Is pine straw mulch in square or round bales in your area?

[JerryHaskins]

Every year I have been buying a few square bales of pine straw for mulching around flowers and vegetable garden plants.

It has always been easy to distribute around my plants, has always been clean pine straw, and has always worked great for keeping down weeds and retaining moisture in the soil.

This year all pine straw around my area is being sold in round bales.

I bought 3 round bales and (1) it was full of pine branches and pine cones, and (2) it was VERY hard to pull out of the bale for distributing around my plants.

I will not be buying any more round bales of pine straw.

I figure they went to round bales because they are cheaper and easier to make than square bales.

[AlittleSalt]

Around here, it's round bales that come from the piney woods of east Texas.

In east Texas, it is piled into bins like gravel and sand. You just drive up and they use a dozer to load it into your pickup bed or trailer.

[JerryHaskins]

Originally Posted by AlittleSalt

Around here, it's round bales that come from the piney woods of east Texas.

In east Texas, it is piled into bins like gravel and sand. You just drive up and they use a dozer to load it into your pickup bed or trailer.

I have a funny story about mulch in Texas. A lady I know lived near Silsbee, Texas. She and the lady next door decided that they needed some pine bark mulch; so they went to a plant supply store.

They were told that a 1 cubic yard bag of mulch would cost $12.00. But they could buy it in bulk by the yard at cost of only $5.00 per yard and the store would deliver it.

They discussed it and decided that they probably needed about 10 cubic yards.

The next day a large dump truck pulled up to their house and asked where they wanted it dumped.

They were shocked at how much mulch they had bought.

They had no idea how big 10 cubic yards was.

[AlittleSalt]

10 cubic yards is a WHOLE lot. ...still laughing as I can imagine it happening.

[clkeiper]

we don't even have it available. we have wheat straw... and usually it has thistle seeds in it. grrr! imagine starting a whole lot of canada thistles in your garden.

[brownrexx]

Most farmers in my area have gone to using the huge round bales and it is very hard to even find a square bale of straw for garden use.

Last year we bought 1/4 round bale from an Amish farmer. He just calculated the price and he and my husband loaded it into our pick up truck.

We really liked it. The straw was the same material that would have been baled into square bales and it was nice. The pieces were shorter than in the the square bales that I was used to buying and they made a nice mulch for me.

[ddsack]

Stacking and re-stacking small square bales on field wagons to barns is very labor intensive and hot scratchy work in the heat. Back in the day, you could hire high school boys to do the labor to make a few bucks. Not anymore. Easier now to just buy the equipment to roll and stack the big round or huge rectangle sizes. Really hard to find either hay or straw in small bales anymore, except occasionally at some garden centers for ridiculously inflated prices.

[rxkeith]

ours can be found scattered on the ground beneath a stand of red pines along one edge of our property.
collecting it can be labor intensive. get it after the snow melts before the grass starts to grow. move branches that are lying on the ground, watch out for pokey branches attached to trees. wear gloves, watch out for spiders.
i use it for the blueberry patch, and sometimes i'll throw some in a row of potatoes.
pine needles are slightly acidic when they break down which is helpful for blueberries, and helps keep scab down with potatoes.



keith

[Chapinz8]

Pine straw bales here this year are smaller and cost more. Period. My dirt cheap landscape guy who is backfrom moving out of town and charged 4.75 to put out bales 3 years ago now must charge 6.75. And, that's the best price around. He tells me these bales are smaller.

Reminds me of wide ties were in last year, narrow ties are in this year. BUT, I don't have to buy ties any more.

[kurt]

https://www.homedepot.com/p/5-cu-yd-...BMN5/205325452

We cannot get here,only Mini and large nuggets standard bags.
No such thing here as “pine straw”If so,our native Southern Yellow Slash Pine,(aka Dade County Pine) needle stuff off kills everything underneath the canopy.Our “introduced” Australian Pines,used as windbreaks,moisture containment in field in rows as the massive sprinklers spray everything in sight.Thier pine needles actually remove paint from old abandoned vehicles.They have been slowly phased out in the fields.

[Worth1]

I have never seen a bale of pine needles in my life.

Worth

[Goodloe]

The Lowe's here sells it. $3.88 per bale. However, the customer reviews are somewhat less than glowing....

[Worth1]

Many of the pine trees here with needles under them are infested with grass burrs.

My neighbor bought some cheap fill dirt that was infested with grass burrs and nut grass.
The stuff is everywhere now including infested my raised beds with nut grass.
The only way to get rid of it is to remove soil down to bed rock about 200 feet down.