This is a problem with Straw Mulch
Channel: Escaping The Daily Grind
Date: 2024-01-30

Straw is a wonderful mulch for the garden, however when you get it, unless you can heat it up past the point of the seeds germinating, you will get tons of weeds sprouting.  These weeds are either wheat or barley or some other grain that the stocks are dried after harvesting the grains.  These grains aren't usually fully harvested and some get mixed in with the grain and will sprout in your garden bed.  There are some benefits however to straw mulch if your wiling to pick the weeds out.  One is that it is a light mulch.  So it will not damage brand new seedlings as easily.  The other benefit is that it will compost very quickly.  Hard wood bark tends to take a couple years to break down which could be a good thing, or a bad thing depending on what you are looking for.  

There is one other thing to keep in consideration when using straw as a mulch.  There is a compound now that is being sprayed on cattle grazing land called grazon.  They also spray this on wheat fields because it does not affect grasses, only broad leaf vegetables which are exactly what we grow in our gardens.  This compound can last for up to 5 years in the garden and destroy all your plants.  There are some easy ways to test for this compound though, so make sure you do before spreading it on your garden.