You should have moistened the ingredients while mixing to help incorporate and activate the Lime.....so I'd recommend that you dump some water - a little at a time - into your mix and shovel it around thoroughly. You really want the bark to have absorbed moisture, otherwise you might end up with dry-spots in your containers. Everything else sounds good, as far as I can tell. Josh

I have seen where the Pine Bark Fines is referred to as 'soil conditioner' as well as the Turface being referred to as 'soil conditioner'. What exactly is Turface, They are both "soil conditioners" Pine Bark fines are organic. Turface is calcined Montmorillonite clay. Check your area for John Deere Landscape suppliers. If you can't find that then check your Tractor supply for "Oil Dry" in 40# bags. It will need to have the fines removed with an 1/8th inch screen. I've also read that it was like kitty litter, isn't that the same as the grit? So confused! :S the kitty litter is a clay product. The chicken grit is often a crushed granite product. It is a volume and aeration additive (?) that does not soak up water like the clay or the bark. I plan on buying the Reptibark for my Gritty so I won't have to screen and not for sure what I will need to get for the 5-1-1 bark fines. For the 5-1-1 mix check out the pine bark soil conditioners. See if it is ground to a fairly small size and is 100% pine. I have seen some that have other items like ground forest products whick are of questionable background. Locally I have Lowes, Tractor Supply, and Atwoods. I called Tractor Supply and they carry the Manapro grit for $4.99 and Atwoods has a 5lb bag of grit for $2.87 (they didn't know what brand). Then do I need to get the Lime and Gypsum for both (which for which mix?) or can I get just one of the two to use on both mixes? If I understand it correctly the lime is added to the 5-1-1 mix at the rate of 1 tablespoon per gaollon of mix. Seems that the ph of the 1-1-1 mix warrants the use of gypsum in the mix and then epsom salts are added to the water to help free up Ca and Mg. I don't have to make very much so I really don't want to have to buy 50 lb bags of all this! lol Also, what exactly to do for both on the fertilizer that's listed? you can add a Controlled release fertilizer or it is recommended to water with a weak fertilizer solution. Tapla has written on this and is worth the read Thank you so much for the help and sorry for all the q's! Thanks Al for all the help you are giving everyone!

Hey, everyone! :-) Lime is not critical, as long as you're using appropriate fertilizer. Yes, the pH of the media may be a little low (as Mike says, the bark and peat vary), but the pH creeps upward over time as tap and fertilizer salts accumulate in the mix. Typically, we attempt to mitigate this by adding white vinegar or another acidifier to our watering/fertilizing solution. I think you could put some of your mix in a cup, then soak with distilled water. After a few minutes, pour off some of the water and test the pH. This should give some idea of pH, although I'm sure it's not exact. The truth is, the pH of the media itself isn't quite as important in a container as it is in the ground. The pH of the solution with which we add fertilizer tends to be more important. That said, I'd scratch some Lime into the upper layer of the mix once the tree establishes itself in a few weeks. Be sure to cover the Lime with mix or mulch, then water into the mix. What is the volume of the container that the tree is in? Josh

If you use foliage pro then it adds both Ca and Mg to the mix. If not you will have to add those separately from time to time. I do fertilize with Epsom Salt since Mg leaches out much faster than Ca. Ca will be held a little longer in the soil. I am not a soil chemistry expert but from what I can gather is that the initial liming is to neutralize the acidity of the 511 mix and bring it more towards neutral. So here goes some of my thoughts on this. Mineral soil (clay based) have a much better buffering capacity and thus resist changes to Ph. Compost/humus also aid in this process. Sandy soils have the least buffering capacity. Bark+peat based soils do not have that buffering capacity and so the initial lime helps. Also residential water tends to be alkaline and so that does some additional help in keeping 511 more towards neutral. Rain, on the other hand, tends to be acidic (dissolved CO2). Gritty mix has lot less bark and no peat and so it is less of a problem. Plus the turface probably increases its buffering capacity. May be granite grit does too to some extent. I always make gritty mix with gypsum and Epsom for the Ca and Mg components whereas my 511 is always with lime. Keeping this thread alive and may be one of the experts on this subject will pipe in.