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Old February 3, 2011   #1
b54red
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Default Mulch shortages

The past couple of years it has become increasingly hard to find any wheat or oat straw for mulch. The last bales I was able to get were very small and very expensive. The only decent size bales available around here are peanut hay, coastal bermuda, and bahaia all of which present real problems in the garden. I have been using grass clippings and will continue; but due to health problems will not be able to obtain the amount necessary for my garden. It also breaks down so fast that it needs constant renewal.

I am planning on trying pine bark and also cypress mulch which I can obtain at Lowes for a reasonable price. The bark is small and will be easy to till in to give my raised beds more texture. The cypress mulch is larger and most would have to be raked up unless I want to add a lot of wood to my beds. I got a couple of bags of each and tried them out on a couple of things and it looks like the cost will be similar to or even less than the wheat straw. I used the bark on my newly planted onions and on my carrots which need constant weeding and it was very easy to apply and doesn't look like it will need a very thick layer to be effective. I was thinking of using the cypress mulch around my new tomatoes when I set them out because it will look better and be easier to remove for replanting purposes without having to till it in.

I used the bark in my container tomatoes this winter and it seems to work well both as part of the mix and as a mulch but don't know how it will holdup in the raised beds. Has anyone else used something like this and how did it work for you?
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Old February 3, 2011   #2
Mark0820
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I use cypress mulch every year to mulch my tomatoes and peppers, and it works extremely well. One year I tried the dark black mulch (don't recall the name, but it was cheaper than cypress) at Lowe's / HD. The following Spring, I had a lot of weeds from that mulch. The cypress mulch works well, and there is no weed seed in it.

I use the cypress for my flower beds also.
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Old February 3, 2011   #3
ArcherB
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I was able to pick up three truckloads of shredded Christmas tree mulch as well as some donated cedar at Austin's Christmas tree recycling program. This is the second year I've done so. Last year's worked out pretty well. I can't say how well it kept the weeds down as I wasn't able to get nearly as much as I wanted (didn't have a truck). This year, I was able to scoop up all my back will handle.

I also check Craigslist every day to see if anyone has some leaves raked up. I can usually get 10-20 bags between Jan 1 and the time I plant out. I could get a whole lot more, but I won't drive out of my way for leaves (yet). For example, there was a post the other day where someone had 35 of the large, Home Depot paper leaf bags. It was gone within three days. Unfortunately, I was never in that area of town to grab up whatever was left. When I get the leaves I spread them out as is in the beds as a weed suppressant and mow up whatever is left to shred them for the compost pile.

I also find mulch on Craigslist as well throughout the year. Before I got my truck, I found a couple that had cleared out a wooded area for a house they were building. They had two piles of shredded cedar, each about 15-20 feet tall.

Finding deals like that is what allows me to afford to garden. It also keeps me in shape. (round is a shape, right?)
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Old February 4, 2011   #4
b54red
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Thanks Mark that was what I wanted to know. I'll be heading to Lowes and picking up a half dozen bags each time I'm near there. I have no idea how many it will take but as long as it doesn't cost much over 75 dollars it won't be any worse than the hay has been and I won't have to pull up all the oats or wheat that germinate after the first couple of rains. Do you rake yours up and reuse it or till it in?
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Old February 4, 2011   #5
Mark0820
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Quote:
Originally Posted by b54red View Post
Do you rake yours up and reuse it or till it in?
I do a combination of rake/reuse and till. If there isn't a lot in the soil, I till it in. If there is quite a bit in the soil from previous years, I rake it up and reuse it the following year.
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Old February 4, 2011   #6
FILMNET
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yes, i save some also this is the best to put in Compost better then leaves and grass. It is only sold in one company around here for $11 if some others sold this it would be cheaper. I don't know if it is around in the spring last 2 years i got it in June. It is all around here but you can not cut it, it much come from a farm around the ocean.
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Old February 4, 2011   #7
b54red
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The cypress mulch only costs $2. a bag for a 2 cubic foot bag, approximately 35 to 40 pounds. Thanks for the feedback.
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Old February 4, 2011   #8
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Looking on Craig's List can find it sometimes. But have you ever considered putting a "Wanted" listing there? You might be surprised at how many people will call you saying "Please come pick it up!"
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Old February 4, 2011   #9
FILMNET
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Salt Marsh Hay which grows around here North shore of Ma and some in N.H., this has no seeds and bugs. it lasts for 2 years or more. It grows in Salt water marsh's beside the cold ocean. I buy some it is $11 for 24" by 4' bale maybe 20 lbs. 1 will be nice for 2-3 inch on a 30' by 30' garden. I save any inside for next years also. Ask anyone to get it from here, it beautiful.

