... never had anyone ask if they could make their own bark before. ;o)

Any conifer bark would work. I've used hemlock, fir, and pine - redwood would be good, too. Fir is my favorite, but expensive here, so I only use it in bonsai soils. I can't imagine that conifer bark would be hard to come by in OR. I haven't used coir yet, so don't know its characteristics, but perhaps you could make that work. Any help from others that have used it with good (or bad) success?

Tip: In the PNW, you should try to be sure any bark you buy for container soils did not come from logs ponded in salt water.

Al

"try to be sure any bark you buy for container soils did not come from logs ponded in salt water."

What does that mean, Al? Can I find it out by looking at the bag, or do I have to know my suppliers? I've found that asking questions like that of Lowe's employees generally gets me a supremely blank look in response.

Thanks,

Kristin

Taste it. ;o) You don't say where you live, so there's no way to judge if it's likely the logs the bark came from would have been stored or stock-piled in saline water. I remember flying in and out of Vancouver on the way to/from northern BC and looking down to see hundreds of thousands of logs floating in ocean water. The salt in the bark wouldn't present much of a problem if used in the garden or on beds, but would (or could) be doom for plants in containers (with their limited soil for rootage). I only mentioned it because of Duane's geography - Oregon. The PNW is the most likely place for this to be an issue, but any bark product originating there should be looked at for salt.

I agree that big box store employees are often disconnected from the area of expertise they are likely to be quizzed on. I guess it's part of what we sacrifice in our quest for the lowest price. Good luck with your growing this year. ;o)

Al

I'm in the PNW too and have often seen logs floating in sounds and inlets but never thought of the salty bark being used for plants! Argh! And I'm in the market for bark fines to try your soil mix too!

Kristin

girlndocs----Let me know if you find some fine fir bark and where.
Duane

I have another question for Al so I'll piggyback onto here. :-) I just perused Home Depot for pine bark fines or firs and all I found was 2 cu. ft. bags of just pine bark. Is that the same thing as pine bark firs? The also had bags of hardwood bark that looked interesting too. It was black.

It sometimes takes some looking, but you CAN find it. It might be sold as "soil conditioner", "pine fines", mulch, or something else.
{{gwi:1234}}
The stuff at the top is ideal. On the left is uncomposted pine bark, and it will work, but you'll need to add more N than if the product was partially composted. For reference, the other bark is fir & the white stuff is perlite.

Al

The black stuff on the top looks exactly like the stuff I looked at in the hardwood bark bag. On my next venture to shop for soil ingredients I will take my digital camera and post the pics of the different types of barks/mulch being sold around here.

I will have more questions in about a month when I actually start buying this stuff. Is there a useful meter to measure PH and Nitrogen that you can buy? It sounds like I'll need to measure and know this on my first few batches to know if I got the mixture right.

There is a rather large difference between hardwood bark and conifer bark. Conifer bark contains much more of a lipid called suberin. This is what keeps the bark from breaking down too quickly & depleting N from soils. Though they might look alike, I would avoid the hardwood mulch in favor of conifer bark. As noted, the partially composted product will work best, but the other will also work well.

You can fuss over pH if you wish, but containers are not like in situ, mineral soils. They hold nutrients loosely & plants are able to absorb them over a much wider pH range. I usually give SOME consideration to media pH for plants that like really low or really high pH, but I largely ignore it altogether. I know many people, good growers too, that have given up in frustration after chasing the "ideal pH" for their containers. Concentrate on the basics (a good soil with plenty of air, proper watering technique, good light, air movement, appropriate nutrient supplementation) with some minor consideration of media pH & you'll do fine. The alkalinity of your water and the % of carbonates is just as important - probably more important than media pH.

Al

I found pine bark at Lowe's for $3/2cuft bag. It looks identical to the stuff in Al's pic and comes in a green-and-white bag (can't remember the brand name, but I suspect it's a house brand). Was sold as a mulch.

The bag says it's from WI, so I'm not too worried about salt water -- though I haven't tasted it yet :)

Kristin