What Are Pine Fines – How To Use Pine Fines With Your Soil

pine fines e1563905053227
pine fines e1563905053227
(Image credit: Gardening Know How, via Nikki Tilley)

Many homeowners dream of creating beautiful and productive flower and vegetable gardens. However, many may be left disappointed once they begin the process of turning over the soil in their planting spaces. Though most plants are fairly adaptable in terms of soil conditions, some garden spaces create frustration in the form of troublesome soil. Whether caused by a lack of nutrients or poor drainage, in most cases various amendments, like that of pine fines, are needed as to increase the chances of healthy crops and bountiful harvests. So, what are pine fines? Read on to learn more.

Pine Fines Information

Sometimes overlooked, the quality of the soil within a garden is one of the most important keys to success. Depending upon where you live, soil may require certain adjustments in order to create the ideal conditions for plant growth. As you can imagine, the process of amending large garden areas can become quite costly. In fact, this is the reason that some gardeners choose to build and grow in raised bed planters or containers. When exploring soil amendments such as mulches, moss, peat, and others, information may quickly become confusing even for the most experienced growers. Pine fines are often referred to by a variety of names, including pine fines mulch and pine fines soil conditioner. It is important to note that pine fines mulch may be somewhat misleading. As a byproduct of pine bark mulch (large sized mulch pieces), the particle size of pine fines should be very small – usually no larger than the size of a fingernail– and most often used as a soil conditioner rather than your typical mulch.

How to Use Pine Fines

Despite its small size, pine fines soil conditioner has a wide range of uses in the home garden. While the size of the product does not make it a proper choice for mulching around trees and larger landscapes, pine fines are ideal for use as mulch in small flower beds, raised beds, and in container vegetable gardens. In addition to their use in small scale plantings, pine fines work exceptionally well in improving the drainage quality of flower beds and in vegetable gardens when turned into the soil. In fact, many growers choose to create their own container potting mixes with the aid of this soil amendment. You can also use pine fines as a soil conditioner around acid-loving plants like azaleas, magnolias, and holly.

Tonya Barnett
Writer

Tonya Barnett has been gardening for 13 years. Flowers are her passion. She has trasformed her backyard into a cut flower garden, which she regularly chronicles on her YouTube channel http://www.youtube.com/@tonyawiththeflowers.