Thanks for the link Al. Fulton- Al is right, container soils are a completely different beast than regular soils. Just because something is ideal for container, does not mean it will work in regular soil, and in fact it will more than likely be detrimental because the needs of both environments are so incredibly different. Pine bark (and other barks) are great because they break down slowly and perform the task you desire: the hold a lot of moisture. Further information would greatly help address specif needs, is the soil loam, clay, sandy loam, etc.? What are you growing: annuals, perennials, both? What is your time frame for improving the soil? These are all very crucial to determining how to address your soil. Without this information we can only make a good guess to what you need, as a guiline you should always add plenty of organic matter, but the amount varies signigantly depending on the aforementioned questions. Start with a shake test for soil composition, there are a lot of how-to's online.

Les, Is is really necessary to start two new threads every time you have a question? Al does a good job of checking all the threads. Especially this one. Here is a link that might be useful: AL's Thread

Yes, Les. That's the Profile product that most of us here are using. 'Allsport', from John Deere dealers is also the same material, packaged under a different name. Good luck! Al

Hey Al, just wanted to make sure that 2 years later all this advice is current. Some of my gritty mix is now just about 2 years old also. It seems to be holding up but I got to thinking, like some of those in this thread, that it sure would be nice to have a permanent mixture for the long term plantings, by withholding the organic ingredient. Plus it's one less ingredient to have to buy and later screen. I see your main purpose for including it was to lessen the fears of potential gritty mix users that plants couldn't possibly grow in it. It's also used to average the particle size and water retention of the two other ingredients. I use FP to fertilize and look after my plants often enough that this isn't a fear of mine. I utilized a 1:1 ratio of Cherrystone:Turface for two basjoo banana trees planted in the ground here in zone 4. I have heavy clay and when I grew them the last time, they grew slow and their corms later rotted over the winter. I also don't think I properly watered/fertilized. So this year after reading your posts in the link below, I upped the FP by 4x to 1 tsp of FP per gal, rather than 1/4 tsp I used before, and brought the PH down to 5.5 with vinegar rather than the unacidified 7 of my tap water. I know you water with this dosage weekly with outdoor plants but I watered with it almost every day during the hot summer days with no apparent issues. I found that this amount of FP was too much for the indoor plants though... I also experimented with digging about a 4-5 gal hole where I planted the bananas and poured in the 1:1, so at least some of the soil near the corm and roots didn't have to deal with the heavy clay. The plants grew waaay faster this summer and hopefully it'll help the stems/corms survive this winter. I utilized the 1:1 before reading your post in this thread about using a higher ratio of granite/cherrystone to compensate for the small particle size of the turface. Even though the basjoo's did great in the 1:1, I'm guessing in a pot, a proper ratio (2:1 or 3:2 like you mentioned) would be a bit more important. Is this a safe assumption? Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing advice