Specialty Gardening: Container Soils: Water Movement and Retention II, 0 by tapla

tapla wrote:
I have tried side by side comparisons of cuttings from the same plant - one grown in the mix I usually use, the other was the same mix, except that I substituted CHCs for the bark. I leached the CHCs very thoroughly to remove any soluble salts, and I even used gypsum instead of dolomitic lime to help keep the pH south of neutral (CHCs are pretty neutral in pH, so when you add dolomitic lime as a Ca/Mg source, it pushes the pH above 7, which starts to affect the uptake of many nutrients) and added Epsom salts to the fertilizer water to be sure they were getting Mg. I was careful to water on an 'as needed' basis, instead of a schedule. I just found that the CHC's did not allow any where near the same increase in bio-mass (growth) that the plants in the bark mix did. Others may relate entirely different experience, but having tried the comparison with multiple genera of plants, I think I'll stick with the conifer bark. There is also the expense factor, with bark being much less expensive. Those two reasons alone, clinch the decision for me.

Here is the second pic of bark products I promised. Notice that none of it is dyed? At the top, is screened fir bark I buy in 4 cu ft bags for around $20. I only use that in my bonsai or houseplant soils. The other three pics around the perimeter are all southern yellow pine bark that came from different places. One came from Meijer, one from Home Depot, the other from a nursery just down the road a mile or so from my home. Any of these barks would also work extremely well in a soil for your containers. As you can see, the product is out there, and in my opinion, it really is worth searching for. It may be bagged and called, soil conditioner, pine bark mulch, premium landscape pine bark mulch . . . or any one of a number of other names.

Good luck, Laska.

Al