Interesting articles you have posted. I don't agree with all of them though. Well the short one on bark for one. I have found that the water repelling properties of bark extremely useful. One of the major problems with potting soils is the use of peat as a base. I love peat moss, but it is best used in smaller amounts with the main ingredient being pine bark. It drains well, keeps the soil structure a lot longer as it takes longer to break down.
Using it as a mulch it lasts longer, is not a solid body, so if you pour water unto bark, the water is not repelled 10 feet away, the ground becomes very wet. That statement by
Linda Chalker-Scott is nonsense, and no reference to studies of such is given. Green wood chips do not hold water either, and we don't put it on to hold water, but to cover the ground that is holding the water. So both sap wood, and bark work equally well. Pine bark does not rob the soil of nitrogen like sap wood does, as it breaks down a lot slower. Plants grown in pure pine bark thrive, they do not fail. You cannot grow plants in sap wood at all.
Hardwood bark breaks down fairly fast,even faster than hardwood itself and does absorb water like sap wood. It is not a good soil amendment for potted plants. As it behaves too much like sap wood. In my wood pile it's the hardwood bark that creates the humus, not the wood. It breaks down extremely fast.
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