‘Every year we sell out’: Meet the Mitchell’s Mulch father-son team, baling Whitsunday sugar cane for local gardeners

Forget fires, this hardworking Whitsunday pair are having sweet success turning sugar cane waste into a product that’s going gangbusters in the gardening world.

A family business built around baling leftover sugarcane leaves and selling them as garden mulch continues to thrive in the Whitsundays thanks to a long list of loyal customers.

Les Mitchell started Mitchell’s Mulch two decades ago and has since handed the business over to his son Dale Mitchell.

But that hasn’t kept him away.

Selling bales for $7 at the Airlie Beach markets on Saturday morning, September 28, Mr Mitchell senior said the father-son duo had been doing “a lot” of deliveries during the school holidays as the dry weather and heat prompted people to get mulching.

“We have a lot of great repeat customers, and they love the sugarcane because it adds to the soil and is practically a fertiliser,” Mr Mitchell said.

“Compare that to most other mulches which take away nutrients as they break down.”

Les Mitchell at the Airlie Markets with his well-known truck and mulch, selling for $7 per bale.

According to sugar cane research group BSES, sugarcane matter is rich in potassium and nitrogen, carries a good dose of calcium and magnesium, and has trace amounts of phosphorus and sulphur – all key nutrients for healthy vegetable and fruit growth.

Market attendee Brooke Kirkpatrick fully endorsed the mulch after seeing results on her citrus.

“We had a lime tree and it was just two little sprouts,” the Proserpine gardener said.

“We put some sugar cane mulch on it and it went boom in just three days and is growing like crazy.”

Farmers have started to catch onto the benefits of sugar cane mulch, and are plough 30 per cent of the discarded leaves back into their soil with the help of Mitchell’s Mulch.

The Mitchells run their own tractors, rakes and balers to collect the sugarcane locally, working during the crush in the wake of the harvesters.

“I know a lot of the cane farmers around our area and bale on their farms,” Mr Mitchell said.

“We bale as many cane bales as we can during the crush and stack and store it. Every year we sell out (of mulch).”
Over the years, the Mitchell’s have been increasing their production of cane mulch with the upgrade of machinery and working with more farmers.

Sugarcane is essentially a large super-nutritious grass grown for its sweet stalks, which means its leaves are a by-product often stripped by the harvester and left in the paddock

Farmers usually burn these leaves – called cane trash – to clear their paddocks, but are starting to realise the potential.

Sugar cane is grown for it’s super sweet central stalks, or canes. Everything else is labelled ‘cane trash’ and often burnt off in the paddocks.

Dale Mitchell spends most of his time on the tractors and said they would bale 60 to 70 per cent of the cane trash left on the paddocks, creating a reduced amount for farmers to plough back into the soil.

“These days farmers are actually catching on and they work about 30 per cent of the leaves back into the ground themselves,” Mr Mitchell the junior said.

“If they tried to plough it all back in it can create problems when they try to work the ground for the next crop, but 30 per cent creates a nice amount that benefits their soil.

“Every five years or so farmers will plough their paddock out, spell it and replant it, and so we’re often in their plough out paddocks taking off most of the cane trash so they can come along behind us and plough.”

The family do home deliveries from Bowen to Bloomsbury.

While the Mitchell’s Mulch sugarcane isn’t as finely chopped or fluffy as the stuff you buy from Bunnings, it is significantly cheaper, selling at $7 – $8 a bale with free home delivery if you purchase 10 or more.

The family does deliveries from Bowen to Bloomsbury and attends the Airlie Beach and Bowen markets.

They can be contacted on 0407 760 658 (Les).

Originally published as ‘Every year we sell out’: Meet the Mitchell’s Mulch father-son team, baling Whitsunday sugar cane for local gardeners