Time will tell. It looks good to me! Keep strategizing to make a way for them not to fall over if it does get too windy

Nope. Never had a pot blow over with it. Yeah. That's a problem with the microbark -- too small of sapwood to pick out. !st year using it was a bit disappointing, but you saw my harvests in the semi-composted 2nd year.

Looks good. You did screen out the dust though, right? Not only do toy want to screen out the large chunks, but you want to put it through a window screen also to get out the dust. You also want to do it with the perlite and turface(if you're using turface).

Kevin

I think it looks great in the pic.
As for the whole container blowing over....no, never had that problem with a pepper (I have had to stake the plants to keep *them* from blowing over, of course). When saturated, the mix should have enough mass to hold its own. If not, you could simply place some stones on top of the mix to add some weight.

Kevin, the bark dust is fine, I think. Occasionally, one finds a very composted bark...and in that case, it might be wise to reduce some of the fines and increase the perlite (or turface). Screening the perlite is a must, unless using coarse/chunk perlite.

Kevin, you're also right about the fertilization in the first year of an uncomposted bark mix - very important!

Josh

I had no idea I was supposed to screen the perlite. it says "coarse" on the bag though. I expected I'd have to fertilize like crazy though. I don't think this mix has much to offer by way of nutrients on its own.

so I should screen the peat too? I did notice what looked like pieces of roots in there, and that kinda bugged me, but I didn't pay too much attention to it. and the bark is quite dusty. didn't know that was a problem either. I guess we'll have to see how this plays out. I don't have any hardware fabric to screen it though, so that might be why I didn't give it much thought.

With microbark, a little bit larger than usual piece here and there is not gonna hurt. Same thing with the perlite. You just don't want a bunch of 3/4-1" pieces in there. The people that need to screen the bark through hardware cloth are the ones who buy bags of rather larger pieces. Sounds to me like you got some micro. I screen through window screen to get out some of the dust in the all three, but I use turface in place of peat. Still quite a bit of dust in the COARSE perlite though.

With the peat moss, you want to hydrate it first and then screen it through hardware cloth to break up to as fine as possible. You don't want big chunks of dry peat moss. Picking out foreign matter as you screen.. Correct Josh?

Kevin

It look great, Judo. Especially pricewice( $1/cu-ft, that is a steal)

You would've needed to screen if it had a lot pieces bigger than 1/2". A few big pieces now and then is nothing to sweat about.

Well, dry pine bark fines is light weight but once it gets fully saturated, it should get heavier but never as heavy as natural soil. What can do is to put some gravel or small stones at the bottom of the buckets to stabilize it a bit. Tipping over, when the plant get top heavy is always a possibility, especially by the Atlantic Ocean. We, here by the Pacific Ocean don't have that problem. lol

Yep, Kevin, you're right. You want to eliminate any unevenly sized particulate - especially the big wood or the big patches of dry peat. A lot of folks pass the peat moss through their bark screen (1/2 inch hardware cloth) just to cut it up and make it more manageable.

As for the Perlite - even when labeled Coarse - I find there is a LOT of dust. Lately, I dump the dusty perlite into one of my pond-baskets, and then run the hose through it. I once found a beautiful coarse perlite, called Sunshine #4....then, of course, the local hydro shop stopped carrying it.

Judo, yessir, fertilize the heck out of the mix as the plants are vegging...then allow for a natural decrease as the peppers fruit. In your area, though, you'll get a couple waves of pods.

Josh

I don't mind perlite dust.

Yes, I have had pots blow over, even large pots when the plant gets big. You can always put rocks in the bottom.

Dennis