I'm going to use these entries to post observations I have made throughout this growing season:
PINE BARK FINES/RECIPE: I'm truly liking Tapla's (Al Fassezke) pine bark fines (PBFs) mix, a lot! Although I do have to water the free-draining buckets an average of every other day, the growth and overall health of my plants makes this extra effort well worth it. I have experienced truly fast take-off of the seedlings planted in the mix. To date, I've been using a 5:1:1 recipe of 5 parts new pine bark fines:1 part old peat (MG potting mix from last season):1 part perlite (where necessary). I haven't had to use much perlite at all.
In the beginning, I sifted out the large chunks of pine bark through 1/2" hardware cloth, but, after awhile I stopped sifting and either just pulled out the obvious large pieces or broke them up since they sliver and snap so easily into smaller, nickel-size slivers, which, ideally, is what I want for this mix. Those that didn't snap easily got tossed aside for later use in the raised bed recipe.
In a pinch, I did a quick sifting through some 1/4" hardware cloth to replant those drowned Snowball Cauliflower seedlings from the community tray. I was working on the fly, here. I'd never planted any seedlings in straight PBFs before (without any potting mix added), and the lack of a true "soil" structure seemed a bit weird, but, Al said it would work, and, "nothing beats a wish but a try!" I got a fair amount of the "fines" or the "dust" sifted through and quite a bit of small to about nickel-size slivers of pine bark, dumped it into 16 oz. Red plastic cups, and watered it in. It's best to work with it damp, so the dust isn't flying around and the slivers aren't floating on the top and washing out. Then, I used a dowel to shove a hole down the center. It was truly strange planting in a cup of "chips". But, as you can see from the picture in the previous entry, those seedlings took off! Today, they're healthier than the seedlings I planted in the regular seed starting mixes, hands down! In the future, I will sow seeds in the starter mix, but then pot up to sifted pine bark fines that have more of the "fines" and not so much of the "chips". Or, at best, up to about dime-size slivers.
Al has attributed the success of his PBFs mixes to excellent drainage and great aeration of the planting medium. I totally agree with his findings, and owe him a debt of thanks for the time he has taken tutoring me in his method. He's also saved me a TON of $$$$ by making me a PBF convert!
PBFs CHARACTERISTICS: The pic on the right is what "the right stuff" looks like on the pile at my supplier.
The pine bark fines should appear to be nice and dry (even if it's moist!), and not contain a lot of sticks, or shreddy, twiggy, trashy pieces. You should see a good ratio of nickel-size slivers to fine dust particles, such that if you do sift, you won't end up with a large pile of huge chunks and just a small pile of small slivers and dust. You want more of those small slivers and all that dust! Even if you have some larger-than-silver dollar-size chunks, those chunks should be easily "flaked" into slivers by just snapping/crumbling them in your hand, or hitting them with the edge of your shovel. You don't want chunky "nuggets" that don't flake! You want the flaky pine bark.
So, here's what to remember when you're looking for pine bark fines: "if you can't flake it -- don't take it!"
Godspeed, and Good Harvest!
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