Last edited by FILMNET; February 4, 2011 at 11:39 AM.
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Old February 6, 2011   #10
BigdaddyJ
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I love straw as a mulch. It lasts all season and also lets your soil breath. Worms love it as it slowly breaks down. My problem here in Delaware is to find bales WITHOUT seed weeds! The straw seed germinates into thousands of baby plants that must be pulled or they will compete with my tomatoes for water and nutrients. If anyone knows where I can get some less seedy hay or straw bales in Northern Delaware or nearby PA... PM me please!
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Old February 7, 2011   #11
dice
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If you find sour hay somewhere (hay that has gotten wet and
started to mold, no longer suitable for animal feed; sometimes
found on Craig's List in the "free" category), one thing that you
can do to reduce the amount of viable weed seeds is to compost
it before using it. Break up the bales, make a big pile, add a nitrogen source (ammonium nitrate, calcium nitrate, sulfate
of ammonia, urea, lawn food, manure, whatever), and the heat
of decomposition in the pile will make a lot of any weed seed
in it no longer viable. The more often you turn it, the more of
the pile gets exposed to the high heat area in the center of it.
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Old February 8, 2011   #12
b54red
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Bigdaddy, the easiest way to get rid of most of the seed is to just buy your hay 3 or 4 months early and leave it out so that it gets rained on. Don't stack the bales and if you cut the baling to loosen the bundle it helps. Over a few months most of the seed in the bails will sprout and you will have even more hay to use and you won't have to do nearly as much weeding after you spread it.
I once used fresh hay on my young onion plants and ended up pulling up quite a few of them trying to weed the hay which had sprouted by the thousands and I could barely see the onions.
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Old February 8, 2011   #13
dice
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Sour hay (or any other hay) should probably come with the
same aminopyralid warning as horse manure: possible
contamination with a broadleaf herbicide that deforms tomato
plants at very low concentrations. (One can probably mix it with
some dirt and sprout some fast-growing buckwheat in it to test,
since aminopyralid also attacks buckwheat plants.)
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Old February 8, 2011   #14
BigdaddyJ
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Dice, I have been getting my straw bales at a local Agway. What are the odds it might have some residual herbicide in it? I am an organic grower. I never thought much about that? My tomatoes never seemed to suffer with the straw mulch. But now you have me thinking.....?????

B54red...thanx for the good tip. After I pull all the #$%@!#! baby straw plants I do lay them on top of the straw mulch as extra mulch. I'd rather not have to be pulling them though. Thanx
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Old February 8, 2011   #15
dice
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Most "straw" bales are wheat straw. Rye straw and oat straw
are also available in some parts of the country. I have not heard
of any of those showing animopyralid contamination, but
this document seems to indicate that it would be possible
to find it in wheat straw if the wheat farmer fertilized his
field with contaminated manure:
http://www.manurematters.com/na/en/hay_sales.htm

Hay, usually Timothy or Orchard Grass, is where the animals
producing the contaminated manure get the aminopyralid
from in the first place, so the risk from hay bales is probably
greater than the risk from straw bales. (Far more wheat is
fertilized synthetically than fertilized with manure.) You would
not find it in alfalfa hay, because alfalfa itself is apparently
susceptible to the herbicide effect of aminopyralid.
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