Mulch on a Kona coffee farm
6 August 2009
Gardeners love mulch. Kona coffee farmers do too. A good layer of
mulch can help keep in moisture, keep out the weeds, prevent erosion and create
a healthy biomass. When it decomposes, the mulch composts into a nutrient
rich top soil. As a Kona coffee farmer, I use lots and lots of mulch.
The local dump, like many cities, has huge piles of mulch that are free
for the taking. Here in Hawaii things grow so fast, creating so much
yard waste, that Kona has a hard time getting rid of all the mulch that
is generated. The mulch piles at the dump can get so large and so hot
that they catch on fire. To prevent this, the city once offered free
trucking to anybody that would take the mulch.
With the city offering to pay for trucking, I was eager to take all the
mulch they'd give me. Unfortunately, so was every other farmer so the
offer only lasted a millisecond or two. I wasn't the first in line so
I didn't get any free mulch.
I have a trailer and I've hauled in my own mulch before but even a
trailer full of mulch doesn't go very far. For the farm, I'd need
several dump truck loads which can cost a couple hundred dollars just
for hauling. Instead, I make most of our mulch right here on the farm.
The main sources of mulch on the farm comes from the coffee trees
themselves. Processing the coffee generates a lot of pulp which I
spread right back on the farm.
Pruning the coffee trees every year also
generates a lot of mulch. That would be a huge loss of nutrients if
I burned or removed the pruned coffee branches from the farm. Chipping
the branches into mulch is a lot of work but it helps put the nutrients
back into the ground which means less fertilizer is needed. That saves
me money and is easier on the planet, win/win.
I also get a lot of mulch when removing the old macadamia nut trees. A
macadamia nut tree generates a surprising amount of mulch and removing
an entire orchard makes several giant piles. It's great mulch except
for one problem: the pigs love it. That means I can't put it anywhere
near young coffee trees or else the pigs will dig up the trees while
rooting through the stinky, moldy, rotting, bug ridden mulch that the
pigs find so delicious.
The mulch doesn't go to waste though, there are always places on the
farm that need some extra mulch. I have a couple steep sections and
applying a little extra mulch helps prevent erosion during our
torrential tropical downpours. This is good because not only do I want
to keep the top soil on my farm, I also don't want to flood out the
neighbors below me. Good mulching helps the rain soak in rather than
run off.
The island is a giant volcano so our ground is amazingly rocky and
porous. I am constantly dealing with cave-ins and sink holes but top
soil is far too precious to use for things like filling holes.
Instead, I'll fill the hole with a bunch of rocks. The mower doesn't
like rocks so I'll cover them with a layer of mulch. Within a few
months the mulch is covered with a thick layer of weeds and grass and
their roots hold everything in place. Sometimes the hole will cave in
again but usually, if I filled it correctly, it's as if it was never
there.
Chipping branches and moving the mulch around is a lot of work. I
generally hire help for the bigger jobs which means it's not free.
Still, the gains in nutrient management, erosion prevention and just
having a nicer farm are well worth the effort.
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