Tractor supply safety sorb

[Joe Dupre']

Have you ever tried it pure as in 100 percent . I have been tempted For one a freshly collected tree to establish roots for 1 year. Or second as a air layer medium especially in the wild. For its water retention properties . Think I’ll try that this year

I've only experimented with it at 100% with tomato suckers, which was eye opening. After a couple of months, I removed the fully formed root ball and teased and shook out all of the DE. I was left with a root structure the exact shape of the cup, with a near equal distribution of the same sized roots throughout. VERY impressive. Hey, that gives me the urge to do it with a pre-bonsai. Like my friend says "You don't know 'til you go." .

 

[Firstflush]

Joe, why the 50% bark as noted in your original post? I see it works for you. Was there a specific reason? Water retention so you aren’t watering every day in warm Louisiana?

I can get away with a lot more organics here in the desert of socal too. I must just manage drainage and the fines.

 

[HoneyHornet]

I use safe T sorb allllot, it’s a great component for mixes especially in large quantities like for grow boxes..great , useful filler for sure.. I just found a landscape supple near me that Carrie’s 50lb bags of turface which I recently “switched” to but I’m still down to use my safe T sorb in the blend… most trees have a long life on them before they are truely at the stage where I can focus on refinement so I don’t believe it’s necessary to go broke on akadama for every damn thing

 

[Joe Dupre']

Joe, why the 50% bark as noted in your original post? I see it works for you. Was there a specific reason? Water retention so you aren’t watering every day in warm Louisiana?

I can get away with a lot more organics here in the desert of socal too. I must just manage drainage and the fines.

50% bark for a few reasons. It holds water and nutrients well. That's why potting soil has a large percentage of bark-type material. It is also porous, which promotes free draining. It's cheaper and lighter than most other components. It is also organic, which provides a steady supply of nutrients as it breaks down. It works well in MY climate. We get over 5 FEET of rainfall a year combined with several months of 90F + temperatures. Will my mix work everywhere in the world? Probably not. I KNOW it works in my climate.

Yes, I pretty much water every tree every day. My mix allows for that. The benefit is the flushing of any stale water from the pot and the introduction of fresh oxygenated air every day.......... a sometimes overlooked item.