# earthgro all natural mulch......please help



## kschlunegger (Sep 19, 2009)

I am in California and can not find cypress mulch. This is killing me. My hatchling gets here in two days. Has anyone ever tried earthgro all natural mulch? It does not say what its made of, but does not look like pine (which is what we normally find here). :bang :bang :bang :bang


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## TanMan57 (Sep 20, 2009)

kschlunegger said:


> I am in California and can not find cypress mulch. This is killing me. My hatchling gets here in two days. Has anyone ever tried earthgro all natural mulch? It does not say what its made of, but does not look like pine (which is what we normally find here). :bang :bang :bang :bang


Well I live in california also. You can buy your cypress mulch but what i do is buy reptile bark from zoo med. (only while hes in his small cage, but thats only till monday or tuesday) so ill be ordering stuff offline


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## kschlunegger (Sep 20, 2009)

Where can I get it? All the crazy greenies out here say it is bad to use because trees are dieing. So to be PC, most places dont carry it. That is why I am asking about the earthgro. It does not say what it is on the bag, but maybe that is on purpose because maybe it is cypress and they dont want anyone to know. Other than that, we are stuck with red wood and pine mostly. I figured I would need three large bags of the Zoo Med stuff and at $25 a bag (that is $75). I need a cheaper solution.


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## AWD247 (Sep 20, 2009)

I used the earthgro mulch, I think I had a post on it also, try a search, 
but anyway, it was working pretty well for me, the thing is like you said they dont list/show what the blend is, also its more of a soil like base than mulch.
1st bag I had was fine the 2nd on gave me small lil black bugs, then I just switched over to straight cypress mulch never had problems. 
If you do use it just make sure you dont get any of those lil black flying bugs.


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## Tkeller (Sep 20, 2009)

I used ecoearth, i got 15 bricks for like 25.00 including shipping and 4 bricks after being soaked filled my 48x24 enclosure 4 inches deep. Its coconut husk but is ground and it stays pretty moist, its all i could find as well, the only cypus mulch i could find here was dyed, which is a no-no. Oh and before i get blasted for the size of the enclosure, mine is about 12" long right now and i'm 80% finished with my 8'x4'x3' enclosure. :-D


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## simon021 (Sep 20, 2009)

I thought about picking up some eco earth, but it seems like I would need a ton of bricks for my tank. It's a 6 foot by 18 inch 150 gallon fish tank. He was eating tiny pieces of mulch for a while there, but has stopped lately. I have been on the hung for a backup substrate. The eco earth seems like a great alternative, but I wasnt sure how many bricks to get for an enclosure of this size. I can't imagine using that stuff in an 8x4x4 enclosure!

Also, although it looks like dirt, it's actually the coco husks or something. But does it get muddy? Does it stick to the Gu when he's digging around in it? It seems like it would be a big mess, but maybe it's just because it looks so much like dirt. I've never actually seen it or felt in in person before.


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## Tkeller (Sep 21, 2009)

Actually I really like it, you can get 3 bricks for 5.00 plus shipping from thatpetplace.com 3 bricks swell to fill 2, 5 gallon buckets worth of substrate. Its not muddy at all, as a matter of fact it seems dry, but the humitidy stays around 70% in my tank, my gu digs in it all the time, with no issues, no mold, and it has no smell at all i can detect. When the top layer starts to dry out I mist it down again and all is good for a few days. Unless I find out otherwise I plan to keep using it, i have yet to find a drawback on it.

As far as how much does a brick swell? the package says that 3 bricks will will make 24 ltrs of substrate, at 5.00 it took 4 bricks to fill by 75 gallon tank 4" deep i that helps you any so basically I spent 28.00 when I bought 4 packages of 3 bricks each, including shipping, you r double the size of my tank and I used half the bricks I bought so your looking at $28.00 to get 4" deep in your tank.


