Went to a couple of places yesterday in search of pine bark fines. The Walmart with a large garden center didn't have any pine bark of any chunkage, they weren't sure they were getting any either (the woman said they have too many chiefs and not enough Indians). Lowe's had some that looked ok maybe, a little big. But both places had something called hardwood fines. I've read Al's threads (over and over, fabu stuff, thanks Al!) and I know from those that hardwood=bad, but this stuff was nearly black, very fine, obviously at least partially composted already. There aren't any plants big enough yet for their final containers, but I have ants in my pants ^_^ . If it would still be bad for containers, how 'bout ground mulch? It looks nice and dark, which I like.
Would this be a suitable sub for pine bark fines?
I would stay away from the hardwood mulch/fines/compost because of potential pH issues and rapid structural collapse in soils. It's just not worth your going to the effort to make a soil and to only be disappointed in the end. Sorry. ;o(
Al
Thanks, Al, I had a feeling that would be the case. The pine stuff at Lowe's will probably be fine, it was hard to tell because none of the bags had leaked (yet) ;~)
It's too bad hardwood won't work--they have bags that actually say hardwood fines right on them, but when I ask about pine, they look at me like I'm speaking some obscure ancient dialect.
Here's what I found so far, how does this look? It doesn't look very composted and it's a little big but I have a set of those Japanese "gardening filters" I got from a bonsai supplier I could use on it if necessary (I love those things). The biggish stuff can be put out for mulch.
There's nothing to compare the size to. If the particles are bigger than ideal, you can add a little more peat & usually still be OK.
Al