Short answer: Mulch is a layer of dry material laid over the soil to slow evaporation, keep the surface cooler and hold water through the dry spells that come in most Ghanaian seasons. Use crop residue you already have, keep it a few centimetres off the stem, and lay it on soil that is already moist. Top it up as it breaks down, and make sure any poultry litter is composted before it goes anywhere near a seedling.
Key takeaways
- Lay mulch on damp soil, never on dry soil, because it only holds the water that is already there.
- Use 5 to 10 cm of loose material and keep it at least 5 cm clear of every stem.
- Choose materials you have checked for herbicide residue, and let fresh grass wilt before it goes down.
- Compost poultry litter before it touches a seedling, and put it under the mulch rather than on top.
- Mulch in the week before a dry spell arrives, because a bed covered in the middle of one has already lost water.
The dry spell that undoes a good planting
Ask a farmer in the Central Region what went wrong with a planting that looked perfect in June, and you will often get the same story. The rain stopped for ten days in July, the top few centimetres of soil went pale and crusty, and the young plants wilted every afternoon and did not come back at night. The seed was good. The land was ploughed and ridged. What the plot lacked was a cover to stop the water leaving through the surface.
That is the problem mulching solves. Bare soil under a hot sun gives up moisture from its top layer very quickly, sometimes faster than the roots of a young crop can pull water up from below. A layer of dry material laid on top works like a lid. It cuts the sunlight reaching the ground, slows the wind across the surface, and keeps the soil beneath cooler and darker, so less water goes up into the air.
We are a day-old chicks hatchery, and we do not sell mulch or any other farm input. We write about it because many of the farmers who buy chicks from us also grow maize, vegetables or cassava on the same land. The dry spell that tests a poultry house's water supply tests the crops around it too, and a little ground cover can decide whether a plot gets through August.
What mulch does to the soil
Three things happen when mulch goes down. It helps to know all three, because then you can judge whether a material is doing its job or just sitting there.
- It cuts evaporation. Water that would have left the surface stays in the root zone for longer. A well-mulched bed can keep its top layer damp for several days after the rain stops, where a bare bed may dry out in a couple of hot afternoons.
- It evens out the temperature. The soil under mulch swings less between the midday heat and the cool of the night. Seedlings cope better with a steadier temperature, and the soil life that breaks down organic matter stays active for longer into the dry season.
- It slows the weeds. Most weed seeds need light to germinate. A thick enough layer blocks much of the light that the seedlings need, so you spend fewer hours with the hoe in the first weeks.
Dry, woody mulch adds little nutrient on its own. As it breaks down it does feed the soil, which is a reason to pick a material that rots at a pace suited to your crop. The thickest, toughest thing you can find is not always the best choice.
Materials that work on Ghanaian farms
Most farmers already have enough material to mulch a few beds straight after harvest. The table sets out what is usually to hand and where each one earns its place. Read the last column before you bring a load in from the mill or the market.
| Material | Where it usually comes from | Suits | Watch for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Maize stover (dry stalks and leaves) | Your own field, straight after the harvest | Vegetables, cassava, young tree crops | Chop it finer than you think, because long stalks blow away in the harmattan |
| Rice husk or rice straw | Mills in the rice-growing areas | Beds of tomato, pepper and onion | Husk is slow to rot and light enough to blow; peg it down |
| Groundnut haulms | Your own field, after groundnut lifting | Maize, cowpea and vegetables | Dry them properly; damp haulms go mouldy under the bed |
| Dry grass clippings | Compound edges, field margins, roadsides | Thin layers around seedlings | Fresh cut grass heats and smells if piled thick, so let it wilt first |
| Sawdust | Sawmills and carpentry shops | Paths and rings around perennial plants | Find out whether the wood was treated; fresh sawdust can tie up nitrogen for a while |
| Black polythene sheeting | Agro-input shops and hardware stores | Pepper and tomato beds with drip lines laid under it | Not organic, and it sheds rain unless you cut planting holes |
Whatever you choose, keep the material dry when you lay it. Avoid hay or straw from fields that were sprayed with a broadleaf weedkiller, because some residues survive the threshing and can damage tomato, cowpea and other broadleaf crops. If you are not sure where a bale came from, ask the seller or leave it out.
How thick to lay it, and when
A common rule of thumb is 5 to 10 cm of loose mulch on a bed. Less than 3 cm usually lets too much light through to the weeds and too much sun onto the soil. More than 10 cm packs down into a mat that sheds water instead of holding it, particularly after the first heavy shower.
