Using cardboard as mulch in orchard?

My husband and I will be planting our orchard this weekend and we have planned to use cardboard to much under our trees. We will lay it out under the trees and top with several inches of compost and then several inches wood chips. We also wanted to make guilds for each tree but I'm wondering if I can plant over the cardboard? Will the roots have enough room to grow or will they grow through the cardboard? Do I need to cut holes through the cardboard?

We are planning on planting things like comfrey, calendula, borage and some berries like currants.

Thank you in advance this community is incredible and I'm so blessed to be apart of it!

I watched a pretty good video the other day. They cut a large Y in the cardboard to slide around the trunk and small x for each companion. I believe most who use cardboard for this would recommend pre soaking it so water can get to the ground easier.

I’ve only ever used it inbetween raised beds so no practical experience using around plants. I just used compost and mulch when I planted mine a few weeks ago.

I've done the X thing. In your situation I'd lay down the cardboard, place enough compost down to hold it in place. Then cut the X and fold the 4 resulting triangles under. Then transplant your babies in and finishthe compost layer. Just be careful not to bury them with chips. By the time I found Permaculture, my trees were too big for the Y.

Any concern about voles?

William Bronson wrote: Any concern about voles?

To be honest I'm not sure. My small garden bed has never had an issue but there's no cardboard mulch just some hay with lots of compost

I use cardboard extensively in my gardens.  Here it disintegrates in a few months and by that time it's either covered with several inches of mulch or soil.  If I were planting shrubs or perennials I'd make an x or y in the cardboard.  I try to lay out the cardboard just before a rain when possible as it absorbs water and I don't have to try to connect enough hoses together to reach.  

The main issue is initially keeping the weeds under control.  Dandelions, burdock, yellow dock and violets are tough enough to eventually push up through cardboard and mulch and it takes some diligence the first year to keep them at bay.  

I'm in an arid area, I put cardboard (and thick packing paper) down against the soil and pile wood chips on for making pathways. Eventually it will all break down but as an example I have two year old sections that are still doing fine. And when they're not as fine I just dump more wood chips. If I lived in a wet climate it would probably be a very different affair.

I also used to use cardboard for my worm composting bins. I ran them through an amazon cross shredder, it worked well enough!

Cardboard is a tricky one for me. I've used it but always end up removing it, then last season I put it in aisles only and covered with woodchips. I ended up removing it, too!

The more I research it's like yin yang of opinions and facts...pretty cool tho because everyone that has something to say about cardboard use is planting something!!

I've decided it's a no for me ultimately because of "potential" weird stuff being in it, and it's just not a naturally occuring thing and I want it out of my life. I still have a big ol stack out back that I spent time dumpster diving for.

That said, I'd plant THROUGH it but not on top...unless of course its some shallow rooted ground cover or vegetable but even then, with only mulch on top and no soil, or just a little soil it's questionable what the plant will do. After a couple seasons sure it'll be getting soft and more penetratable but first year could be rough for things on top.

Grass, "weeds", whatever will eventually grow through or on top of anything even straight gravel and I guess carboard does give a bit of a head start to the desired plant, but I've found it's not that hard to just make rounds several times thru the year and pull grass and layer on more leaves, woodchips  whatever other mulch you have and things still grow. Of course when I plant I dig the area a bit bigger and flip the grass, cover with what cumbles off that, add a shovel full of topsoil I keep on hand that I collect from other areas of the property, then finally mulch with what I previously mentioned above. I'm a bit of a strange bird tho compared to conventional, and think the more natural the better in the long run even if things might grow a little slower and it takes more time and work on my end.

I think landscape fabric is a far worse cop-out since it's typically bought new, and plasticky... at least cardboard is usually re-purposed and closer to being "mulch" than plastic IMO, so maybe do some trees with it, some without and in a few years you'll have results of a good experiment! Got any dead trees around where you can strip off big pieces of bark? That layer covers well I do that in muddy aisles sometimes.

All my trees and shrubs are less than 3 years old so I have no long-term evidence or advice, but most things have stayed alive!! A handful of grafted apples, a couple from seed, paw paw, persimmon, false indigo, black walnut, sycamore, elm, white pine, white and red oak so far. I typically scout an area where small trees like honey locust are already growing then plant around them. I'm no expert so take all that with a spec of dirt, I wish you happy orchard making!!