You love Mango Mulch. We love that you love Mango Mulch. It’s no secret that we haven’t been able to offer Mango Mulch this year despite all of our efforts to make it available. So what happened? Well, it all started with one of the wettest winter & spring we’ve had in a long time.
There are many steps when creating a great compost. First, we need to gather the organics (green yard debris and agricultural debris) and grind them to the right size. While doing this, we must secure agricultural manures that would pass our stringent testing requirements. When dealing with manures it is especially important to ensure there are no herbicides or pesticides that would affect our end product.
Once we have the best and cleanest organics it’s time to start the art and science of creating artisanal compost. Predetermined quantities of organics, manures, and added amendments are blended together much like the dry materials of a cake mix are combined. We add water and continue blending the materials until everything is just right. The final blend is piled in a specific arrangement; if viewed from above it looks like an uncooked loaf of pumpernickel bread.
The next step is known as “Thermophilic Biotransformation”, this is where Mother Nature comes into action. As the organic and manure materials start to break down, microbial action increases and raises the temperature of the materials. To aid the microbial action we force fresh outside air into the pile through a series of pipes laid under the pile. This outside air helps oxygenate the microbes and brings the temperatures to between 130-160 degrees.
While nutrient-dense organic and manure materials are being consumed by the microbes they need oxygen – a lot of it– and the tubes give that to them. This is where we had the biggest issue this year. When the rains continued longer than expected, we had a very difficult time getting the rain-saturated compost to raise to the temperatures needed to decompose properly. The materials were all blended together at the proper ratios but without the required heat it was like baking a cake without an oven. In the end, the materials composted at cooler temperatures over a longer period of time. We had compost that met the standards set by regulatory requirements but it did not meet our standards for Mango Mulch. We could have just sold what we had, but in the end, it wasn’t the quality we demand nor what our customers deserve. The quality of our products is extremely important to us, so we chose not to sell what we had at great cost to us. While it was very disappointing, it was all worth it in our eyes because we didn’t sell an inferior product.
We are sorry for the inconvenience of the lack of Mango Mulch and assure you we are working very hard on making it available as soon as possible. We have several piles of Mango Mulch in production as we speak which will be perfectly aged by next spring. For now, we have several other composts available that have passed our quality standards and work great in all applications. If you need help finding a temporary replacement for Mango Mulch, please give us a call and we would be happy to help!
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