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Colored Mulch Drying Tips

Dry Time: Tips for Drying and Handling Damp Color-Enhanced Mulch

By Susan Miller-Kreig | Colorbiotics

Delivering a quality product is important to you and your business. It’s also important to your customers, as they want the best possible color-enhanced mulch that offers vibrant color throughout the growing season.

It is important to make sure their experience with color-enhanced mulch is positive. This includes making sure the colorant has ample time to dry and cure onto the mulch.

“If a customer receives a load of mulch that has not had time to properly dry, the mulch can discolor surfaces,” says David Roller, Colorbiotics colorant systems manager. “A window of 24 to 48 hours is preferred to achieve acceptable colorfastness on mulch fibers, but we also realize this may not be ideal during the season rush.”

In light of this, it’s important to remember some simple rules of thumb when working with damp color-enhanced mulch. It’s also wise to communicate with your customers and make sure they understand how to best handle color-enhanced mulch.

• Store bulk mulch on grass or bare soil surfaces. If unloading and storing the mulch on concrete or other finished surfaces, place tarps between the surface and mulch to avoid discoloration to the concrete or surface.
• Colored mulch will dry more quickly when spread over an area no more than 6 inches deep in a landscape setting.
• When applying color-enhanced mulch to a landscape setting, avoid exposing the colored mulch to rain or sprinklers for a 24- to 48-hour period.
• Should there be a rain before the mulch is permitted to dry, rake the mulch to maximize surface color intensity.
• Rinse tools immediately to avoid discoloration.
• In the unfortunate event that the colorant adheres to unwanted surfaces, use a high pressure washer to clean surfaces.

Colorbiotics takes great care to specially engineer our colorants so they create an incredible bond with mulch. Once the color dries in a landscape setting, it has excellent tolerance to weathering.

Photos provided courtesy of Colorbiotics . For more information about producing, drying, and handling color-enhanced mulch, contact Coloriotics or your regional Rotochopper rep .