Has anyone ever had this experience? I'm just getting on top of the maintenance of my flower beds for the first time (this is the first year since we've lived here that it hasn't poured down rain all spring). I mulched with that cocoa shell mulch, and everything was fine for about a week. A few days ago, we had rain. Immediately, a fine white mold appeared on the surface of the mulch. Is there anything I can do to get rid of this? Will it continue to grow and harm my flowers?
Cocoa mulch can be a good mulch and will keep the cats and slugs out of your garden but yes it does mold. The solution is to put in on very thin. We tend to want to mulch like 3inches but with the cocoa mulch you cannot do that. So while it is good you will have to re-apply more often. Sad but true. I hope this helps. MB
Yes, I did put it on about two inches thick. I have newspaper underneath and it doesn't lie completely flat, so needed a little more to cover it. When you say "re-apply", do you mean sprinkle more on top or rake it off and start over? Thanks!
Cocoa mulch tends to compact when it is too thick and gets wet so even though you did the right things I think with the news paper underneath it didn't drain well. I would rake it off and re-apply. We sold it at the nursery here and mold was the main problem and re-applying just got too expensive for people. Also some people had a concern about it smelling good and having their dogs eating it. I never saw that but people think those things. Chocolate is not good for dogs. I got away from the subject. You have to rake off the moldy stuff and add more but lightly. MB
Thanks for the info. I do love the smell, but I probably won't be buying this again. Glad it's a common problem and not something specific to me and my yard!
Cocoa mulch growing mold
Posted - Jun 06 2007 : 09:01:44 AM
