No idea, but, I also remember something where a guy used beer and baby shampoo (not necessarily together). Not sure what he used them for, but, the use of the household items in an unusual way just stuck in my head.

Man, you sure like to do things the hard way DMForcier. MGMC is a very difficult soil to work with, and I'm sure reused powdered peat is going to just as bad or worse. Way too much water retention. If I was you, and I was determined to use either, I'd mix them with a ton of pine bark to loosen them up and improve the drainage. The extra drainage also helps rehydrate hydrophobic soil mix.

Wetting a hydrophobic soil can be sped up by using dish soap, but you can do it without soap just by watering several times. If wetting is too difficult, then you really need to reconsider the soil you are using. From the sound of it, your soil is either going to be dust or soup, and nothing in between, and in between is just what the plants really want.

I must defend MGMC. It is doing exactly what I want: holding moisture for the plants so that they don't dry out daily in this heat. And it drains quite well, thank you. It is not hydrophobic. It doesn't suck like a sponge, but a single watering can wet it through if it isn't totally dried out. (And it just works. See mystery hab thread for a pic of the plant on steroids.)

What you seem to have in mind is the old crappy stuff that I just used. It has all the bad traits that you attribute to MGMC. There is a *world* of difference between the two.

I'll replace the bad stuff eventually. It just got me to thinking. About soap. And old, crotchety gardeners.

Yes to answer your question DMForcier, you can in fact use dish soap to do so. It acts as a "wetting agent". A few drops in a gal of water is all you need.

Now on a side note: I have made a mix of 15% miracle gro potting mix/ and 85% pine bark 1/8"-3/4" range. It holds water and drains very fast! I found mixes with bark grow giant healthy roots!

Yes, I've read the 5:1:1 threads and I do have a half dozen bags of mini-nuggets that need to be used somehow. But that is for next year.

Y'all say dish soap. What about dish washing detergent? Are the fresh pine scent and hand moisturizer toxic? ;) Or maybe I'll go with baby shampoo or Neutrogena shampoo (liberated from a motel).

Can't say for sure, but I would go with dish soap since it is not as harsh as detergent. All you want to do is wet it, not clean it... Also, even soil less mixes have some amount of beneficial microbial activity, so you don't want soaps or detergents that will sterilize your soil such as those with bleach.

There are lots of people on these boards that use 5:1:1 in zone 7 and higher. If you don't want to water as often just add a bit more peat such as 5:2:1 or use larger containers. I would still consider mixing bark in with that soil if you plan to use it.

Capoman says to use bark for a good reason! The mixes I use with pine- plants have very large roots as there is always air flow. I never really get that dry blanket of soil on top as I do with peat based mixes. I used peat/perlite/compost for most of my plants this season. Great results indeed, but now that I found a good source of pine bark, and saw the results I can get when using it, I will always use it as most of any mix. The bark size should be 1/8-1/2". I tryed using the bark right out of the bag, mixed it with only 15% potting mix and some lime. The results were very good and I used it in 5 gal containers and larger. I still would say to stay in the 1/2" area as the largest bark because of the PWT and consistency. That is why the best mix I tryed so far is the 5-1-1. You can test out different ratios, but the 5-1-1 ratio is perfect. In low light environments; I have tryed 5 parts pine fines to 2 parts perlite, and left out the peat all together. For plants that are high temps and light; use the 5-1-1 or like Capoman said, you can add a little more peat.