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## simon021 (Sep 21, 2009)

Awesome! I actually have one of those cat litter domes sitting on the far left side of my tank. It sort of frames out his burrow. Then i Shove a ton of mulch in there and cover the whole thing with mulch, and then make a sloping ramp down to his hot side which has much less mulch in it to keep him farther from the lights. You can't even see the cat litter dome when it's all done. Plus this raises the whole left side of the tank up so that it's much closer to the 4 foot strip UVB tube that I have on that side. He does a lot of "running laps" around the tank, so I wanted to be sure he was getting plenty of UVB exposure on the cold side. the hot side has a 160w MVB along with a basking bulb for his basking rock.

I'm looking forward to giving this eco earth a go.

I'm going to buy 5 x 3 brick packs and see how far that gets me. I like to have a whole bunch of substrate in there for him to burrow in.

How was the prep time for it? It sounds like quite a bit of work to get the eco earth all ready to go. I'm not real thrilled about letting it sit outside in the sun all day. Good way to get bugs or something in there. I think I may just use a blow dryer like in the youtube video showing the preparation of it.

How about spot cleaning? Do you just use a cat litter scooper or something to clean his stools out? With the mulch I just kind of grab a big handful around the poop and throw it away. Not the most elegant solution, but really the only way to do it with cyprus mulch.

It's about time to clean all his mulch out anyways, and I was wondering how the heck I was going to get mulch during the winter. Seems like a pretty seasonal thing around here.


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## bubbategu2 (Sep 21, 2009)

Eco Earth bricks is sold at Petco and Petsmart in California


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## crazyskohl (Sep 21, 2009)

wow u hijacker lol this post was suposed to be about earth grow not eco earth, he needs to know what is in EARTH GROW at home depot, not about eco earth (very expensive) so if u can help me and kschlunegger that would be great.


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## Orion (Sep 22, 2009)

I use the eco earth also. Its very easy to prep and keeps the humidity up, it stays moist and when it starts to dry out I have a 2 gallon sprayer I keep by the cage and spray it down. It sold at Petco in Va also....but you can probally find it on line cheaper. I just spot clean with a kitty litter scooper like you say. Tegus like to dig and this gives them that oppertunity.


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## Tkeller (Sep 22, 2009)

The prep time was nothing I just put the bricks in a 35gallon round trashcan (clean one) added the water, waited 30 mintes,mixed it up with my hands to make sure it was all broken up, and put it in the enclosure, it was not soaking wet so no need for a hair dryer, whole process took 45 minutes, 30 minutes watching TV while it expanded and 15 minutes putting bricks in water and pouring the substrate out into the tank!


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## wyattroa (Sep 22, 2009)

i would go with eco earth too. I had cyprss mulch in mine but i got tiny black flying bugs like nats.. what a pain in the ass.. i put the eco earth in. My guy loves it.. he has a nice burrow made under his flat stone where he basks. I also put a brick of the moss in there to keep humidity up. My humidity is always at 60%
robert


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## simon021 (Sep 22, 2009)

Tkeller said:


> The prep time was nothing I just put the bricks in a 35gallon round trashcan (clean one) added the water, waited 30 mintes,mixed it up with my hands to make sure it was all broken up, and put it in the enclosure, it was not soaking wet so no need for a hair dryer, whole process took 45 minutes, 30 minutes watching TV while it expanded and 15 minutes putting bricks in water and pouring the substrate out into the tank!



Sounds like a plan

Sorry for the hijack guys  I didn't even realize it was talking about a different item until that post.


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## crazyskohl (Sep 25, 2009)

well thats ok but do you know whats in earth grow at home depot or no???? if so please tell us.


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## Tkeller (Sep 25, 2009)

I felt so guilt about Hijacking your post that I called the company to ask them, its made by MircleGro by the way, they could not tell me exatly what was in it, but when I told the guy what you were thinking of using it for, he groaned a little bit, and said well, not sure if it would hurt a lizard or not, probably not, but I cannot guarantee it. So if you ask me that is a pass!


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## crazyskohl (Mar 16, 2010)

its ok well thank you 4 looking that up. that post was a great help to me and my dad


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