Dyed Mulch

[jrodgers]

Does anyone have an opinion on dyed mulch? Positive or negative? Keep in mind that it is basically shreadded up scrap wood dyed from what I understand.

[Roger]

It was being used last two seasons in this area (SW PA). I believe the mix here was half hardwood bark mulch, and half chipped discarded hardwood pallets. This mix meant that much of the material was "new" and would not quickly decompose. The "chips" part of the mix were larger pieces than the shredded hardwood bark, leaving a courser look to the beds. The chips were smaller than would typically come from a tree/brush chipper.

It was used sparingly by some homeowners. I did not spread any of the material. I was told it was $35/cu yd. I was paying $16/cu yd for double shredded hardwood bark mulch. Therefore, it was pretty expensive.

It held the color pretty well through the season, certainly better than standard hardwood bark mulch. However, I'm not sure that most would want to pay that price.

I will be interested to see how it wintered, that is, how much it decomposed and what will be needed to freshen the look. If the material is so slow to decompose, it will be difficult to freshen the look, without adding considerable thickness to the beds.

[BigEd]

I have had alot of people asking for it this year.Installed 10.5 yards of the red yesterday.I think it looks good against certain color homes.I paid $24/yard so it is a little more costly.

[jrodgers]

I am just not crazy about it because there is not a bit of dirt(to break it down) in the stuff that I used, also if it rains on it before the sun has a chance to dry it out (like if you are using it in the rain or just before) it loses alot of its color

[GroundKprs]

The wood refuse grinding and dying is just for ugly sites. The myraid colors are just a way to try to attract buyers. (Red "mulches" look great at McDonald's, I guess, but that's the only place.) Better to not mulch than use this junk. The all wood products I have seen here will not pack down. This results in gruesome washouts when used near paved areas - messy, messy. Because they don't pack and seal the surface, the are quite ineffective in weed control over the long term.

And then comes fall: Ha! - try to get leaves out of a bed with this garbage, without removing most of the wood garbage along with the leaves. Since it doesn't pack down, you can actually blow almost all of it out of beds. Of course, you could throttle down the blower, and leave many leaves tangled in the wood garbage. Sorry, but I would gag if I tried to call this stuff "mulch".

[joshua]

well guys in my area everyone wants the dies mulch, sure we have the other stuff but it only sells to cheap contractors with cheap customers. when i go to a landscaping site to bid everyone asks if i'm gunna use the dyed black. about 7 out of 10 houses have it, that have a landscape. every garden center has to have trucks come in every 3 days i think, sometimes sooner. 7 garden centers in my area carry it and its not offen that i have to wait a day because no one has it. when it comes to your area and customers see how great it looks you'll say the same thing that i am now.

who cares about leaves and how hard the are to get out, i charge by the hour and trust me when i say it doesn't take very long to clean beds with a rake (using it very softly) i hardly lose any mulch.

[Scraper]

Hate the dyed stuff. I will not put it down on any properties I maintain. My customers trust my decision and no one has complained.

[cajuncutter]

I am am the same as Scraper. The only time I need dyed mulch is when it is around trees. My customers want it black. I just head to my local LESCO and get the dye and tank up. You have to do this every 2 months or so but it maintains the fresh look that seems to appeal to them. Also the popular mulch down here is the cypress...this already has the red tint in it so there is no need for dye.

[Edited by cajuncutter on 03-28-2001 at 08:07 AM]

[AVRECON]

Red $32.00yd.
Cypress $25.00yd.
Hardwood $18.00yd.
Pine Bark mix $18.00yd.
Pine straw (long needle) $3.85 per bale
Pine straw (short needle) $3.65 per bale
Sometimes less depending on how much I buy.

[E-man]

We give the customer what they want, if they want dyed mulch then that is what they get. They know the cost is more but they still want that certain color. We have never had problems with the stuff, and it will fade over winter just like any other mulch.Thats why we re- mulch every season.

[Skookum]

A LCO here did the local McDonalds with the red stuff. There is a pallet company south town that sells it. It looked pretty good at the McDonalds. But, it did do like Jim stated, it really liked to float out and wash away from the beds and into the low areas of the parking lots.

Where is does manage to stay in the beds, it seems to last a long time. I noticed that at the McDonalds next to one of my accounts, they must have mulched recently. Upon further inspection, I found that all they did was spray a dark brown colorant like Mulch Magic. That mulch has been there for three years now with just touch up's done and never a complete mulching since first put down.



[Edited by Skookum on 03-29-2001 at 01:39 AM]

[smburgess]

I've been using the Red mulch at few dozen McDonald's over the past four years. My cost ends up being $20.47 per yard (I buy 80 yards at a time) and that includes having the tractor-trailer dropping it off at 4 or 5 stores. I'm don't care to much for it, but my clients do and that's all that matters! Now locally there is brown and black available, and I'll be recommending it to my higher end residential clients.

[Kevin]

95% of my customers want the dyed mulch. Now my distributor (Weaver's) makes a new color brown dyed, it looks almost like cedar. Most want black dyed.

[Skookum]

Well, the McDonalds I mentioned above that sprayed the red mulch with a brown colorant has now been freshly mulched with hardwood mulch. They must have sprayed the colorant to insure the red would be covered or the owner did not like the colorant look.