Custom Soil Mix - Turface / Pinebark
Hello;
I've read Al's thread on container mixes. I attempted to make the mix a couple times, but it has been on the wet side. I think the biggest problem is that my pine bark was too large mixed with too many fines (tried to grind it myself).
Once I realized this mix was turning out too wet, I switched to using almost straight Turface.
I've used over 20 bags of Turface in the past 2 months. I've been really happy with the performance of Turface as a planting medium, really only finding it a problem for things that like more water, and that is easily solved by mixing in some compost / peat. Turface is reasonable, but still $11.05 a bag.
I went to Lowes today and found some pine bark fines that are pretty small. The pine bark was cheap, $2.90 or so a bag. Putting the pine bark at about 1/4 the price of turface.
I'd like to mix in some pine bark with turface to cut the cost down. I do have perlite I get for a reasonable price, but I don't use it a lot due to the amount of fines it contains and how nasty the dust is.
Most of what I am planting likes fast draining soils, mainly various trees (japanese maples, some tropical trees, hoyas, citrus, etc. things that like fast soils).
What would be a reasonable blend to try with the Turface?
My though is something like
40% turface
40% pine bark
20% perlite
Do I still use a couple cups of garden lime? (do I use that any time I use pine bark?)
Will the mix get too heavy if I skip the perlite and just do pine bark and Turface?
Should I screen the lowes pine bark before use? (if you don't know what the lowes pine bark looks like, let me know I will dump some out and take some photos)
Thanks much for any suggestions;
Jamie
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
jamiedolanOriginal Author
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jamiedolanOriginal Author
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
jamiedolanOriginal Author
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
jamiedolanOriginal Author