Here's my White Oak, or Quercus Alba, potted on 4/24/2021. It was from a nursery where it was grown from seed in a 80% pine-bark mixture.
My goal for this tree is to thicken the trunk and develop the roots by repotting it in a larger, 5-gallon Rootmaker container with a more air-retentive soil.
I'm using a kitchen-sink blend as a substrate. I ultimately need 50+gallons of substrate to up-pot my newly acquired trees, so using up as much of the material I have recently purchased for my soil tests was beneficial. I tweaked my soil from the previous trees I planted, removing the fine particles (fine sphagnum peat moss and #1 Grit) to increase the saturated porosity. The mix was 3:3:2:2, sifted pine bark, Turface, DE and #2 Grit.
I tested the soil's mechanical properties at 38% Saturated Porosity (air-filled space), and 25% Field Capacity (water-filled space) after draining. Hopefully it will work, because conventional substrates are difficult to find.
My goal for this tree is to thicken the trunk and develop the roots by repotting it in a larger, 5-gallon Rootmaker container with a more air-retentive soil.
I'm using a kitchen-sink blend as a substrate. I ultimately need 50+gallons of substrate to up-pot my newly acquired trees, so using up as much of the material I have recently purchased for my soil tests was beneficial. I tweaked my soil from the previous trees I planted, removing the fine particles (fine sphagnum peat moss and #1 Grit) to increase the saturated porosity. The mix was 3:3:2:2, sifted pine bark, Turface, DE and #2 Grit.
I tested the soil's mechanical properties at 38% Saturated Porosity (air-filled space), and 25% Field Capacity (water-filled space) after draining. Hopefully it will work, because conventional substrates are difficult to find.