strong smell of colored mulch

[Danny]

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

[Bill R]

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.

[Curly Sue]

Here is an article about the chemicals:

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

Lead me not into temptation... I can find it myself!

[Warren]

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.