pine bark for blueberries.. is this any good?
i searched several lowes, walmart and homedepot for pine bark for several small blueberry plants i ordered and all i could find is this stuff at lowes.. "timberline pine bark mulch" it's a purple and black bag. no luck finding a "soil conditioner" either.
some of the particles are pretty fine, it's pretty damp so a little clumpy, i suppose i could sift it?
i have 10 quarts of peat as well.. would a 50/50 mix work?
pic of mulch
Comments (8)
stevie
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoyeah it appears there are quite a bit of the actual wood (sap wood?) than bark. i'm assuming the darker stuff is the bark. i ran some through 3/8th inch sift and ended up with more of the bark i think. because it is damp most of the finer bark clumped together so it's a bit hard to tell in the photos. i will head to a different homedepot to see if i can locate something that has a bit more bark.
i will be planting in containers, so no native soil.. maybe 50/50 of this "bark" and peat,.. or 1/3 bark, 1/3 peat and 1/3 leaf mold (oak). is leaf mold ok?
plants are very small though (3-4 inches tall) so i'm likely going to start them off in a small 1/2-1 gal pot.
here is what it looks like sifted (it's still very damp, a pain to sift)
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Is this good for pine bark fines?
Comments (15)I would avoid hardwood mulch. This is from Al's Container Soil thread: Bark fines of pine, fir or hemlock, are excellent as the primary component of your soils. The lignin contained in bark keeps it rigid and the rigidity provides air-holding pockets in the root zone far longer than peat or compost mixes that too quickly break down to a soup-like consistency. Conifer bark also contains suberin, a lipid sometimes referred to as nature's preservative. Suberin, more scarce as a presence in sapwood products and hardwood bark, dramatically slows the decomposition of conifer bark-based soils. It contains highly varied hydrocarbon chains and the microorganisms that turn peat to soup have great difficulty cleaving these chains - it retains its structure. My understanding is that hardwood mulch is neither bark nor pine, and will breakdown more easily, robbing nitrogen from your plants....See MoreAny pine bark fines in Charleston SC?
Comments (14)Chris, I was at my local Home Depot yesterday for a non-garden project. I have been in their garden center several times this year so I knew they didn't have any pine bark suitable for 5-1-1 or gritty mix, but I asked a salesperson about "pine bark fines" anyway, just to see what the guy would say. An experiment really. The salesperson in the garden center told me that he had never heard of anything called "pine bark fines" and asked me what they were used for. After I told him I wanted them for container use, he showed me a bag of pine bark mulch where the pieces were between 2 and 3" in size, much too large for container soil usage but good for mulching garden beds. Turns out that is the only bagged pine bark product they had. Anyway, that's why I suggested you ask for pine bark in the specific size you are looking for rather than asking for "pine bark fines". Many salespeople, including this guy at HD, probably won't know that that means. TYG...See MoreBlueberry substrate - pine bark and soil
Comments (13)Thanks for all the information, guys! I liked the idea of cutting the bottom out of the pots so they function like raised beds, I'm going to try this! I live in southern Brazil. I planted Southern Highbush and some rabbiteyes. The SHB are growing well, but I think the rabbiteyes won't do well in my climate because our winter is too warm for them. Something that I have noticed is that the rabbiteyes that I left in the shade have flowered, but the ones that stayed in full sun during the winter did not flower at all, their buds didn't open, I believe they didn't get enough chill hours... So I learned that the amount of chill hours can vary a lot depending on where you place the pot in the yard. So I guess what I will have to do with the rabbiteyes every year is leave them in the shade during all winter, and then move them to a sunny place during spring, summer and fall. This post was edited by julia.scheidt on Sun, Sep 7, 14 at 20:58...See MorePine Bark, Fir Bark, Orchid Bark fines
Comments (24)esox07: Just went on the computer and read your posting. I hope that you found what you need. Please let us know if this bark product can be used to make the quick-draining, gritty-planting medium....the '"bark-fines" part. I guess the price is not that high considering the Repti-Bark is $20.00 a bag... and you can always use the leftovers in the future if you make too much potting mix. Just a bit more information....There's a product called: "Micro Bark" made by GreenAll but it's mainly found only on the West-Coast, and a few other states. This might help others who live in these locations. No distributors/retailers in NYC area! Why???? Who knows? Bruce,...Good luck with the peppers. I hope I helped you and others. In addition: Some posters on this thread chose to misquote and misrepresent some of the information which I posted ... especially about the subject regarding the gritty-mix, potting mediums. The purpose of these forums is to openly exchange opinions, information, and ideas... and to do so without invective, and snide recommendations, if you happen to disagree with that posted information....See Morespeedster1
8 years agoA J
8 years agoGreenhorn2
8 years agoI prefer Pine Needles for mulching for my Raspberries as it's nice looking , dense and easily blocks out sunlight and keeps the weeds down...a nice bed about 2 inches think of White Pine Needles is great, is you have any White Pines nearby grab a hefty bag or 2 fill of old needles and ur good to go.
A picture here
stevie
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agonice plant Greenhorn.
welp, made a few more trips to several different chains and nothing..
resorted to buying a bag of HUGE pine bark nuggets and tormenting my mowers blade by running them over.it's pretty annoying how these dumb chains such as lowes, homedepot, etc. sell blue berry plants, but no good planting medium for them.
even searched online for some pine bark and all i found was overpriced gougers selling 8 quarts of bark for over 30-40 dollars.. as if there was a shortage of pine trees..
it's either this or nothing at this point.
Ike Stewart
8 years agolast modified: 8 years agoA J
8 years ago
A J