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Home Home and Family Home Watch Out For Toxic Mulch When Mulching Your Plant life
Watch Out For Toxic Mulch When Mulching Your Plant life PDF Print E-mail
Written by Teb Molombo   
The increasingly-used technique of mulching imparts valuable benefits to both soil and plants, and is something that is encouraged. In some areas of the country it comes with a word of caution, though. This is because of the main ingredient of a popular type of mulch in these parts being a shredded sawmill waste product, hardwood bark. The sawmills had difficulties getting rid of the waste bark which resulted from the process of denuding the logs before sawing them.
by TebMolombo


The increasingly-used technique of mulching imparts valuable benefits to both soil and plants, and is something that is encouraged. In some areas of the country it comes with a word of caution, though. This is because of the main ingredient of a popular type of mulch in these parts being a shredded sawmill waste product, hardwood bark. The sawmills had difficulties getting rid of the waste bark which resulted from the process of denuding the logs before sawing them.

The lumber mills may now get rid of the bark as mulch, but there's still a problem. The mills heap the bark up high to save space, and with little demand for the mulch in winter the piles get really high. The task is performed with front end loaders that, when driven up on top of the piles of bark, excessively compress the waste, resulting in a problem for the gardener. As a way to decompose, the waste bark should be exposed to oxygen across a period of time, which means air has to flow through the pile. Any time compressed too tightly, the circulation of air is inhibited and the waste matter becomes increasingly hot, to the extent that it could spontaneously combust.

The mulch may become toxic on account of the build-up of the hot gases which cannot escape. Apart from the offensive smell when you dig into it, there's also a threat to your plants when spreading it around. The gas that is part of the mulch can be released, and if this occurs the plants will be burned. Spreading this stuff around your plants could cause them to go brown in as little as few minutes. In the event you happen to get a mulch heap like this and it gets put on your yard it could turn the grass brown. You may be totally unsuspecting, and only be alerted that the mulch was bad when you discover the damage.

Unhealthy mulch features a strong odor once you get down to it in the pile, but so does the good mulch, and the smell is different, but you may not be able to tell the difference. One more tip is that bad mulch is a bit darker, and if this alerts you to a potential problem you can test it by placing some around a plant that you don't value too much. Be sure that you take mulch from deep within the pile, and never on the edges. Assuming nothing has happened to the plants for more than 24 hours, the mulch will be fine.

Even though it may not be the end of the world, this sort of problem is rather prevented than experienced. Going to the trouble of mulching and after that learning that it had ruined your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Avoid toxic mulch by getting from a place you have confidence in and who can give you some type of guarantee or assurance - you do, after all, want to get the benefits of mulching.

About the Author:

This Writer Has Articles On Other Topics, Like Treatment for Advanced Prostate Cancer and Prostatectomy Prostate Cancer

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