nothing quite says america like bathing your children in pesticides and herbicides eh
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related, i did a test yesterday where i filled two clear cups with drainage holes full of dry material. one with only peat and the other with only pine bark mulch. watered them many times throughout the day as i walked by. the peat only became saturated an inch down at best and a little on the sides. i knew that was a thing with peat but figured it would saturate eventually.
The mix I made was:
10 part Peat moss
6 part Perlite
5 part pine mulch
1 part leaf mulch
1 part pine chunks
1 part soil
Pine mulch on top
My figs haven’t died yet but I don’t know if my mix is any good. The only thing I learned for sure is wood ash has a lot of potassium 
no more than a tsp folks!!!
I no longer put soil in any mix. Too much danger of it containing something bad like nematodes.
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Just what I use as the base ingredient. And apparently widely available.
That’s so much better/shredded than the mini nugget at HD. Turns out Lowe’s carries this one - thanks picking up this week!
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uppotted chiquita and company into a rope tote. that should hopefully provide enough growing room until it flowers:
i used 3 part pine bark mulch, 1 part pine bark mini nuggets and 1 part peat. then mulched the top with the mini nuggets. feels a bit like cheating because it seems like these things will grow in anything as long as its moist:
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I am really liking those tubs. I bought many this year for things that would get big and dual purpose strategic placing as hose guides. Has worked great so far.
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In 2015,I enrolled in the International Plant Propagator Society’s Western Region annual meeting.One of the companies represented was Duarte Nursery.They are the largest permanent crop nursery in the US and only sell potted plants,no bare root.
During a talk,one of their guys’ said they use,50% Coir,40% Peat moss and 10% Rice hulls.The Rice hulls are used,because they are cheaper than Perlite.Conifer bark was once a part of their mix,but is no longer.Also,since Coir can have excess salts,(Potassiun and Phosphorus),they buffer it with Calcium Nitrate.
I’ve tried something similar to their mix and it seems to work okay.Having used Pine bark mulch for a long time,there is still some stockpiled to go through.
This nursery is located near Modesto,CA,so YMMV.,if trying it.
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are you using straight pine bark mulch or some type of mix? its doing well for you in the long term?
Right now,my mix is about 50% Pine bark(small nuggets or mulch)30% Peat moss and the rest Pumice,Perlite or Rice hulls.
There are some Blueberry plants that have been in something similar,for over ten years and still produce well.
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just picked up some of this from lowes because of the price. it doesnt have as much fines in it as the golden trophy pine bark mulch from menards. at half the price its hard to argue, but ill have to up the peat ratio so that might even things out 
I’m a novice to potted trees but i like:
a bottom layer of pine bark nugets / mulch.
Then on top 2 parts peat to 1 part perlite or mulch to 1 part topsoil to one part compost. I then add osmocote. I use the topsoil for the reason people are mentioning sand (i got sandy loam here), for mineral content, but when ive bought bags of all purpose sand at home depot its just concrete ground up so if it gets wet it turns back into concrete. However my thought is osmocote helps a lot since the nutrients just wash out of pots.
It looks like a lot of posters are using a lot of pine bark mulch and peat and both are pretty low pH. Is their any concern about getting too acidic for fruit that prefer neutral to slightly acidic soil?
pine making things acidic in my experience has been mostly a myth, which others agree with online. Not sure on spagham peat moss, but as its the reasoning people have is the same as for pine (it breaks down to something acidic, it itself is not acidic) I am suspicious it actually is. For my acid loving plants I add in holly-tone to most effect. But those are in ground.
I did find this Does Peat Moss Acidify Soil? which comports with my thought.
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This RE:Source has worked extremely well for potted grafts. It was on sale this year, 2 bags for $4. One bag is enough to two #5 pots.
I tested my soil with ph test strips. Even though I used a lot of peat moss and pine bark it read around a 6-6.5. it may depend on the peat moss you buy though
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My bags were had a lot more small pieces and fines compared to yours! I guess it could just be where the material is sourced from.
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I use a 3:1:1 pine bark:promix: compost for potting mix. I also add some lime or wood ashes, worm castings
and a slow release fertilizer like North Country organics Pro-Start(2/3/3) It doesn’t settle much which is important for woodies that will stay in a container for a year or three. There is a local sawmill that I can get “dirty bark” for free, it’s basically yard scrapings, some gravel and mostly bark
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