Softwood bark for planting azaleas?

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jhart May 03, 2008

I am totally new to gardening. I am going to be planting some azaleas and saw a post that said to add 8 to 12 inches of well-decomposed softwood bark to the top of the soil and plant the azaleas therein, that the azaleas would do fine planted at least partly in the bark. My question is: what is softwood bark and where do I get it? I'm assuming it's a kind of mulch, like pine bark mulch maybe? How do I get it "well-decomposed"? Or is that just a matter of leaving it outside for an amount of time? Sorry if these are silly questions.

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JHarp Louisville, KY May 04, 2008

I'm no expert, but my advice would be to look for a potting soil which contains a high proportion of bark or other organic matter. Also get some peat moss. Dig a large hole for the plant (a five dollar hole for a fifty cent plant is what I've heard). Mix something like equal parts of potting oil, peat moss, and native soil in a container of some sort, a wheelbarrow works well for this. Fill the hole with the mix and tamp it down well, set the plant so that it will be slightly above grade in its setting. It's going to settle some no matter how well you tamp it down and water it in, and you don't want it to wind up in a depression which will not drain.
Azaleas are acid loving plants and the peat moss will help with that. They are fairly shallow rooted and the roots will need to anchor into soil. I fear that if you just plant the roots in mulch the wind will pull them out.
Those who are more knowledgeable than I, please do correct any mistaken ideas I have given here, I need to learn also.

Jim

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ecrane3 Dublin, CA(Zone 9a) May 04, 2008

I think the stuff they sell as "soil conditioner" is generally decomposed bark, so you could give that a try too.

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