Top dress under or on top of mulch

Aloha everyone, I am wondering if adding my top dress on top of the straw mulch is the wrong way to go?
I read somewhere that just putting it on top of the straw mulch is no good, something to the effect of screwing up nitrogen availability, is this true?

If so I am hesitant to dig up the mulch and top dress, my reasoning is I do not want to disturb the roots and all the beneficial critters that reside in the smart pot .

Can someone steer me down the right path?

I may be wrong but I'd push the mulch aside ina few spots, add top dressing, pour water on top dressing to use the water to spread it out, wash it under the other mulch and even some down into the soil, then replace mulch covering.

You could also just toss it on top of the mulch and give it a good watering to wash it down into the soil.

Like J said just use water to push it down under your top mulch or just use a tool to lightly sratch it in a bit. You just don't want it clumping on the surface or around the main stem. Could cause burning. Nitrogen could be wasted or robbed if it never makes it in contact with the sub soil surface. The microbes will use it more to compost the straw vs. immobilizing the nutrients then feeding them to the roots. Its not really robbing you of anything just may take longer to get the nutrients down into the root zone.

I to am a BIG fan of top dressings
I do put the first top dressing down before the pine bark that i use as a mulch.
I then sprinkle some blood meal on top of the mulch to give the beastie's food so as to keep the nitrogen levels high to take up for any decomposition that is going on.
Just so it is a readily available form of N. Mexican bat guano also works well in this intent.
I and my plants love it when fresh top dressing are watered in.
I have taken to leaning out my base soil mix in favor of top dressing throughout the grow.
I try and lay down some calcium down first before adding any other amendments.
I feel that this takes up for any pH diving that may try to occur.
Powdered oyster shell and or Bentonite calcium clay are good for this.
I only put this calcium base down with the first top dressing after this Alfalfa and Kelp meals mix with some worm casting and or a complete fertilizer keep my plants happy happy happy!
Ratz

Ratzilla said:

I to am a BIG fan of top dressings
I do put the first top dressing down before the pine bark that i use as a mulch.
I then sprinkle some blood meal on top of the mulch to give the beastie's food so as to keep the nitrogen levels high to take up for any decomposition that is going on.
Just so it is a readily available form of N. Mexican bat guano also works well in this intent.
I and my plants love it when fresh top dressing are watered in.
I have taken to leaning out my base soil mix in favor of top dressing throughout the grow.
I try and lay down some calcium down first before adding any other amendments.
I feel that this takes up for any pH diving that may try to occur.
Powdered oyster shell and or Bentonite calcium clay are good for this.
I only put this calcium base down with the first top dressing after this Alfalfa and Kelp meals mix with some worm casting and or a complete fertilizer keep my plants happy happy happy!
Ratz

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Great Advice. I've moved to this style as well vs. just throwing it all in my soil. I stick to just some fish meal and dolomite lime and compost my soil for 2 months. Then I slowly top dress as I go. a trace element mix 2x weeks 1&6, worm castings weeks 2,4,6 1/4 cup, week3 1 tsp fish bone meal, week4 1 tsp yum yum mix, and week 5 1 tea spoon high P bird guano. It took me some time to figure out the balance to stop any big dives. But overall I've gotten way better and more consistent results without a lot of hassle or work having to be done all at once. I work at my grow 5 days a week so its easier to just spread out the work over time especially with it being a perpetual grow with 5 flower rooms on different cycles, harvesting at least every other week and sometime two in a row. I was getting tired of the circus of mixing soil and all the shit it took every time i did it. I use Canna Bio line, Age old Calcium, Vital Fish and Vital flower powder as liquid feeds, i never use anything full strength i always go 1/5 or 1/4 of the recommended feedings and work up to 1/3 or 1/2 strength. I like to add my age old calcium to my h20 then selectively add my nutrients tell i hit the P.H. i'm looking for, I don't like adjusting P.H. after i've added everything and always seems to cause more lock out issues down the road. Also I have hard water so I need the extra calcium in an available for to keep the plants strong, and i always add a little epsom salt to help soften the water plus it seems to be a great combo with the calcium balancing out the cal/mag ratio. They only seem to enhance the top dressings vs being what drives the feed schedule, if i just used H20 i'd be fine, but I'm getting great results pushing these babies to their genetic potential. Enzymes like EM-1 or Z7, Amino acids (protein sources), calcium and trace minerals (especially molybdenum later in flower) have a huge role in having highly productive and potent plants. Amino Acids also seem to play a huge role in the plants immune system. Apparently their is an organic and non toxic form of what we know as glyphosate aka round up. Apparently if the plant has the correct amount of glycine it can produce its own bio pesticides some how. Very knew to the information, but it blew my mind that Roundup is based on a natural occurring organic compound. Plus i think this method lends to recycling soil more and leads to less wasted dry nutrients, which help run a tighter operation fiscally. Also i believe the older the plant gets the lower the absorption rates get with nutrients, I think this is why plants do so well starting off with top dressings, then just keeping them topped of with liquid feeds in the last half of flowering.

this is worth the read, its about humans, but you can draw your own correlations, and why you may want to avoid feeding your plants any products that have been grown using Round Up.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4392553/

two good reads on amino acids, calcium, and trace minerals.
https://www.maximumyield.com/amino-acids-the-lego-blocks-of-plant-proteins/2/2596

https://www.maximumyield.com/grow-stronger-plants-building-blocks-proteins/2/1497

https://www.maximumyield.com/amino-acids/2/1483

This may not help but here goes. With my fruit trees I rake the mulch (mulched wood) aside and top dress with compost then rake the mulch back on. I do understand fruit trees are not annuals so this may not help.

yup, a top dressing and teas works gr8.

I think it depends a lot on the Sun.

If it's hot, the mulch goes into a state of suspended animation. Doesn't break down much until the fall.

So generally the mulch should go on top of the top dress.

BUT when you water, it won't matter too much. It'll wash the top dress from the top of the mulch down to the soil. Then the worms etc. can get to work - unless the soil dries out and they have to retreat to a moister work area deeper down.

what are you typically top dressing with? i would try and put castings or compost under mulch but anything else granulated or micronized will be totally fine right on top as long as your watering over that. ie, if you had soaker hose under your mulch i wouldnt top dress over the top of your mulch. but if your hand watering or have irrigation over the mulch that will work fine

Today I top dressed all the plants with a mix of 7-3-1 Bat Guano, Insect Frass and Vital Fish powder on top of the straw mulch...
Watered that in with lake water mixed with humid acid, maxicrop and Vital cal mg.

Great tips here so far, thanks everyone for the discussion

I like to mulch over the top dress that I put on the mulch over the top dress, that's on top of the mulch that covers the top dress.