One tree lover decided to give a little gift to their friends in the r/arborists subreddit with a post titled, "Thought you guys would hate this."
The post contained a photo of several small trees, each with its own mulch volcano. "Local dealership, 50 or so trees dotting each side of the road, all mounded," the poster explained.
A mulch volcano is when someone packs a pile of mulch around the base of a tree, forming a mound that resembles a volcano. Though this is ostensibly intended to protect the tree, it actually does the opposite, as the mulch mound can confuse the tree's roots into growing upward and strangling the trunk instead of into the ground as nature intended.
The mulch volcano also packs moisture against the base of the trunk, leaving it susceptible to rot, fungus, and insects.
Surprisingly, this is a common practice even among many professional landscapers. (It is reasonable to assume, though not a sure thing, that some level of professionals were hired to handle the trees planted around this car dealership.)
While many of these professionals may not actually know the best ways to keep a tree healthy and growing, part of the problem is also a lack of public awareness around how destructive mulch volcanoes are. When customers see them all over the place, they likely assume that the volcanoes are actually desirable, and landscapers may feel that customers don't believe they are getting their money's worth without visual evidence. A mulch volcano is, if nothing else, evidence that somebody has done something.
In reality, however, the best practice for mulching a tree is to spread a thin layer of mulch but leave the tree's root flare exposed to the elements.
The other members of the tree-loving subreddit were simply not having it.
"I have about 45 minutes of urban forestry training and know this is wrong," one commenter wrote.
"Never thought I'd say this, but let's all come together to hate," another said.
"I'm not mad, I'm just disappointed," someone else chimed in.
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