Ecological
Pine Straw
Ad Platt
The Longleaf Alliance
Ad@longleafalliance.org
(850) 982-8480
Pine straw has been a southern
staple for a long time, but only
recently became a commercially
valuable commodity.
Pine straw has been a southern
staple for generations
Pine Straw can be a financial
game changer!
 Provides
early return on investment.
 Requires management to be successful.
 Can compromise other values.
 Best approaches still being
debated…trade-offs are important
considerations.
 Markets are unevenly developed,
 Contract considerations are important.
Some variables
 Planting
density and spacing
 Contracted harvest or self
 Frequency of harvest
 To burn or not to burn
 Intensity of harvest
 Contract Considerations
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
By the bale or by the acre?
Who pays for clean up
Pinestraw is primarily used as a
mulch in for landscaping.
Benefits of Pine Straw Mulching
• Conserves soil moisture
– Reduces evaporation from the soil
• Prevents crusting of the soil surface
– Improves absorption and percolation to roots
• Maintains a more uniform soil temperature
– Keeps the soil warmer in cold spells
– Keeps the soil cooler in hot periods
• Reduces weed problems
– Mulch needs to be weed-free
– When applied deep enough to smother small weeds or new
germinants.
Source: Pine Straw: Mother Nature’s Mulch. Pub 2387 (12.5M)
8/90 Thomas E. Pope, Ph.D., Specialist (Landscape Architecture)
LSU Agricultural Center. LA Coop. Ext. Service.
Benefits of Pine Straw Mulching
• Adds to the beauty of the landscape
– Neutral or non-detracting uniform color
• Prevents freezing injury to roots of cold-tender plants
• Prevents compaction of soil
– Primarily by reducing the impact of rain on soil surfaces
• Prevents wind and water erosion of exposed soil
Source: Pine Straw: Mother Nature’s Mulch. Pub 2387 (12.5M)
8/90 Thomas E. Pope, Ph.D., Specialist (Landscape Architecture)
LSU Agricultural Center. LA Coop. Ext. Service.
Nurseries & Landscapers
Big Box Stores
WalMart
Lowe’s
Home Depot
Other Consumers
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Golf Courses
Cities & Towns
Highway Departments
Agricultural Industry
The Public
Pine Straw Markets
Loblolly Pinestraw
• Widely available
• Limited endurance
– fades quickly; reapply every 6 mos.
• Preferred in some agricultural uses
– strawberries
• Hard to bale
– short needles
Slash Pinestraw
• Widely available in southern Coastal Plain
• Easy to bale
– long needles
• Last longer than loblolly
– reapply every approx 9 mos. to 1 yr
Species Preference
• Longleaf
• Increasingly available
• Easy to bale
– Long needles
• Longest lasting of all straws
– increased resin content, allows application
approximately every 1 ½ yrs
Developing Markets
• Consumers are not knowledgeable about
the product
– Prices to consumer are higher
– Prices to the landowner are lower
– Little or no price differentiation based upon:
• Species
• Quality
• Size
Developed Markets
• Consumers are more knowledgeable
about the product
– Prices to consumer are lower
– Prices to the landowner are greater
– Price differentiation to landowner
• Species
– Price differentiation – to producer
• Quality
• Size
Ecological Pine Straw
-Selecting Stands• Old Fields
• Ownerships where wildlife is NOT a priority
• Any age (min. 8-10 yrs)+
Photo:DeLotelle
Red-cockaded woodpecker
Gopher tortoise
Some rare species require good-quality
ground cover
Fuel
Fuel
Rule #1 Don’t destroy an intact
herbaceous layer during site
preparation.
Raked annually!
Groundcover, Poles, Aesthetics,
Pinestraw near Purvis, MS
Low Bush, Vaccinium myrsinites
High Bush, Vaccinium corymbosum
Rule #2 Fire will do most of the
work for you if it is a cutover site
that was not previously in
agriculture.
Rule #3 Thoroughly remove pasture
grasses on agricultural sites
• Bermuda Grass
• Bahia Grass
• Fescue Grass
Control Invasive Exotics Before
Restoration
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Kudzu
Cogon Grass
Privet
Autumn Olive
Etc..
Cleaning up the Stand
• Chemical weed control
• Burn
• Mechanically cut and pile remaining debris
Methods of Baling
• Agricultural hay balers
• Mechanical balers designed for straw
• Box or hand baling equipment
Madison Tractor & Equipment
Madison, GA
Free
Designs on
the Web
TAMU
Concerns/Problems With Raking
Pine Straw
• Reduces wildlife value
• Removing the herbaceous layer is detrimental to all game and
most non-game species
• Aesthetics
• More like farming than forestry
• Reducing soil productivity
• Compaction
• Removing nutrients
Concerns/Problems With Using
Pine Straw
• Introduction of weeds/pests
• Cogon grass
• Japanese climbing fern
• APHIS warns about “fireants in
pinestraw”
Potential Income- Georgia
CASE STUDY #1
CASE STUDY #2
• Contractor in Georgia
• DOD Base near Augusta
• Raking for 15 years
• Sells 1 year contract to rake
straw every 3rd year on
mature (80+ y/o) longleaf
• Has 12 crews
• Pays landowners $.50 a
bale for slash
• Pays landowners $.70 a
bale for longleaf
• Landowners averaging 150200 bales acre/yr
• Contractor does all the site
cleaning – no herbicides
allowed.
• Has received up to $300.00
for a 1 year contract
Recommended Cycles for
Straw & Wildlife
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1 year Rake
1 year Fallow
1 year Burn
No herbicides applied to herbaceous plants
Restrict fertilization to deep sands
Beauty
Buckbrush/
Berry
Coral
Berry
Wild Plums/
Prunus spp.
Amorpha
fruticosa
Aesthetics,
wildlife food,
hardy, easy to
plant.
Some grasses are available
Switch Grass
Indian Grass
Wire Grass
Perennials used by Wildlife
Sensitive Briar
Beggars Lice-Desmodiums &
Milkpea-Galactias
Lespedezas & Butterfly PeaCentrosema virginiana