Great info.

Love the cost of the Fir bark!!!

Score!!!

;-)

Take care,

Laura.

Harrisburg PA. area

Grani-grit - Agway, Mechanicsburg, PA

TurfAce - Agway, Mechanicsburg, PA

Pine Bark - Highland Gardens, Camp Hill, PA
Kambark brand pine bark mulch/soil conditioner. The first time I bought it, I bought 2 years worth, I usually buy next years it and leave it sit in my garage for a year.

Western Ohio:
Granite grit & Turface MVP: Trupointe Cooperative

Uncomposted pine bark fines: Golden Trophy mini pine bark fines #312: Ohio Mulch

Nationwide:
Diatomaceous Earth/Floor Dry (substitute for Turface), part #8822: Napa Auto Supply

Virginia.. Southern Maryland

Turface.. John Deere Landscaping Stores Turface MVP or Allsport

Gran - I - Grit Crushed Granite.. ( Growers size) Southern States store.. Tractor Supply Stores.. Some sell Manna Pro and you want the "poulty" grit. Cherrystone ( Crushed Quartzite ) size No. 2

Pine Bark Fines.. Look for Soil conditioner aka Pine Bark fines.. Fir Bark can be found at some Bonsai Stores aka Orchid bark You can also find Fir Bark for the Gritty at Petsmart Stores in the reptile dept. Zoomed is the brand name.

Look for mom and pop feed and seed stores too!

Good luck.. if you live in the Tidewater area of Va. or Southern MD. You can always email me and I will try and help you !!

Have fun!!

Laura

Here are two possible substitutes for the crushed granite IâÂÂve found near Northwestern Indiana (but they are probably fairly widespread):

Nature Wise Poultry Grit -- Rural King (Niles, MI); $6.49 for 7 lbs (~$1/lb)

Insoluble crushed granite. Particulates are white-ish and measure 1/16 -" 3/16 inches so a little smaller than ideal. Also, fairly dusty so they will definitely need to be sifted and/or rinsed. (This is just another brand for the same product as from Manna Pro, I believe.)

Akasha Natural Coarse Sand -- LoweâÂÂs (South Bend, IN); $3.94 for 4 lbs (~$1/lb)

Particulates are more colorful (orange-pink to brown-black with some white) and measure about 1/8 -" ü inches so a little bigger than ideal. It looks pretty clean and consistent in size so IâÂÂd say it is probably good to go without sifting.

{{gwi:44173}}

At $1/lb, they're both fairly pricey in the long run (think $50 to match the same amount of turface from John Deere at ~$20/50lb bag). IâÂÂm only planning a small batch for now to experiment with so I was ok paying a bit more. IâÂÂm definitely leaning toward the sand for the colors, cleanliness, size, and consistency.

I hope that since LoweâÂÂs and Rural King are pretty widespread this may help people who are also in the market for making more small scale batches of the mix.

Cheers,

Nathan

Just wanted to follow up on my previous comment now that I have actually made the mix with these ingredients. (I had not done so yet as of that post.) The granite was very dusty as I had presumed but very few of the particulates actually passed through the insect screen (1/16'' guage) so I was able to use most of it. (This is just based on the top portion of the bag; it may be a different story as I get further down.) I used the sand as is and it looks great in the mix, in my opinion (sorry for not having a picture)--actually what I did was 1 pt turface, 1 pt bark, 1/2 pt granite, 1/2 part sand still giving the same 1:1:1 ratios.

That said, I realize that I forgot something with my math. For the turface, about 1/3 to 1/2 of what I used went through the insect screen. So if we say 1/2, then $20 buys you 25 usable pounds which is $0.80/lb. In light of that, the $1/lb for the granite or sand is not as bad as it originally sounded. Just wanted to clarify that and I apologize for the mistake.

Nathan

I was able to find some Pine Fines in the Northern Virginia area and thought I'd post the source in case anyone is still searching. JK Enterprises has a product called Cedar Valley Pine Fines. A 2 cu. yd. bag is $3.72. I just went to the Chantilly location and they had plenty of bags.

I will be returning the Garden Pro Pine Bark Mulch I settled for at Lowes last night.

Here is a link that might be useful: JK Enterprises - Pine Fines

Philadelphia, PA

Need help finding Pine Bark Fines for Gritty mix.

Prefer Cherry Hill / South Jersey area stores, but willing to travel. Alternative location around Trenton / Ewing, NJ.... Please help!

Thanks for the NoVa source, jkiechlin! I may head there tomorrow-we are close, maybe 10 minutes if I hit the lights right!

Oh and thanks for the soil conditioner tip, loveplants. I didn't realize that was pine fines!

I like the pine fines as mulch, too.

This post was edited by cyn427 on Sat, May 17, 14 at 19:04

After searching for the last few weeks, I miraculously found TWO places that carry Pine Bark Fines near me, weird.
The Mill of Bel Air 410-838-6111 (there are 6 locations in Maryland-- check the website for more, themillofbelair.com)

Hollins Organics in Baltimore 410-828-0210 (2 locations, hollinsorganic.com)

An associate at The Mill said they didn't carry it (even after looking it up in the computer) but I saw it 3 days later outside stacked next to their other pine bark products. So either they didn't look closely enough in the computer or they got them in a day or two after I inquired. I mention this now just in case anyone calls to see if they have it and is told they don't know what it is... they do carry it and they had a lot left as of last thursday.

The Hollins Organic website has a description of it right on their site under "products and pricing". Both stores charge $4.90/bag for 2 cubic feet.

I'd read many posts on here about people having trouble finding the stuff so I wanted to give a heads up-- hope this is helpful to someone.

Pine Bark (blue bag) and Gran-i-Grit grower size from Agway in Columbus, NJ. Call ahead and they will order if they don't have it.