A quik tip, as others on here will help you quite a bit. Check out the 5-1-1, and read the container medium post in the forum. If you cant find pine fines and you are not up to making a mix, go ahead and use miracle gro soil if you must. Make sure plants are almost wilting from being underwatered before watering. I have plants that are in large pots with mulch, the only way to be sure they need water is to simply wait until they show slight wilting. Letting those potting mixes dry before watering is key. And it is ok to get miracle gro the leaves when watering. Try to water in the morning. Use miracle gro 1/2 strength or even 1/3 like a tsp per gal rather then the one table spoon it says to use. That way you never burn plants. Never add any more fertilizer thinking you will increase results, stay half strength. Next, I would not use shells for a calcium source. You may not need to add Ca if you use tap containing a good amount anyway. The use of both gypsum and epsom salts in the right ratios can give you the needed secondary macronutrients Ca,Mg,and S. You need to use them in the right ratio though. You can use a fertilizer that has everything in it like foliage pro from dyna gro-a 3-part from generial hydroponics, ect...

Regarding the lack of availability of pine bark: I went in to my Home Depot three times asking for it. Their computer showed they had 75 bags of it but nobody would help me find it. Finally one worker said. "Don't use pine bark -- it will kill all your palnts." I told her that it was ok, I want acidic bark for blueberries. (No reaction.) They still wouldn't find it for me. Maybe they really believe its bad for all plants and that's why they don't put it out. I noticed that all five kinds of the "bark nuggets" they do sell are all just wood shavings not bark, and are all dyed. Yuk. I'm glad to hear that Lowe's carries pine bark! Thanks.

The last one we have has a daphne in it - we got that daphne 23 years ago when we got married - all of the sources I looked at said that daphnes were very short lived - Ha! (tricked by paying attention to generic sources AGAIN!) The daphne has gotten big, and is going strong. This winter the barrel finally collapsed on one side, the plant sank over sideways a bit, but is still going strong months later - I think it must have rooted into the ground a long time ago. It is sort of hidden behind a Duchesse de Brabant, and so I just avert my eyes when I go by it, although I do look at the foliage to make sure it is still doing OK. Sometimes I just like to wait and see what happens - I am not a neat & tidy gardener at all. That's why I like old roses! Jackie

Quite often, when you get a Japanese Maple, it will have recently been bumped to a larger size can, so there is no real urgency to do an out of season repot in the immediate. At most, you should pot up after cutting some shallow slits in the outside of the root mass. Repotting should wait until spring, and be undertaken just as you see buds start to move in anticipation of the spring flush. Once a plant has become root-bound to the point that the root/soil mass can be lifted from the pot intact (at any point in its development), the plant will be permanently and negatively affected because of the problem roots that develop from the congestion (entangled, crossing, constricting, girdling, j-hooked .....) so you should be sure you correct those problems during your repotting sessions. Potting up won't correct those problems, even if you do see what some might consider a growth spurt after potting up. In reality, if you do see a 'growth spurt' after potting up. it's actually evidence that the plant has been growing under limiting conditions. Potting up only partially alleviates the limiting congestion, allowing the plant to grow a little closer to its genetic potential. Repotting, and its accompanying root work, restores the potential the habit of potting up robs. Your choice of soil (when you repot) will probably be one of the most important decisions affecting the trees growth/vitality that you'll make. Al