subject: Mulching Your Plants Is Perfect For Them Unless You Get Some Toxic Mulch [print this page] The increasingly-used process of mulching offers valuable benefits to both soil and plants, and is something that is advised. There's one problem, though, at least in a number of parts of the country. This is due to the main ingredient of a widespread type of mulch in these parts being a shredded sawmill waste product, hardwood bark. Logs usually are debarked prior to being cut, and the mills used to be faced with the problem of getting rid of the bark.
The lumber mills are now able to get rid of the bark as mulch, however, there is still a problem. The saw mills heap the bark up high to avoid wasting space, and with little demand for the mulch in winter the piles get really high. The hazard for your garden arises from the mulch getting compacted too tightly by the front end loaders having to drive up onto the heaps. In order to decompose, the waste bark has to be exposed to oxygen throughout a period of time, which means air has to flow through the pile. The temperature of the decaying bark, when it's so compacted that airflow is limited, can get very high, and there's even the danger that it could catch alight.
The mulch can become toxic on account of the build-up of the hot gases which cannot get away. Apart from the offensive smell when you dig into it, there is also a threat to your plants when spreading it around. The pent-up gas within the mulch is usually released, which can burn your plants. Spreading these materials around your plants could cause them to end up brown in as little as few minutes. Your once green lawn could go an ugly brown if you dump mulch like this on it. The fact is that you will only find out that the mulch was toxic when you discover the undesirable "browning of the green."
Both good and bad mulch possess powerful, though different, smells when you dig into them, but not everyone can tell the difference. Another tip is that bad mulch is a touch 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. Make sure that you take mulch from deep within the pile, and not on the edges. Check out the plant just after at least 24 hours; if perhaps no damage has taken place the mulch can be used with confidence.
It is probably not such a big problem, but it's advisable to know about it before the time, rather than bumping your head. Going to the bother of mulching and next learning that it had destroyed your plants may just make you a little unhappy. Mulching will work for your garden and your plants, but it is good to be aware that there is bad mulch, so buy your mulch from a reputable place that stands behind their product.
