I know, some of you love the stuff. And it’s a staple of many professionals. But hear me out. It’s really a problem...
it’s the shape of the particles. Pine bark is flat on two sides. Oh, when you first mix up your soil, their orientation is random. But, every time you water, you create a little flood of water from the surface down to the drain holes. And that water pushes on the bark. Moves it. Reorients it.
when that bark particle is pressed up against the screening covering the drain hole, it eventually finds a way to lay flat against it. The other pieces around it do, too. And the ones above. They orient themselves to resist the water, creating a flat layer, and stack themselves like bricks.
this creates an effective water barrier! Which makes the soil too wet, and can lead to root rot.
Last night, we had a gully was her of a storm. I use pine bark mini-nuggets in my landscape around my pond. Many got washed into my pond. They floated down to the skimmer, many were caught by the filter box, but some are smaller, and slip thru. My pond has a drain pipe behind the skimmer to drain off excess rainfall. The mini-nuggets fall down into the drain, and can plug it up. So, I fashioned a screen wire covering made out of hardware cloth, the same hardware cloth I used to use to make drain hole screens (before I switched to plastic). Well, the little pieces of bark would pile up against the screen. And so would the water! Oh, it still drained, slowly, but more and more pine bark would pile up, and the water level rose. Eventually, my pond flooded over. Held back by little pieces of bark.
if pine bark can cause a 6000 gallon pond to flood, I have no doubt it can stop up the drainage in a bonsai pot.
it’s the shape of the particles. Pine bark is flat on two sides. Oh, when you first mix up your soil, their orientation is random. But, every time you water, you create a little flood of water from the surface down to the drain holes. And that water pushes on the bark. Moves it. Reorients it.
when that bark particle is pressed up against the screening covering the drain hole, it eventually finds a way to lay flat against it. The other pieces around it do, too. And the ones above. They orient themselves to resist the water, creating a flat layer, and stack themselves like bricks.
this creates an effective water barrier! Which makes the soil too wet, and can lead to root rot.
Last night, we had a gully was her of a storm. I use pine bark mini-nuggets in my landscape around my pond. Many got washed into my pond. They floated down to the skimmer, many were caught by the filter box, but some are smaller, and slip thru. My pond has a drain pipe behind the skimmer to drain off excess rainfall. The mini-nuggets fall down into the drain, and can plug it up. So, I fashioned a screen wire covering made out of hardware cloth, the same hardware cloth I used to use to make drain hole screens (before I switched to plastic). Well, the little pieces of bark would pile up against the screen. And so would the water! Oh, it still drained, slowly, but more and more pine bark would pile up, and the water level rose. Eventually, my pond flooded over. Held back by little pieces of bark.
if pine bark can cause a 6000 gallon pond to flood, I have no doubt it can stop up the drainage in a bonsai pot.