Pine Straw Calculator

This calculator turns a bed size into a number of bales of pine straw. Enter the bed as a rectangle, a round bed or a tree ring, give the coverage your supplier quotes for one bale, and it returns the area, an allowance for overlap and settling, the bale count and the cost once you add a price. A third mode runs the other way, from bales you already have to the area they will cover. Pine straw has no standard bale, so the coverage figure is yours to enter rather than a constant, and the answer is only as good as that number.

Calculator Type
Measurements In
The bed you measured. This is a separate choice from the bale coverage below, because the bed is your tape measure and the coverage is what the supplier printed on the bale.
Coverage Figure Is In
Copy whatever the supplier prints. Baled pine straw is a United States product and a bale is almost always rated in square feet, so leave this alone unless your bale really is marked in square metres.
Use your supplier's figure, in the unit picked just above. A square bale is usually quoted at 25 to 50 sq ft spread 2 to 3 inches deep: 35 over bare ground, 40 when you are topping up straw that is already down. A large round bale covers several hundred. There is no standard bale, so this number decides the answer. Left blank it is 35 sq ft.
Straw is laid overlapping and packs down in the first few weeks. Ten percent is a usual allowance.
Leave at zero if you are spreading it yourself. Installed prices are usually quoted per bale, straw and labour together.
Most people put straw down once or twice a year. Set this above one to see the annual bill.
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Measurements In
The bed you measured. This is a separate choice from the bale coverage below, because the bed is your tape measure and the coverage is what the supplier printed on the bale.
Coverage Figure Is In
Copy whatever the supplier prints. Baled pine straw is a United States product and a bale is almost always rated in square feet, so leave this alone unless your bale really is marked in square metres.
The bare circle round the trunk that gets no straw, in the unit picked above. Leave at zero for a solid round bed; zero is zero in either unit.
Use your supplier's figure, in the unit picked just above. A square bale is usually quoted at 25 to 50 sq ft spread 2 to 3 inches deep: 35 over bare ground, 40 when you are topping up straw that is already down. A large round bale covers several hundred. There is no standard bale, so this number decides the answer. Left blank it is 35 sq ft.
Straw is laid overlapping and packs down in the first few weeks. Ten percent is a usual allowance.
Leave at zero if you are spreading it yourself. Installed prices are usually quoted per bale, straw and labour together.
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Coverage Figure Is In
Copy whatever the supplier prints. Baled pine straw is a United States product and a bale is almost always rated in square feet, so leave this alone unless your bale really is marked in square metres.
Give the Answer In
The area the bales cover, and the bed width below, are read and reported in this. It is a separate choice from the coverage figure above.
The supplier's figure, in the unit picked just above. A square bale is usually quoted at 25 to 50 sq ft at 2 to 3 inches deep. Left blank it is 35 sq ft.
Fill this in, in the unit picked just above, to turn the area into a length of border. Zero is zero in either unit.
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