In response to DaMonkey "what's best for the plant, not the grower" idea, I have learned that it is NOT best for all plants to require watering more than once a day. There is a level of moisture/nutrient retention that will give you optimal growth of the plant. If the mix dries out faster than that, you won't get better growth even if you water 3X a day. The gas exchange turnover is less beneficial than greater absorption of water/nutrients. To the OP, I've had a similar problem but with the gritty mix drying out far too fast for some of the plants I was trying to grow in my climate (roses, citrus, mandevilla). For these plants in MY climate, moisture retention is an advantage, not a disadvantage. I have a rose in a pot of "retentive" bagged potting mix with 30 big gorgeous blooms on it right now, while a more vigorous rose (when I bought it) in gritty mix is growing poorly and has only produced 3 or 4 blooms, when during spring flush it should be more than 30 (and was more than 30 when it came in its growers pot!). Don't hesitate to use a "retentive" mix if that's what your plants, climate, and watering habits would do best with. You might also consider setting up a drip irrigation system. I have one set up just for the pots on my relatively small deck, and I so love not having to water manually. There is good info on irrigationdirect.com on designing a system. Actually, I set mine up so I could go on vacation in hot July or August without my plants all dying (and no one, no matter how good a friend, wants to come water all those plants every day, let alone twice a day!). But I was surprised to get home from vacation and see my drip-irrigated plants doing better than when I watered them manually. I'm using RainDrip components, but my impression is that they are all pretty standard (1/2" mainline, 1/4" tubing, plugs, various style emitters, etc). I have not tried any of the fertilizer dispensers to add to the automated system. However, there are growers on gardenweb that have set up auto-fertilizer-dispenser with their drip systems, so you might want to search for info if you'd rather go that route. I plan to try Osmocote Plus (24-8-16 with complete nutrients) in conjunction with my drip system this summer, rather than manual fertigation, which is work I'd rather not do. My main problem so far is that I can't find Osmocote Plus in stores (just the regular NPK-only Osmocote).

Ed, Thanks so much for taking the time to confirm. I actually couldn't believe my luck at finding it - I bought 4 bags immediately and then got to 2nd guessing, thinking that maybe it was too small. It really is comforting to have someone in the know give their opinion. I did also come across a bag of ground pine bark mulch at Home Depot that is perfect for the gritty mix, which I am going to try for starting some seeds. I was so thrilled:) For the 5-1-1, I did get sphagnum peat moss, too (and garden lime) but do you think it would be better to go with the 1 part of the finer 4'oclock stuff from the fines rather than the sphagnum? Laura

Around here the pine bark mix at Home Depot that works is the #302 Golden Trophy bags. I've been using this for the last 4 or 5 years. The only problem is that the #302 bags vary significantly from pallet to pallet. You need to check an open bag and make sure. If the chunks are small then the entire pallet is probably OK. If not the bags in the entire pallet is not usable. I got burned this year in my first buy and had to unload all the bags to someone's in ground garden (after a harsh winter I wasn't thinking straight :-). The bags were wet and the chunks seemed small after a quick inspection but after getting them home they stunk (which I heard was not good) and had a lot of sticks and bigger chunks hidden in them. A week later I went to a different Home Depot and found a pallet of perfect #302 pine bark and loaded up as many bags that will fit into the van. A couple of years ago the good pallet of #302 was behind a bad pallet which required me to climb over the bad pallet to get to the good pallet. The employees at Home Depot must have thought I was nuts. Last year I found #302 Golden Trophy at Menards with the same pallet to pallet differences but this year Menards doesn't seem to carry it.

I don't think it was the screen that made the difference. It was probably the volume of peat in relation to bark, and I'm wondering how micro the micro bark is?? It's not unusual for soils bade from fine materials to support 6" or more of perched water that won't drain on its own. To see if it was actually the screen, use a tall container (12" or more) filled with the soil and with a drain hole covered by screen. Completely saturate the soil and see if it drains. I bet it will. I think the water the OP is talking about is simply perched water. There is a threshold level of large particles that must be maintained; otherwise, the ht of the PWT and aeration of the soil above the PWT will be the same as that of only the fine ingredients. The threshold level changes when there is not enough fine material in the soil to fill all the air spaces between the chunkier material. From that point, the less fine material you have, the better will be the aeration and the lower will be the ht and volume of perched water. Once there is enough fine material to fill all the air spaces between the coarse material, you essentially have all the unwanted properties of just the fine material. This is why growers who tell you to mix your potting soils with 50% perlite aren't doing anyone a favor. If the perlite isn't coarse and it doesn't meet the threshold standard, you might as well not bother. One thing perlite DOES do is reduce the volume or perched water a soil can hold - but it does little for drainage or aeration unless it meets or helps to meet the threshold standard. What perlite does for soils in bark bases soils is, it gets lodged between the often flat bark particles, which opens up a LOT of additional air space in the mix. Other particles would work just as well in that regard, and some even hold water internally, which can add to water retention w/o sacrificing aeration or drainage. Eg, substituting Turface or calcined DE for perlite can make a significant change in water retention, which in some cases can be a good thing, but in others a not so good thing. Keep in mind that what's most convenient often comes at a price paid in the form of something not in the best interest of the plant. It's always up to the individual to sort that part out, but the grower who demands a week-long interval between waterings shouldn't be trying to convince others that it's best for their plants. Soo many problems erupt when one grower is viewing the growing experience from the perspective of what's best for the grower, while someone else's view is focused on what's best for the plant. Very often the two are mutually exclusive. Al