Pine bark from dead pines

I have a lot of fallen pine trees around my property and the bark on them is easy to harvest. Can this bark be used in the pot mix or it has to be from fresh trees? If I can use it, what is preferred particle size? I put a batch through my chipper, it came out on a small size. The holes in the grinder are about 1’’ in diameter, however most of the pieces are much smaller as the bark is old and fragile. If not for traditional use in a pot mix for trees, can finely ground bark replace peat moss in the mix for a non-tree application?

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Locally i have these products. They are around $4 per bag…and appear to be just about the same. (perfect for adding to potting mix)

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Before i found them i was buying this from home depot and running it thru my chipper to get them much smaller.

Whatever chipper they use to make the top two is better than my 10HP home chipper shredder.

So from now on i will just save the gas and effort and go with the Kambark…its good stuff.

To your question… what you are doing is fine. I use about 5 bags of the stuff per year and harvesting my own in that amount would be alot of work…if i could even harvest that much.

I did an experiment with strawberries that i potted up last fall. 2 gallon pots. I left them in a shaded area all winter long.

One pot i just put in ProMix and the other i put in a 50/50 blend of promix and pine fines.

The pot with the pine fine mix had a full explosion of roots that filled the whole pot… the pro mix had about half that amount. Non scientific but it happened.

Everything with roots that i plant now has a heavy dose of pine fines.

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Thanks, great to know!