I have seen PINE BARK MINI NUGGETS in bags, that's closest I was able to find to pine bark fines...(they were still too big but smaller than anything else).

What part of On are you in?

Rina

I am in Ottawa. I have seen the pine bark nuggets too. From what I understand they are not appropriate because they are not "partially composted."

Never too late! Cool, I will look for this product because I will have to do some repotting this spring/summer. I did try Reptibark, but it is not "partially composted" since it is reptile bedding. I think that is why the wood chips got a little moldy after a month or so, but didn't seem to affect the plant or get too gross.

I also used orchard bark but the chunks were a little too big and, very oddly, caused a soil mite outbreak. So if you use orchard bark, I advise you to soak the bark in boiling water for a few minutes. It says sterile on the bag but it was not! There were so many soil mites running around the plant! Cleaning and repotting fixed the problem :-)

I hear if the chunks are too big you can run them over with a lawn mower, but thats getting rather labour intensive.

I have tried that too - running over them with lawnmower - it works, but the bark flies around...Someone recommended using a leaf blower&mulcher. I don't have one so no experience with it.

I read about someone using a blender for the bark. I haven't tried it myself because I think my wife would probably divorce me if I used her blender for that...

I'm sure that would work, could be a lengthy process though depending how big the blender is. Maybe if you could get a used one?

Haha, I just snagged my mother's old heavy duty blender for this very purpose! Need to chop up some reptile bark.... Will let you know how it goes, once some of this snow melts and I have room to work outside!

Nice! Let us know!

I did try the blender method...didn't really work for me, but maybe it's not 'heavy-duty' enough?
Pls. post your results after you try it.
Rina

I tried the lawn mower and leaf blower method. Both appear to have been very hard on my equipment. Not to mention messy.