It's not really about having a single recipe as it is using what you have available to achieve a desired result. The desired result is a porous media that holds enough water not to be requiring constant watering, drains sufficiently to not promote over saturation and the problems that come from that.

How much you talking about? It's one thing to go buy a couple bags of something to make a mix...it's another if you think you need several cubic yards (or more) at a time.

Mixes tend to reflect what's available in a region. Bark, hulls from grains that have little use for animal feed (some do)...whatever is plentiful and cheap.

As such, there isn't really a single recipe. More of a learving curve of how to make a mix. Hardest part of this curve? Finding good material to start with.

Bark. Coarse texture, size variable. Ideally, you've let a pile sit for a year or two to start composting. You can get some wild readings on a soil test if you don't. If you can find mini nuggets, great. If all you can find is large nuggets, ok, we can work with that.

Ideally, pine bark. Hemlock mulch will do in a pinch. Mini nuggets tend to be 'cleaner' than large...less wood, more uniform, leads to a more predictable end product.

Compost. Ideally, sterilized. When i lived on the farm, i had an unlimited supply of compost. Now, i don't, and it's expensive. So i blend a quality bagged compost with peat to save some money.

If i have a good source of small chips for bark, i look to have bark at 25% of finished. If all i have is a larger bark chunk, i'll keep bark lower %, 10-15%, and use 10% perlite.

Sometimes, that's sufficient. A compost/ peat blend and 25% bark.

How do you know? You try it. It works or it doesn't. You tweak it over time.

If you have no idea what you're doing, start with this: 65% peat/compost, 25%bark, 10% perlite/vermiculite. It's a good place to start from.

Guess the real question to start with is...what do you have available?

if your potting media has perlite in it.. you probably dont need to double up on that ...

i might spend a whole day ... wetting the mix ... before i stick plants in bone dry mix.. and hope to hydrate it from the top down ...

ken

and i would try to limit how many of the cultural variables you change all at one time ...

i would not take them directly from the basement grow chamber.. outside into sunlight.. and different humidity/temps ...... and pot them ... to many stresses all heaped on one another ...

manipulate one at a time ... harden them off ... to each.. etc ...

ken

I would recommend adding the perlite regardless. Packaged commercial mixes generally contain a minimal quantity of perlite - if using them, I always add more. It is primarily a drainage enhancer......and you cannot have too much drainage :-) Fast drainage is the essence of container gardening.......unless you are growing bog plants.

Perfect! Thank you.

I'll check out some of those other posts for the details. :-)

I picked up some 'pine bark mulch' from a local nursery. I'll have to pick through it a bit and maybe crush it to smaller pieces. Most of the pieces are about the size of a quarter or larger and fairly thin (~1/8") and I'm sure there's larger/smaller ones. Also have plenty of peat and perlite on hand.

I here about using some dolomite lime in the mix, is there a specific amount? Lime seems contrary to acid loving conifers but I've read it feeds the new plants somehow?

check out this guys mix .... ken

https://www.houzz.com/discussions/in-case-anybody-is-interestedseedlings-dsvw-vd~5323009?n=8

btw: if you water your pot.. and a bunch of perlite floats to the top .. you probably used too much ... been there.. done that.. lol ...

the base problem with all those 5-1-1 mix recipes .. is that you ended up with a thousand square feet of product.. lol ...

your goal ... is that 99% of the water you put in the top.. runs out the bottom ... high drainage ...

as compared to florist plants.. or annuals/perennials... where they are almost grown in a sponge that stays nearly constantly wet ...

whatever accomplishes said goal... is good enough ... you can almost do it.. simply by watering properly.. regardless of what is in the pot ...

ken

"the base problem with all those 5-1-1 mix recipes .. is that you ended up with a thousand square feet of product.. lol …"

So then my kiddie pool full of bark mulch will be about right? :-))

I just didn't want to put newly rooted cuttings into something that would kill them, general belief would be to put them into something rich and moist but I knew better hanging around you guys (& gals). And I really don't know anything yet, just that my cuttings are still green after almost 18 weeks and I wanted to be ready as opposed to scrambling around later.

Wood content no big deal. Mix with peat/compost...but be careful of what you blend. There's a reason peat is the go-to for a lot of blends.

