I'm a new " potter", sort of, but that looks perfect to me! Whenever I water my pots, like this morning, the water runs beautifully through the mix, I lift the pot to judge the weight (the heavier, the happier I am knowing its a thorough watering.). This loose mix has no tendency to pack into itself. It looks like mine so it can't be bad! Lol :-)

Jo

Here's what's looking like yours and working for me.

To clarify. . . In my pic I used orchid mix that had coir included - very fluffy when mixed with Miracle Grow potting mix + little perlite. Water seems to drain evenly and quickly, telling me it's travelling through the mix as it should. It's all in the draining, isn't it? :-). With this mixture there is little, if any chance of the shrinkage (leaving drying air to reach the roots all around the pot) that accompanies dry pots that contain potting mix only.

Looks right to me too. Jo said it beautifully though.

Glad you found the pine bark mini nuggets.

Thank you so much. It looks strange to me to see the water run right through.

I know what you mean! My first thought was, whoa, that came out much too fast, but I honed in on the "travelling through" aspect of moving water through media and decided that it was just as it should be. Depending on how briskly I work (lol, I don't as I "visit" with each darn hosta) sometimes I have a pail handy with about 3" of water in it. I place the need-to-be-watered hosta into the pail and water it, so the run-off stays in the pail. Other times the water runs into the garden soil below where the pot is sitting.

I've been sprinkling slug repellant/bait/killer (yeah!) under the pots too because they like to lurk there, especially since it is moist underneath. Oh what fun!

Josephine, I put a small bucket underneath them, too. We are in a valley and don't get as much rain as places around us. For example, we didn't get any rain today! The rest of the province did, I think :)
I work 15 minutes west of my house and it poured down and I got home and absolutely nothing, nada. Everything is very very dry here and I have to get out the hose - in May!

It's amazing sometimes, the availability by region for mini pine bark nuggets. Some folks can't even get 'em, some folks can, but prices are like robbery. I can get 2 cubic feet at Lowe's locally for six bucks. I know my region has many many millions of pines, but that doesn't mean the product is even from local sources, actually. Simply demand by area? IDK.

Glad you found what you wanted, Paula!!

Don B.

That looks about like mine - except mine may be a bit coarser. If you'll put a quarter on top of the mix, and photograph it, we can see how big the pieces are.

bk

No rain here either. Turned outside water on only yesterday and Re-Installed hose. Have been using it steadily.

Okay bday, I can do that tomorrow. The trowel is a normal sized trowel if that helps at all.
The wagon is about 2' by 4' give or take.

Josephine, where are you located?

Here is some that I ran through the shredder tonight.

that is a quarter and a dime on top.

I have changed my mix up a little now after I bought a bag of Pro-Mix BRK. Mine was originally a 5:1:1 of bark, peat and perlite. The BRK mix was a lot fluffier than what I was making. My original mix has been drying out way too fast for my taste. Now I am going with a 3:3:1 of bark, peat and perlite. It matches the BRK pretty well. I do not know if it is made that way for short times in pots, being that it is made for growers. I will soon find out. I have tested it by filling a pot and soaking the mix, then letting it sit for 1/2 hour and dumping the pot out. I wanted to see if there were any spots that stayed water logged. Everything was damp and there were no spots of that were overly wet. Hopefully as the pots fill with roots that they will help to keep the mix from compacting too much.

I do know after doing some experiments that the peat and bark need to be damp before potting. I tried it with dry peat in the mix in an empty pot. When I soaked the pot the water ran out the bottom, as if it ran through the mix. I let it stand until it was barely dripping and when I dumped the pot out, there was a huge ball of dry mix in the middle and the only thing wet was the very top and channels down the side. That for sure would have killed some hostas.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pro-Mix BRK

This post was edited by smithstudios71 on Tue, May 27, 14 at 22:26

Thanks Smith
There is some great info there. I checked out distributors but there doesn't appear to be any near me but the salesperson isn't too far away so I will contact them and ask if anything is close.

Where did you get your shredder? I think my pine bark is too big, the plant doesn't seem to be 'snug' enough.

Fortunately I have planted the hostas using mix that was also damp beforehand.

Me too! Wetting it all down before potting. When I first potted the bagged hostas back in March, I soaked the potted hosta in the kitchen sink! Since then, the potting mix is wet before potting.

Devon, I'd trade my prized hosta for a shredder like yours and start up my own business supplying all of the pot growers on this forum! What a cash cow that would be! Yay! Your finished product looks good enough to eat! Ideal sized pieces.

Paula, I am located in Barrie. :-)

Oh yes, that is right because you are 15 minutes from Hosta Fever.

If you get that shredder - let me know because I will be your first customer!