Danger, You mentioned your 5 gal. garden. Please go to my info and I would greatly appreciate seeing Pics of you garden. Just email me and attach the pics to the email. Thanks 1eyedJack and the Dawg

I recently bought a rubber tree plant. It looks very healthy but the soil it’s in is very rich and very hard. I had to take a chop stick to break it up since I couldn’t put my finger in the soil to test the moisture level. So I decided to change out the soil. My first mistake: I went and bought miracle grow potting soil and then watered after I transplanted and even though it has drainage holes not a drop of water came out the bottom. It retained ALL the moisture in the top 1/3 of the pot and I know my plant will die of root rot If I don’t do something soon. My second mistake: Next, I tried a mix of equal parts coarse sand, mini pine bark and peat humus. Again, I watered after planting and it was like soup. Nothing draining out of the pot. I used Al‘s mix years ago for my outside container plants and it was wonderful. We’ve moved since then and I don’t know where my grani-grit or Turface went. I don’t remember where I got these from in WI but I will have to search again. succulents are my newest obsession and I bought bonsai jacks gritty mix but my indoor succulents are not happy. There are zero nutrients in this mix And that makes me uneasy. My question to you is this: What mix do I use for my indoor succulents? (Mainly Echeverias, some Haworthia and some sedum and pachyveria). What mix do I use for my rubber tree plant? What mix do I use for my sanseveria snake plant? Im thinking gritty mix for snake plant and succulents? Please help. Thank you!

Well I've found everything for my gritty mix except the Turface - all local stores that are supposed to carry it (according to the online Turface website) won't sell it in less than 40 bag shipments. I'm going to go with the Napa floor dry as their store is just down the road from me. Any suggestions on the floor dry? Can it be used just the same as Turface? What's the breakdown like over time with this (i.e. could I use the gritty mix for a few years without remaking it)? I've learned so much on this forum so far, and looking forward to learning even more in the future!

HI, In the bonsai grow boxes it is all just turface, most of it is not screened. But those boxes are very free draining with window screen over the whole bottom. Aside from cost, is there any reason not to use straight turface? The only downside I am finding with it is the cost. The tree was purchased from a bonsai tree grower in ohio off of ebay. (so it should be the true chinese elm, the one that is commonly used for bonsai, it does look different than the volunteer elms that just grow wild here) I have 6 of those chinese elm's. I made 25 of those grow boxes this year and they are full, I need to move some trees out of them so I have places to put my new Japanese Maples. I have at least 100 trees in containers here now. (and another 150+ of hosta and other various perennials) Around half the trees are in turface, the rest are in some kind of mix I made (when I tried to grind my own pine bark), but I left too many fines in that mix and many of the trees stay on the wet side, so I am working on replanting everything I care about. I met a real nice guy yesterday that is fairly local to me, within about a hour, he grows succulents and cacti. He may have some properly sized pine bark fines or be able to get them. I might try to get some from him to experiment with. I have not had much time to play with the pine bark I picked up from lowes, I know it will need to be screened a lot to get out all of the fines. Jamie