimenting with loose pads of sulphite wood fiber as a mulch that might permit germinating tree seeds but not weed seeds to emerge through it. The low price of such material would allow the nurseryman to leave it on the seedbeds where it would eventually disintegrate after having served its purpose. Fungicides, insecticides, and fertilizers could be incorporated during the fabrication of the pad to increase its utility.


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Author(s): Richard F. Watt

Publication: Tree Planters' Notes - Issue 41 (1960)