• Subject: Re: Pine bark fines
• From: &* P* L* <lindsey@mallorn.com>
• Date: Wed, 15 Jun 2011 14:09:12 -0400 (EDT)

----- Original Message -----
> 
> I've heard of chicken grit used to lighten heavy soils...how do you
> use it? Do you get it from feed stores? Does it degrade over time?

It doesn't lighten it so much as improve drainage.  I used 
'Cherrystone' grit which was an insoluble quartz, although
granite is good too.  They won't degratde; they're basically
small sharp rocks.

There's some references to it in some of our list archives:

   http://www.hort.net/lists/seeds-list/apr98/msg00003.html
   http://www.hort.net/lists/aroid-l/apr02/msg00045.html
   http://www.hort.net/lists/perennials/apr07/msg00013.html

I added it to pots that might become too compacted in the
winter with wet soil.  Some plants were overwintered with
no grit and some had grit; in cases where gritless plants
died, the ones with grit generally survived.

The biggest problem was that too much grit made the soil
almost impossible to take out of the pot without the root
ball falling apart.  :)  So although some plants liked
it with a *lot* of grit, I had to scale back so that they
were still transplantable.

Chris

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  • Re: Pine bark fines
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