Lay mulch on soil that is already moist. This is the step most people get backwards. A dry bed covered with dry material stays dry, because the mulch is holding back water that was never there in the first place. Water the bed well or wait for a proper soaking rain, then spread the material by hand, loosely, and pull it back from each seedling so the leaves are not resting in it.
For transplanted vegetables, mulch once the seedlings have taken hold, usually two or three weeks after transplanting. For direct-sown maize or cowpea, many farmers wait until the crop is up and about a hand's height before they mulch between the rows, so the young plants are not buried under the first layer.
Keep the mulch off the stem
Pile mulch against a stem and you invite rot, stem borers and rodents to the same spot. Leave a gap of about 5 cm around each plant. This matters most for young pepper, tomato, cabbage and cassava cuttings, which can soften at the base if wet mulch sits against them through the rains.
Trees such as mango, cashew or citrus need the same rule, but you can spread the mulch much wider, out towards the edge of the canopy. A wide ring also stops grass growing back against the trunk, which means one less job with the cutlass later in the year.
Mulch in heavy rain and on slopes
Mulch is not a cure for a field that floods. On a flat plot with poor drainage, a thick layer of wet material can keep the surface soggy and encourage damping off in seedlings. Cut a shallow drain on the low side before the rains arrive, and pull the mulch back from the edges where water collects.
On slopes, loose mulch can wash downhill in the first big storm of the major season. Lay it in strips across the slope, or peg the heavier material down with a few bamboo or wooden stakes. On steep ground, plant a line of grass or a cover crop along the contour and mulch the beds behind it.
The reason to keep some cover on the ground even in a wet month is simple. Mulch absorbs the force of the falling drops. Bare soil takes the full blow and seals over, and once it is sealed the water runs off instead of soaking in. A layer of stover or haulms prevents that sealing, so more of the rain goes where the roots can reach it.
The pests that like a mulch bed
Mulch is a good home for the creatures you would rather not have in the bed. Snails and slugs shelter under wet material during the day and feed at night. Rats and cane rats use a thick heap as cover. Termites will work through dry stalks, especially on sandy soil near old stumps.
Keep the mulch loose so that the surface dries out after rain, and pull it back once a week to look underneath. If snail damage shows on young leaves, follow your agric extension officer's advice on control. A clean margin around the bed usually helps more than any single product, because it removes the cover the pests use to reach the crop.
Fall armyworm and other caterpillars can hide in mulch too, and that is worth remembering when you scout a maize field. Turn over a handful of mulch in the early morning and look for larvae, droppings and chewed leaf whorls.
Timing across the seasons
Mulch has a different job in each part of the year, and the calendar changes between the north and the south. In the forest and coastal zones the major rains run from about April to July, with a short dry break often arriving in late June or July. The minor rains come around September to November. In the northern savannah there is a single rainy season, roughly May to October, followed by a long dry season that runs into the harmattan from December to February.
The harmattan is the dry, dusty wind from the north. It lowers the humidity and dries surfaces quickly, and the nights can be cool enough to draw heat out of the soil. Mulch laid in November protects a bed from both, though the light material can blow off unless it is heavier or pegged. Vegetable beds kept going in the dry months, such as those near a borehole or a stream on the Accra plains, rely on mulch as much as on the watering can.
Plan the mulching for the week before the dry spell, not for the middle of it. A bed mulched in the second week of a dry spell has already spent part of the water it could have kept.
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Where poultry manure fits in
Many mixed farmers ask whether they can mulch with poultry litter. The short answer is not fresh. Litter straight from a deep-litter house is high in ammonia and soluble nitrogen. Spread thickly around young seedlings it can scorch the leaves, and while it rots it draws nitrogen out of the soil the plants need. Compost it first, turning it for several weeks until it is dark, crumbly and no longer smells sharp. Our guide to composting poultry litter in Ghana goes through the steps.
Once it is composted, litter can go on the bed underneath the dry mulch. The mulch then holds the moisture the compost needs and slows the nutrients washing away in the rain. For a fuller plan on the crop side, read our notes on using poultry manure as fertiliser.
If you are only just starting with birds, the day-old chicks page sets out what to plan before the first flock arrives. Sorting out where the litter will go before the birds are in is much easier than working it out afterwards.
A checklist before you lay the mulch
- Water the bed well, or wait for a soaking rain, and check that the top 10 cm is moist when you push a finger in.
- Pull out weeds that are already seeding, and remove any stems showing rot or borer damage.
- Choose a material you have checked for herbicide residue and for signs of mould.
