I recently read through many posts on this forum, and I discovered that many people (spunky1, others) use pine bark as the main component of their potting medium (or to fill their seedling beds).
I'm in California, and I don't think that I've ever seen pine bark for sale here - as mulch or as a potting amendment.
We do, however, have redwood bark (and/or pulverized redwood) available in abundance. It is sold here by the bag as mulch, though the smallest pieces are not as small as the "dime sized" pieces that were mentioned for the pine bark. (The smallest "mini-mulch" that I have seen here is about 1/2".)
Has anyone out west here tried redwood bark (or pulverized redwood) in an equivalent potting mix (which also has sand, lime, time-release fertilizer, processed chicken litter (not sure what our local equivalent to that would be), and alfalfa pellets (haven't a clue where to get those))? When using any kind of bark, can potting soil be substituted for the sand?
