Soil for pine?

Bonsaifreak

Are pines that special? Do they need their very own soil mix or can I use the same mix I use for the rest of my trees (60% haydite, 40% pine bark)?

Jorge

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Vonsgardens

Jorge,
Are you in a hot and humid part of south Texas or a hot and dry part of South Texas? (The emphasis is on hot). You see and hear just about everything in the soils world, sift-don't sift, organic-no organic, yada, yada, yada.

Guess it depends partly on stage of development, We plant young pines in haydite 100% down to Haydite 80%- Bark 20% to Haydite (or gravel) 40-50%, Turface (or Pumice) 40-50%, bark 0-20%. All seems to work for younger pines in rapid draining containers. Guess you'll just have to experiment. For older more mature pines I leave out the organic (a few still have 10-15% bark, but I am moving away from that).

John

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"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon

Bonsaifreak

I guess in the hot and humid part of it (Corpus Christi). I've read all sort of recipes for pine soil. I just bought 3 young pines, one of them is a JBP. The guy who raises them uses peat moss and sand, doesn't look like a good draining soil at all but he assures me his pines like it. I have my reservations about it but I'm not planning on repotting them until spring. I mix 3 basic soils for my trees in general, the generic which is the one I mentioned initially, then I use lava rock (40 with pine bark (60 for my tropicals and a finer version of it for my mame and shohin trees. I wonder if I now have to come up with yet another soil mix for these pines...

Jorge

__________________
"Always acknowledge a fault. This will throw those in authority off their guard and give you an opportunity to commit more."
Mark Twain

soonami

pines generally like their soil drier than most other trees, so maybe three quarters inorganics seems about right, but in your climate you'll have to be careful about the soil getting too hot and drying out.

Vonsgardens

Jorge,
I think that a mix that allows for rapid draining and lot'sof "air" (aka coarse" will work best. Just my humble opinion. I'll be down for LSBF, maybe we can talk then, John

__________________
"Wiring is simple; However, it is not easy to do it right" Boon