Does grass not grow under juniper/cedar trees?

[spidey07]

This is really weird. Lawn is extremely healthy but grass refuses to grow at all and in fact is completely dead under my juniper trees leaving basically bare dirt. It's not the shade, it's the tree.

 

[Brainonska511]

AFAIK, pine needles and such tend to be acidic, so when they break down on the grass on top, it creates conditions where grass won't grow.

 

[Red Squirrel]

Toxins from the tree sound like it makes more sense, but maybe it's the roots? They may be "starving" the grass of nutrients. We have a big lindin tree and grass hardly grows under it, but think part of the reason may be shade.

 

[Robsasman]

Originally posted by: Brainonska511
AFAIK, pine needles and such tend to be acidic, so when they break down on the grass on top, it creates conditions where grass won't grow.

Yeah I read this once. I have a big spruce tree in the front yard and nothing will grow under it.

 

[lxskllr]

I think it's shade. I have cedar, and I used to have a juniper and they had grass under them. My walnuts have grass under them, but my red maple doesn't.

 

[lxskllr]

Lady's Slipper grows under pine trees specifically. They're fairly rare, and quite delicate; pretty though...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cypripedium_acaule

 

[silverpig]

It's not shade. It can be, but what really does it is the needles. They really mess up the pH of the soil such that grass will not grow there. If you rake up all the needles, put down some lime and maybe some fresh topsoil, grass will grow again, but to keep it alive you have to rake up the stuff that falls from the trees often.

 

[BoomerD]

Probably. I have Italian Cypress trees in my back yard and not only don't I have any grass growing under them, no weeds grow there either.
We have some redwoods in another part of the yard and so far, the only thing that will live there is a couple of spindly hostas.

 

[Strk]

As Brainonska511 said, junipers are cause the soil to become acidic. It can be pretty strong too if the junipers have been there a while.

Take advantage of it and grow some strawberries.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: Strk
As Brainonska511 said, junipers are cause the soil to become acidic. It can be pretty strong too if the junipers have been there a while.

Take advantage of it and grow some strawberries.

Thanks! It's like nothing will grow under them except for some weird looking weeds and believe it or not their leafs are "strawberry like". Other than that it's bare earth. The junipers have been there a LONG time.

Do you think I could mix some dolomite or lime into the soil to raise the pH?

 

[MikeMike]

Originally posted by: spidey07

Originally posted by: Strk
As Brainonska511 said, junipers are cause the soil to become acidic. It can be pretty strong too if the junipers have been there a while.

Take advantage of it and grow some strawberries.

Thanks! It's like nothing will grow under them except for some weird looking weeds and believe it or not their leafs are "strawberry like". Other than that it's bare earth. The junipers have been there a LONG time.

Do you think I could mix some dolomite or lime into the soil to raise the pH?

of course you can mix anything you want into the soil in order to raise the PH... should get a sample and see what the PH is currently, and then instead of mixing, use the current soil's PH as a way to grow plants that normally would not grow in your normal soil because they require more acidic soil...

 

[0roo0roo]

you don't want grass near the trunk/roots. over competition. mulch that area.

 

[Clair de Lune]

Originally posted by: 0roo0roo
you don't want grass near the trunk/roots. over competition. mulch that area.

This.

That's exactly what mulch is for. Grass just won't grow there due to so many factors (shade, nutrition, acidity, etc).

Put a nice ring of bricks around it, then mulch it. It'll look very nice, especially compared to dead ground.

 

[lykaon78]

Change the pH enough, and you might hurt your tree. Call you local garden store (not a box store) and get their take.

 

[spidey07]

Originally posted by: lykaon78
Change the pH enough, and you might hurt your tree. Call you local garden store (not a box store) and get their take.

Thanks. I've got a soil pH meter and probably agree not to screw with things until I talk to an expert for our area. My local garden store knows me by name anyway so I'll drop by and say hello.