Alanna, once I saw at a dollar store set of different size shifters, which were very reasonably priced.

For 511 the particle size needed is dust to 3/8 inch. Since 3/8 inch screen is hard to come by, most use 1/2 inch screen. Agway pine bark is pretty good and does not have much dust. If you think you have a lot of dust then you can use an insect screen - it is around 1/16 mesh.

1/8 hardware cloth is available but usually not in stock. 3/8 does not exist anymore. It used to be more than 10 yrs back.

I was considering something like this:

3,6,9,12mm equals about 1/10, 1/4, 1/3, 1/3ish. Right as nice as something I’d make myself, but easy and less expensive.

Buy it if you can. I mean this one by practicool. It is about $40. I am guessing you are talking about the same thing.

I could not justify buying it since I already have one from 25 yrs back but minus the 3/8.

I saw a product on Amazon I was going to post about. I’ve been checking for reptibark, but it is very expensive right now. Keep an eye out for it bc it sometimes goes down to $15/bag or even less. They do impose a bag limit when it’s on sale, but you can still stock up a bit. Let me find the other product. I was not sure that it was fir bark though so was a bit hesitant to order. From the bag though it looks just like reptibark.

Never mind...I just looked it up and realized it was an 8qt bag so it would be more than reptibark. I will keep checking till they put it on sale...

Laura- I’ve been watching reptibark for about a month now. The cheapest I’ve seen is $48 for 3 cubic feet/72quarts. I’d love to get it. It’s so easy and pretty, but the ages stuff is $5 for 3cf. I can spend the money I save on more trees!

I’m going to test out the wood chipper ASAP and see how it goes with one bag of bark. I still need to order/track down everything else.

You gave me an idea...I just found it on chewy.com for $12.49 (don’t remember exact cents) for a 24 qt bag...I ordered 8 and got free shipping. I have some serious repotting to do on a few of my trees so I need to get ready.

Thanks Laura. They have an extra discount for auto ship, which brings it to $40 for 96 qts/nearly 4cf. The cheapest I’ve seen by far, but still pricey. I can get about 30 Cunningham feet of bark for the same price, but it requires so much work.

Plus forgive my poor math skills, but if I bought 96 quarts and made a traditional 511, how many pots would that fill? I know if depends on size of the pot...but a ballpark to give me an idea of how much I need. I wanted to make extra because I know I’ll be ordering some more trees this spring. Plus, I want to repot all of my house plants, but they’re not my priority right now

I currently have:

5 - 8in pots

2 - 12in

2 - 15in

1 - 18in

I have to get 3-6 more in the near future and whatever is left I use for my house plants

First of all reptibark is only good for Tapla 1-1-1, not 5-1-1. Raptibark is new stuff. For 5-1-1, you need older bark. New bark robs your tree from getting the full amount of nitrogen. Citrus uses a lot of nitro, further more 5-1-1 is used for shorter term before repotting, Meyer lemon uses more nitro than most other citrus.

Years ago when Tapla became popular I bought several brands of potting soils, open them up take 2 handfuls and compare the make-up. For me some potting soils are good enough with some stuff added for a 3 year term. You can even mix in some good old garden soil. I haven't seen any ill affects yet. This set up i use is also used for my figs and what ever.

For those with access to it, G&B Organics potting soil with 30-50% perlite / pumice / grow stone / etc is a perfectly wonderful substitute for 5-1-1 for way less effort. It's a very very barky potting soil of great quality. I think Kellogg also sells a non organic version but I've never seen it and the organic stuff is $15 for two cubic feet.

Alanna, I purchased soil conditioner (pine bark) from Lowes for$3.67 a 2 cubic feet bag. It requires a lot of sifting, but it’s cheap and I like the size of the particles, but I believe they are a bit smaller than Reptibark so I added 2 parts perlite and half peat. A bag and a half worked for 4 12” pots, 2 16” pots, and 10 6” pots.

The wood chipper works! The size looks pretty too me, but I’ve never done this before. I just used some branches in my yard and not bark to test it. I’ll still need to sift the bigger pieces out, I think. What do you guys think?

PacNorWreck - I’ve already searched for the G&B orangics soil before, based on the recommendation of others. I haven’t been able to find it lically

Kelly- Same goes for the Soil Conditiner. I think it’s only available in certain regions.

The pure pine bark or pine bark mulch are both about $5/cf. I just need to decide now if I should chip my own or shift the mulch. Both will be plenty of work. I don’t know which is the better option.

Matter all this, I’m going to start selling my own bagged mixed...it shouldn’t be so hard to track down all these ingredients.

Alanna, where are you located?

NY, about 60miles north of the city

If you guys like buying ready made stuff check-out this website: Orchard Valley supply, Soilless mix. Those guys got some good stuff.

My neighbor built a large sifting tray to sift rocks out of the soil. He dug it out of his shed and let me borrow it. The hardware cloth is 1/2. I need to track down finer cloth, but I don't want to buy a whole roll; I'm cheap. None of the hardware stores near me sell smaller pieces and no one is selling any on craigslist

Should I get 1/8th in and 1/4in?