Bill,

Thanks for sharing. I especially love the picture of the Japanese Maple.

-Sam

Best luck, Bill. Looks like you've been very ambitious! Good job!

AL

Awesome!
Thanks for the update.

Josh

Great pics! I've only done a few so far, but I think I will do my fuchsias after I've seen yours.
What bark product are you using?

Suzie

Thanks everyone else for the encouragement.

Al, per an earlier thread on the gritty "FAQ", I've started a side project where I am going back through all 13 container soil threads and tallying up what the most asked questions are for you. It will take me a little while but it is the least I can do considering how much you have given the community.

Suzie, I have a lot of fuchsia's in the gritty mix now. I've found that the new fuchsias that you get in the nursery handle the transplant much better then the older fuchsia's.

If you have established fuchsia's you may want to do a partial transplant where you keep the old soil on a few pie slices of the overall rootball. Otherwise if you go full bare root, they'll probably be fine but may drop their leaves.

This is one of my fucshia's from an early transplant that dropped all of its leaves but then started releafing out a few months later:

{{gwi:23481}}
Original form before gritty transplant

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A few months later, lost leaves but buds just starting to come out.

{{gwi:23479}}
Doing great now.

As far as the bark, I'm using 1/8" - 1/4" (mini) orchid bark from Shasta Forest Products. It rocks. It's almost completely pre-screened, they sell it in a huge 3 cubic foot bag and it only cost $15 each. Below are the details from where I found it in my area.

UNCOMPOSTED SCREEN PINE OR FIR BARK (1/8" - 1/4")
- In a prevous post of Al's he talked about how Shasta Forest Products was one of the large manufacturers in our area for fir bark. They sell 3 cu ft bags of fir bark in the perfect size "1/8" - 1/4")
- http://shastabark.com/products.htm
- I called Shasta and they told me Nurseymen's Exchange in half moon bay carried the product.
- Nurseymen's Exhange (2651 North Cabrillo Highway, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019, 650-726-6361)
- http://www.bloomrite.com/
- 3' Orchid Bark (1/8" - 1/4") (Mini)
- Note, Nurseymen's Exhange is a massive complex, when you pull in go up a little and to the right and park in the customer parking section. I think this place is for wholesalers but they did sell me.
- 3 cu feet for $15 each.

Good luck!

Thanks (on the FAQs) Bill. Great find on the bark, too - exactly what I use, but I have to drive all the way from mid-MI to CHI to get it! ;-) I usually do buy all I can get in a full size pick-up though (20 bags).

Al