- Chop stover and haulms into pieces of about 10 to 15 cm so they lie flat instead of blowing away.
- Spread the mulch loosely to a depth of 5 to 10 cm, and keep it at least 5 cm clear of every stem.
- Leave a clear strip around the bed so rodents and snails have less cover to hide in.
- Write down the date, and look at the bed again after the next two dry weeks.
Does mulch pay on your farm?
Mulch costs labour, plus whatever material you do not already have on the farm. The return comes from fewer watering trips, fewer hours with the hoe and a crop that does not stop in the middle of a dry spell. To judge it for your own plot, use three figures: the hours it takes to gather and spread the material, the value of the water or time you save, and the yield you expect from the bed with and without mulch.
Put your own local figures into the sum. Labour rates, the price of a bag of stover or a load of sawdust, and what a crop fetches all change with the season and the town, so check your local market and current rates before you decide. Mulch is not a magic number. It is one practice among several, and it pays most where water is the limit.
Here is the shape of a worked example, with the money left blank for you to fill. A bed 20 m long and 1.2 m wide is 24 square metres. At 8 cm of mulch that is about 2 cubic metres of loose material, which takes a couple of people a few hours to gather, chop and spread. If the bed then needs three fewer watering rounds in a dry fortnight, multiply the hours saved by your own labour value and set it against the material and labour cost. Do the sum once with real numbers before you assume the answer.
Where mulch fits on a mixed farm
A plot that already has mulched beds and a flock of birds is in a good position to add more of either, one step at a time. Mulch improves the ground you already have, and it costs little if the material is on the farm. Poultry adds income and manure to the same holding.
If you are thinking about adding birds, we sell day-old chicks for the usual meat and layer lines. Ross 308 and Cobb 500 start from GH₵20 per bird, Hy-Line Brown from GH₵23, and the full range is on our day-old chick prices page. You can compare breeds on the breeds page and order through the order form. For questions before you buy, WhatsApp or call +233 24 915 1503, or write to support@halaalfarms.com.
For a wider view of how crops and birds work together, see our notes on integrating poultry with crops and fish and our piece on growing tomato in Ghana, which shows how a bed is prepared before planting.
Questions farmers ask
How thick should mulch be on a Ghanaian farm?
Aim for 5 to 10 cm of loose material on the bed. Under 3 cm lets light through to the weeds and does little for moisture. Much over 10 cm packs into a mat that sheds water. Keep the material at least 5 cm clear of stems, and top it up when it breaks down over the season. Adjust the depth to the material, because chopped stover packs differently from groundnut haulms.
Can I use fresh grass clippings as mulch?
Only in thin layers, and only after they have wilted for a day or two in the sun. Fresh cut grass piled thickly heats up, goes slimy and smells. A thin layer of wilted clippings is useful around seedlings and in the path between beds. Keep the clippings away from stems and do not use grass cut from a field that has been sprayed with a weedkiller.
Does mulch attract snails, rats or termites?
It can. Snails and slugs hide under wet mulch during the day, rodents use thick heaps as cover, and termites feed on dry stalks, especially on sandy soil near old stumps. Keep the mulch loose so it dries after rain, check underneath weekly, and clear a strip around the bed. Follow your agric extension officer's advice if the damage becomes serious.
When is the right time to mulch maize?
Mulch between the rows once the maize is up and about a hand high, so the young plants are not buried. In the forest zone that is usually a few weeks after the major-season planting in April or May. In the north, where the rains are shorter, it is often a little later. Stop short of the stem, and avoid the mulch sitting against the base of the plant.
Is black plastic better than organic mulch?
Plastic is useful for particular crops, such as pepper and tomato under drip lines, because it warms the soil and keeps the fruit clean. It does not feed the soil and it sheds rain unless planting holes are cut. Organic mulch adds organic matter as it breaks down. Many farmers use a sheet of plastic on the bed and a layer of stover in the paths.
Should mulch touch the stem of a pepper plant?
No. Keep it about 5 cm away from the stem. Wet material pressed against the base of a pepper plant can rot the stem in the rains, and it gives borers and rodents a place to work. Pull the mulch back a little each time you weed, and check the base of the plants after heavy rain.
Can I mulch with poultry litter straight from the house?
Not fresh. Litter from a deep-litter house is high in ammonia and soluble nitrogen, which can scorch seedlings and draw nitrogen out of the soil while it rots. Compost it for several weeks, turning it until it is dark and crumbly with no sharp smell, then put it on the bed under a dry layer of mulch.