Before you start adding things that alter chemical or physical properties, get a soil test.

Worried about "burning" your plants? I'd do a test with a bedding plant. Or soak the media and keep soaked for about ten days.

Or...stop by swedberg's in battle lake. The family is one of the oldest nursery families in the state.

There is nothing in a properly formulated potting medium that would "burn" or kill young rooted cuttings. And you sure as heck don't need a soil test for one as there is no real "soil" involved!! What exactly would you be testing?? What you DO want is the same as is required for all potted woody material - a well-aerated and fast draining media. And that means a bark-based (not peat-based) potting mix, which is what the vast majority of commercial growers now use. And as with all container grown plants, nutrient requirements are supplied by you in the form of a dilute all-purpose liquid fertilizer.

I'll be doing the 5:1:1 bark mix for sure so no worries there. Found all the information I need on the other threads.

Picked out most of the stringy sap wood and inner bark & junk so it's looking nice already. Still have to do some screening for size and a bit more cleaning but I should have a month or so before it's needed.

I never seem to have a reason to go to battle lake, my go to is Landsburg in Baxter.

There is a reason i state soil tests should be done. Doing it for a few plants, using controlled ingredients? Probably ok. Doing a lot? Do the test.

Starting to add stuff? Get the test. Includes lime. Stick with commercially available bark, peat, likely ok. Start to get away from the core ingredients, you want to know why, how much, etc. And until you have trouble, you'll never understand why.

A sister once had a car that the only place we could get it worked on was over towards brainerd. Otherwise, we never had a reason to go there.

I've found nurseries to be quite open to sharing information. And generally easier to deal with than trying to explain all the different things that could possibly be in play with some of this stuff.

Thanks wayne. All I really wanted to know was what to use to pot up conifer cuttings. All the peripheral stuff is slightly interesting. Sometimes I get the feeling you're a little homesick for Fergus Falls. Do you ever get back there? I know I never used to get to New York Mills back when I farmed over by bluegrass but when I go a job there, I went there every day. Just to do my job though. Went back and forth everyday but did all my shopping in Wadena because it was on the way home. Anyways, thanks everyone for all the input on an apparently simple question. Busy time of year so haven't spent as much time online as usual.

There is NO soil (or shouldn't be any) in a container potting soil. That's why they also call it a soil-less mix. What exactly is a soil test going to tell you about a potting mix? That it has no nutrients or none to speak of is about it!! The 5-1-1 mix has virtually NO nutrient load at all and the vast majority of other potting soils do not either unless added by the manufacturer. Or containing materials that are not advised for a container soil like real "dirt" or compost.

I've been growing plants long term in containers for more than 30 years, mostly trees and shrubs, and have undertaken a lot of research into container soils and fertilization, both for my own purposes and for the classes I teach. The best container soils are heavily textured and aerated and with minimal decomposable organics that can alter fast drainage. All required nutrients are supplied by the grower, not the media.

Hey Bill.

Unrelated to the growing media you're asking about, but thought I'd share my own experiences.

I'm a rooting newbie also, and am pretty much doing the same experiment as you, but with dwarf cultivars.

I couldn't wait any longer, and just had to see what was going on underneath. I plucked this guy out, and sure enough the start of roots! I'll probably kill them before too long, but at least I got it to root. Stuck 1/20/18, picture taken 5/12/18.

Good luck and have fun.

Ryan

haha! Thanks! That's pretty cool.

I'm hoping to join the "I got them to root club" too. Coincidentally mine were stuck 1/20/18 also.

The 6 Thuja o. don't look good, I've fought mold with those from the get go, for some reason.

The 14 Tsuga c. all look real good except 2 that I had to snip off half on top because it died.

If I had 50 I might check one or two but I think I'll just let them be. :-)

Here's the link to the 5.1.1 thread:

[https://www.houzz.com/discussions/taplas-5-1-1-container-mix-in-more-detail-dsvw-vd~1378483[(https://www.houzz.com/discussions/taplas-5-1-1-container-mix-in-more-detail-dsvw-vd~1378483)

My next rainy day project: :)

3 buckets of 'Bark Goodness'. should be high yield.