Plant54, In reading over this thread again, making sure I did not miss any points. I noticed you stated this... "repti bark! Is this the pine bark shaving for hamster's.?" If you didn't even know about the repti bark till this thread, how could you have tested for a fair amount of time to compare to coconut husks? Not 2 years for sure. Am I missing something..? My hats off to you if you can grow in coconut anything. Josh, I can tell you that everyone I know from across the country, from the deep south to the north, into the Carribeans is in love with the 5.1.1 mix over any mix, even with husks. In fact, my father's Aunt in the Carribeans has dumped all her coconut husk chips into the garden and has chosen bark it, because all her plants were rotting from compaction in less than a year, nutritional problems, and from many rains..I guess I just know more that like the 5.1.1 mix than any other as you do.... Does anyone here ever visit the "container forums"? The percentage of those that are successful with coconut products, pales in comparison with pine bark.. Mike.:-)

Listen to Patty! That is the proper way to deal with CLM! And the least likely to kill friendly bugs as well. Spinosad is the key (Monterey Garden Insect Spray with Spinosad). It also helps control Oriental Fruit Moths on peach trees :-) I used to clip off the old damaged leaves as well but I dont do that anymore! Listen to Patty! Your trees need the leaves and just because they look ugly it does not mean they are not helping. I dont know about some of you but in my area, sometimes literally every inch of new growth can be covered in CLM...A quote above saying that the CLM doesnt do much damage is totally wrong. They can do much damage at times, especially on young plants. They can retard any new growth. Out of all the pests in my garden, the CLM is on the top of my list for pests that need to be ELIMINATED. This post was edited by blazeaglory on Thu, Aug 21, 14 at 11:56

Wooden Wonders Beeswax Butcher Block Conditioner is hands down the best choice for a number of reasons. First it's made from high quality beeswax (normally the end cappings from fresh beeswax) so it's cleaner than the wax most people use. They ship it out quickly and when you order more than one tin at a time you get extra tins shipped to you as a bonus so it's considerably less expensive than Holland Mills product. You can order it on ebay or directly from their website. They don't overcharge for shipping like some places. You also don't have to be worried about getting overcharged for shipping, they routinely refund amounts exceeding their cap which presently considerably less than the cost of a flat rate box... this is great since a flat rate box can hold lots of tins. We use it on both our soapstone counters and all our wooden kitchen butcher blocks cutting boards and utensils. Here is a link that might be useful: Wooden Wonders Beeswax Butcher Block Conditioner

Moved info. from another thread as to pH preference of different roses: Take YOUNG own-roots in a nursery setting, watered with alkaline tap water (pH over 7.5). Young own-roots are wimpy, haven't secret acid yet, thus need an acidic medium like pine fines (pH 4) or peat (pH 4) & perlite to make minerals soluble in water to feed their tiny roots. Folks who grow roses in cold zone get tons of acidic rain plus snow, and need to lime roses per many inches of rain, if that rose is grafted on aggressive root-stock that secret acid. Dr. Huey-rootstock can go through rock-hard clay better than my shovel through its ability to secret acid. The pH requirement of roses change .. when they are young own-roots are like alfalfa sprouts, they can't secret acid, thus need an acidic medium. But as they get older and roots become more solid and woody, such as 3rd year on, that solid wood secrets plenty of acid. I bought an organic, very acidic SOLUBLE fertilizer, got some on my skin and it burned. I used the dose as recommended, it has acidic soy bean, kelp, and sulfate of potash .. my galllon-size own root roses love it !! Leaves became dark-green, but that acidic solution fried the leaves of 4th-year own-root Sweet Promise (with shiny & glossy and dark-green foliage). Roses grafted on multiflora rootstock, or have multiflora parentage dislike alkaline soil (become pale), thus these roses need an acidic soil to have darker leaves. In contrast, roses grafted on Dr. Huey, or have French Meilland or China parentage are healthier with higher pH. Old Garden roses were bred in the Old days, without high-pH tap water & only acidic rain at pH 5.6, thus prefer acidic soil. Modern roses are bred with alkaline-tap-water, and the most vigorous and dark-green tend to prefer such medium that they were bred, with pH over 7.5 like alkaline tap water. Intrigue hybrid tea is an example, 100% healthy in a pot, grafted on Dr. Huey, tons of buds, with alkaline tap-water pH near 9 (baking soda pH is 8.3). That was for $5 at Walmart. I didn't buy it, since I already saw Intrigue in spring time at the rose park with tons of acidic rain: it was a blackspot fest, and stingy too. But in hot & dry summer, Intrigue bloomed great with alkaline tap water at the rose park. Intrigue has dark-green leaves. Same with Perfume Delight, BS-fest with acidic rain, also dark-green leaves. To have dark-green leaves, roots must secret enough acid to get iron and manganese for dark-color .. such dark-green leaves roses secret more acid to utilize the minerals to make their leaves deep green. As the pH drops, less calcium and potassium are available, thus leaves are more susceptible to fungal diseases unless alkaline minerals is given.