strong smell of colored mulch
 

We got black cedar mulch and it has a very strong scent. not like the nice
smell of cedar but more like a chemical. perhaps rubber.

I am assuming it is colored with some kind of dye, but what is it?
IT is nasty!! I am concerned there may be some chemicals in this stuff
thate are no good.

Please advise

THanks

strong smell of colored mulch
 

Danny wrote:
We got black cedar mulch and it has a very strong scent. not like the nice
smell of cedar but more like a chemical. perhaps rubber.

I am assuming it is colored with some kind of dye, but what is it?
IT is nasty!! I am concerned there may be some chemicals in this stuff
thate are no good.

Please advise

THanks




Danny,

I know what you mean. I bought some stuff last year that
smelled really sour. I asked the manager at the place where
I got it about the smell and he said it was "normal". The
good news was that after about a week the smell was gone.

As far as dyes and chemicals, I really doubt that they use
them (it would be an added expense) but it wouldn't hurt to
ask.
--
Bill R. (Ohio Valley, U.S.A)

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strong smell of colored mulch
 

On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 19:25:45 GMT, "Danny"
wrote:

We got black cedar mulch and it has a very strong scent. not like the nice
smell of cedar but more like a chemical. perhaps rubber.

I am assuming it is colored with some kind of dye, but what is it?
IT is nasty!! I am concerned there may be some chemicals in this stuff
thate are no good.


Here is an article about the chemicals:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvws

Just as an aside, here's an article about the effects that colored
mulches have on plants:

http://plasticulture.cas.psu.edu/DSuccess-mulch.htm

Sue(tm)
Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

strong smell of colored mulch
 

Curly Sue wrote:
On Sun, 11 Jul 2004 19:25:45 GMT, "Danny"
wrote:

We got black cedar mulch and it has a very strong scent. not like
the nice
smell of cedar but more like a chemical. perhaps rubber.

I am assuming it is colored with some kind of dye, but what is it?
IT is nasty!! I am concerned there may be some chemicals in this
stuff
thate are no good.


Here is an article about the chemicals:
http://tinyurl.com/3yvws

Just as an aside, here's an article about the effects that colored
mulches have on plants:

http://plasticulture.cas.psu.edu/DSuccess-mulch.htm


The article at the second link refers more to the effects of the color.
They used naturally colored soils, colored Styrofoam panels, and
eventually plastic sheets, not dyed bark. BTW... I used some red plastic
mulch for my tomatoes, and the plants are amazingly big this year, with
blossoms turning into what looks like it'll be a bumper crop. I bought
fewer plants this year (9 vs 12), and spread them out further. I'm glad
I put the latest fruiting plant that'll have the fewest - but biggest -
fruits in the middle because I sure can't get to it now, and wouldn't
want to have to spend too much time

As for the dyed mulches, I've seen some nicely colored mulch at Home
Depot, but personally I would never use it. If I need pretty mulch to
make my beds look good, well, it would be like a painter using
pre-colored canvas, or a golf course using artificial turf. And I don't
have to worry about what chemicals are leaching into my soil, either. So
given my bias, my advice to the OP would be to throw-out the funny
smelling dyed mulch.

--
Warren H.

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