I read your post with interest ..... and I still think your name is very clever. It does take a little getting used to, but once you become familiar with your watering and your plants recover from the initial hit, I think you'll be well-pleased.

You did use all conifer bark? What are you doing for fertilizer?

Best luck, and thanks for the observations.

Al

For the jungle cacti, I would highly recommend that you use a bark-based mix....
the 5-1-1 will work great, even bark alone yields tremendous results with these plants.

Josh

All the bark is from pine. Lots of Ponderosa around here. I did read that the hardwood bark isn't good, if I remember, because it didn't have the chemicals in it that keep it from breaking down in a hurry. I haven't done much with fertilizer figuring. I have been using Schulz liquid plant food. I have three different formulations, regular, cacti, and African violet. The cacti formulation is about the same as half strength African violet. I was using all of them full strength, but I quit that and use it half strength in summer and not at all in the winter. With the bark soil I have been sprinkling a bit of Rootblast on according to pot size like they say on the container. I still use the Schulz with this. I have been watering until it comes out the bottom and empty the trays into a bucket and dump the excess on a plant outside because I don't want to waste the fertilizer. On the Homolomena and the bay tree I did start to pour the water through a couple of times, and I think that got the bark finally wet.

I did vary the mixes between plants. The cacti have more floor dry and chicken grit, and the spiders, Homolomena, and jungle cacti have more bark. I wasn't very precise when I was mixing it up. I was kind of wondering if the bay tree needed more bark than I gave it. Also I was wondering if maybe a little smaller particle size would have been good for the jungle cacti. I guess that is what the 5-1-1 is about. It's really kind of fun having all these things you can fiddle with and think about.

I just wanted to add that the jungle cacti have more going on than just a change of mix. I moved a year ago to a new house, and while the yard is much larger and full of growing things, the house is much smaller and the light inside is much less than the big old house with the giant windows where we used to live. So it has been hard to get a good position for all the plants that I have. I did scale down some when we moved, but I still have too many. The jungle cacti have been losing out sort of since they aren't blooming and other things are, and being busy with putting in vegetable gardens and perennial gardens I didn't really notice until things were pretty far gone. The place they were in got good sun in the fall and winter, but in the summer when the sun was high they have been kind of in the dark. I don't have the covered porch to summer the cacti and amaryllis on, so I didn't figure out what to do for them to get them outside to make more room at the windows for the other plants like the jungle cacti. I have that figured out now, so maybe things will get better. I feel like I have been going from putting out one fire to putting out another. I don't have a lot of hopes for good blooms this fall and winter, but maybe next year. Anyway, it is a good excuse to cull the weaker plants.

I just noticed the post about fertilizing container plants, so I will read that soon.

Just remember those mixes are basically free of nutrients, so you have to supply them including the micros. Also, if your bark is not well composted, you may need to add some extra nitrogen to compensate for the bark decomposing. I find adding some CRF helps with that when my bark is not as composted as I would like.

I was hoping that was what the Rootblast would do, offer up micronutrients. It has calcium, magnesium, boron, sulfur, copper, iron, manganese, zinc. I have no idea if these are offered up in correct proportion, or if they are good things for plants, though. Well, I know iron and calcium and magnesium are, anyway. I did put some CRF in some of the pots, I think in the amaryllis. I did want to get away from my past habits of maybe over fertilizing things. I always would have lush growth, but I don't think the plants were really that sturdy as a result. And then there always was that crusty ring of salts around the top of the soil in the pots. I guess I just don't want things to get too big too fast anymore.

I think you're doing well and showing the kind of thinking that's going to ensure some very fast progress on your part. Capoman's advice is well worth considering, and is pretty close to what I'd suggest. My preferred fertilizer for everything I grow is Dyna-Gro's Foliage-Pro 9-3-6. I use it for everything, and only supplement it with Pro-TeKt 0-0-3, or potash for a couple of plants. It takes almost all the guesswork out of fertilizing. Find it on the net or at a hydroponics store. A good second choice would be Miracle-Gro 24-8-16 (box) or 12-4-8 (yellow jug). All the preceding are 3:1:2 ratio fertilizers, the value of which is explained in the post you mentioned.

Good luck!

Al

I did give your post on fertilizers a quick read, but I have to go back over it again. I know that outside anyway, too much P is a bad thing as it moves in soil and gets in the water table easily. Every soil test I've had has always come up nitrogen is the lacking thing, not the P or the K. I bought the Schultz because it said it had some iron, which none of the others did that I read the label on. I see it's heavy on the P compared to what you recommend.

I can be a thoughtful person, but sometimes I don't measure or count or whatever would be a more thoughtful way to accomplish whatever I am doing. If I have fewer houseplants, then maybe I can pay more attention. Thanks for your long posts and the help they give.

Thanks, Capoman for your mentioning of the non-composted bark needing more N. I will keep it in mind.