Folks who have found a source can post the manufacturer/brand name and then you can look at their website/phone number to find out if there is a supplier near you. Greensmix Soil Conditioner is what I use, but I doubt they supply Florida.

I never found the stuff. I can't remember what I used instead but it included vermiculite and peat moss.

I have to tell you that my attempts to grow tomatoes were foiled by weather and squirrels. I never had nematodes though. I gave up after two miserable seasons.

Your post is in the wrong forum. While I love this forum, as a Florida gardner folks here won't know distributors in your particular geographic area. I had to post in the Florida Gardening forum to find a local source for pine fines, which was identified for me locally within 24 hours of my post! See you there....

Tom

Sorry to hear you are having such a hard time finding pine bark mini nuggets. Perhaps the attached link might help.

Many of the local (Michigan) landscape suppliers are also sold out of the small pine bark nuggets, probably because it's late in the growing season up here. The local retailer I get mine from (Meijers) changed suppliers this season and their "mini nuggets" were much larger than they were last season. It took a lot of work to get the right size bark from the new bags this year. I'll have to find them elsewhere next year.

Are there any bonsai stores in your area? If so they might be able to help you locate some pine bark fines. Also, if you need only small quantities, I read somewhere that pet stores sometimes sell fir bark (similar to pine bark) for use in reptile cages. I've never looked for that but it might be another option.

Most of the larger lansdscape stores/nurseries carry some size of pine bark mini nuggets, sometimes in bulk. Again, the size of the mini nuggets vary quite a bit, depending on source.

Ironically the large pine nuggets we use in our gardens for mulch says right on the bag "from the southern pinelands".

Let us know if you find any in your area. Good luck!

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Pine bark link

This weekend I was at my local (Michigan) Lowes and noticed this fir bark for orchids. It comes in fairly small bags and costs about $5.00 per bag. The good news is that it contains fir bark, but it's possible the fir bark pieces are too large for Al's container mix. It *might* be suitable if you cannot find the pine bark in your area.

Perhaps Al or others on this list could advise whether orchid mix is a good component for your containers. I've not used it for growing in containers but would be curious if it would work.

HTH,

Dave

Here is a link that might be useful: Orchind mix w/ fir bark

I buy orchid bark (no other additives - in CHI) in 4 cu ft bags and use it almost exclusively in my gritty soils because it comes (I'm able to get it) prescreened in 1/8-1/4 size and has almost no dust. @ around $20 for 4 cu ft, I think it's too expensive (for me to feel I'm being reasonable) to use in the soils I build for display & veggie containers because that goes to the compost pile every year, and I use well over a yard of it.

Size does matter. It's probably at the top of the list of the most important considerations in deciding what organic soil components are appropriate.

Al

Al,

Thanks for the clarification. I have seen many brands of "orchid mix" but typically the prebagged mixes are a combination of bark, vermiculite or perlite, and peat moss. Quite often the content listing on the bag is a bit vague at best. I've seeing things like "forest bark" or "natural forest products" listed, so who knows what that might be.

Also, the bark I mentioned looks to be fairly large, maybe 1/2" to 1" in size. Hard to tell but it looks a bit larger that the pine bark I typically use. I just thought it might be an alternative to pine bark if pine bark cannot be located.

Thanks.

Dave

Perhaps these links might be of some help?

http://floridamulchonline.com/main.php?main=mulch_pinebark_nug

http://www.lowes.com/lowes/lkn?action=productDetail&productId=97822-66882-97822

HTH,

Dave

ive used earthgrow pine bark mulch some bags have smaller pieces i pick thrrough the bags for wwhat i want use the big stuff on top for mulch 4 bucks for 3 or 4 cu foot ernie

Post was moved to the Florida Forum and several local locations posted within 24 hours....