At VSI we strongly suggest using cellulose, corn and wood(blend) based pellet mulch in our units. It loads the easiest, mixes the fastest and makes it much less likely to plug your hydroseeder.
Regardless, every year we get asked about bales, usually because they are cheaper, but sometimes because pellets are not available locally.
Can a VSI Jet Agitated Hydroseeer mix bales of mulch? As long as it is 70% cellulose (paper) and corn fiber with less than 30% wood, absolutely.
So why don’t we recommend bales?
- Bales are a total pain to use and load in a jet unit and they don’t mix as fast.
- Large clumps of highly compacted bales can plug up your pump, causing waste of product and labor to clean out.
- Pellets are rarely more than 5 cents per pound more
- Often will spill or drop chunks of bales while trying to load them
Because our hydroseeders use a round poly tank, they do not have large bale size openings in the top. This means that if you want to use bales, you have to break them into small pieces. In the process of doing this, not only are you wasting labor, but likely are dropping mulch on the ground.
With bags you simply cut and pour.
If you actually do the math on wasted labor and product, bales would need to cost about 15-20 cents per pound less than pellets to even begin considering using them in our machines.
If bales are all you can get and you have one of our machines, we might suggest breaking them up into 5 gallon buckets or small garbage cans so that you can simply pour them into the hydroseeder. This will be faster and more comfortable than trying to work at breaking up the bale over top of the open lid of the hydroseeder while its mixing full tilt.
We have developed a number of relationships with mulch suppliers and can help you find pellet mulch in your area, just give us a call or send us an email and we will get you on the right track!
