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.

Walt, what on God's green earth is that thing? As far as oil ratios, everybody should use what they feel is the best. I personally don't like the idea of running a high mix oil at 100:1 when the folks who built my orphaned 2-stroke recommend 32:1. Now I know some of you guys use these synthetics with good results. It's just not for me. Additive packages and whatever else, I prefer to follow engine manufacturer's recommendations and use LB oil. I actually run mine with a little extra oil to be on the safe side, just in case. However, this is what I do because it works for me. I'll always suggest going with spec or richer, but if something else works for another person that's fine too. When you ask people for their opinions on this forum, that's exactly what you will get. Silly thing to argue about really.

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.:-)

I am thoroughly disgusted with peat. It breaks down, compresses, rapidly decomposes into a solid rock like substance unless large amounts of vermiculite and perlite are added, and that makes it extremely difficult to maintain moisture in the pots. I am watering everyday and sometimes need to water twice a day. Wick watering is not an option because of how I display my plants and also because of rapid evaporation. I need a heavier soil that does not retain moisture like peat does. Peat also is devoid of any nutrients, does not retain nutrients so fertilizing is more the art of hydroponics rather than soil based science. I don't have garden loam this being Arizona rock and sand desert soil. Any suggestions? I can get well rotted manure, blood meal, bone meal. Anything else necessary?