God....I was rusheed, sooo ecuse the horible spelling!!! I think the point stands out thoh..Sorrry..:-)ARG!!!!!!!!!
I hate typing!!!!!!My fingers are always faster than my brain!!!

I usdually end up with around 3/4 of a bag useable, too. JJ was prolly using too large of a screen - or maybe she got something other than MVP?

Al

Yes, she corrected it by saying she was referring to the grit type mix she had to buy..But then also said this was a good question too..lol

Thank you Al. I hope you are doing well..:-)

Mike..:-):-)

Just fine - deep into repots now.

Al

Have a good time my friend..Thank God the sun is strong, days longer, and weather warmer!

Do me a favor, if you get some time soon, post a few pics of your new repots?

I really enjoy looking at your beautiful plants and gives me even a deeper appreciation about the mixes you use.

Take care

Hi Guys!
I'm on the right track with supplies...;)

I hope you guys had a great day! Mine was long, but plenty of fresh air and sunshine!!

Hubby doesn't like seeing your pics Al~ They make me want more! ROFL!!

But I love them, so post away!!

Hubby just started a very expensive hobby for him and our son called cowboy fast draw.. so he has to suck up with plants.. he he...

I will post back when I have the turface sifted.. I am using a kitchen strainer, (wire mesh like house screen) and I have taken a pen and streched a few holes out to get a little more of the really fine stuff out.. :)

Using 1/4" and 1/8" mesh to screen pine.. :)

Leftovers go in the 5-1-1

Got a huge bag of pearlite today for the 5-1-1... and will use kitchen strainer for that too.

Daddy is bringing me 5 tomatoe plants this weekend, several will go in the 5-1-1-

TTYL~
JoJo/JJ :)

Al,

Trying not to go too far off thread, I thought of you when I spent Saturday repotting. You have said that the better for the plant, the worse for the gardener; well, my plants must have been in heaven. We had solid clouds, it was misty when it wasn't drizzly, and it was that nasty 40 degree bone-chilling damp that is worse than winter. This weekend the forecast is rain mixed with snow, and I have more plants that I need to get out of dirt and into gritty mix. Heck, I'll thaw eventually.

red_chucks

Hello, everyone!

JoJo, be careful around that Perlite dust...! I've heard that it's bad for the lungs!

Josh

Hi Josh!
Thanks for looking out for me!! ;)

I have heard that too! And it is dusty!!

I will do that one outside!! I promise!! Plan on rinsing it too. :)

Have a great night from one night owl to another... :)

JoJo

I was worried about the vermiculite dust so I looked on the bag, got the manufacturer's website and pulled the safety info on the product. Vermiculite dust is considered a "nuisance" dust but not harmful. I'm sure one could google perlite and find out similar info.

Hi Momstar~
Everyone should use caution with any dusty product..

But I think Josh was expressing his concerns because he knows i'm a digbat, and sift indoors... LOL!

Bark isn't that bad, but yes, pearlite is,,, and will be done outside...;)

JoJo

You a ding bat? Nooooooo

hahahah

By the way, make sure there is no wind that day blowing in your direction..lol

Hugs,

Mike

I thought it was vermiculite that had asbestos in it, wasn't that what all the W.R. Grace lawsuits were all about? I agree that NO dust is good for the lungs but not all dust is created equal...have mask will travel ;-)

Tom

Mike,
you gotta love me ;)

LOL!

Hugs ;)

Yes, I'll remember to watch the wind...:)

tomncath,
there was something with vermiculite years ago. I thought I had read it was being pulled from the market. But home depot still sells it, so maybe something changed.

JoJo

Asbestos was once a problem, from vermiculite mined from one particular location in Montana. Once the asbestos problem was discovered, that mine closed. Any vermiculite product since somewhere around 1990 should be OK.

But one should still avoid the regular inhalation of any kind of particulate matter (from sand, cement, vermiculite, etc.).

The pine dust bothers me. The need for a very good dusk mask can't be overstated. filix.

JoJo, I am working towards my very first batch of Gritty mix (I will be making 5:1:1 soon thereafter) but please help me understand the pine bark sifting...you say you sift

"Using 1/4" and 1/8" mesh to screen pine.. :)

Leftovers go in the 5-1-1"

I have sifted 1 2cf bag using the 1/4" screen and nothing that passes through it comes close to dime size. Am I supposed to sift the stuff that came through the 1/4" screen with a 1/8th screen now and only use what does not go through in my gritty mix? The stuff that remained after sifting with 1/4" is dime size on average, is that not useable?
HELP! I think I've read too much and m brain has become a seive!
Thanks for any help you can offer here!
nik

Good Morning Everyone!

Rizo,
Thank you for that info. As soon as I read it, it came back. LOL! Yes, it was around 90.

Hi Nik,
Sorry I couldn't get here sooner.. I have my hands full these days..LOL!

yes,
Your on the right track.

I sift through 1/4" first, and take what falls through and sift again with 1/8". What falls through the 1/8, is put aside for the 5-1-1

(Al mentioned that when using what falls through the 1/8 for the 5-1-1, you would use a little less peat)

The ideal size for gritty is 1/8-1/4.

I'm still reading and learning, and I know my brian "IS" a seive.. ROFL!

Your not alone.

I hope this helps! And if i'm wrong, someone please say so! LOL!

JoJo

Great, thanks JoJo! I'm off to sift some more before bark the rain comes then

I shift the pine bark fines through 1/4 hardware cloth and then a 1/16 insect screen. Any fines that wont pass the insect screen won't be much bigger than 1/8.

sorry I meant the fines wont be much smaller than 1/8

Back to Turface please...? 8-)
I screened two bags of Turface MVP with a mesh basket, "somewhere smaller than 1/4 inch" and got about a bag of keepers and a bag of fines. 50/50.
So my screen thingy must be a bit too large.
I have picked up some "screen porch" screen and will try it on the next bag. But it looks too small, maybe #10? Haven't measured it yet.
Trouble is, HD and Lowe's do not sell screen any more. What kind of shop carries the different sizes? Does the plastic needlepoint stuff work?

Rick

What you need is insect screen, the flexible window screen. They are all 1/16". I get 3/4 bag of usable turface and the rest is sandy turface powder.

Bayoufilter, what a GREAT question about the needlepoint holes!!

I actually use those for the bottom of my pots with the gritty mix!

They do have many sizes...I would take a picture close up of one and see what Al thinks..

Mike..::-)

The needlepoint stuff is called plastic canvas. :)

JoJo

I've been wondering about this statement too (i.e., getting 3/4 bag of Turface after sifting through insect screen). I'll bet I have more than 7/8 bag after screening, which makes me wonder if I'm doing something wrong (in rinsing gravel in a screen?!?). I just spread out some dry Turface or Floor Dry on a loose screen laid out in one of those 24-bottle Coke cases, and rinse thoroughly. I do not try to actually scrub or rub the grit through the screen; is that required?

That's fine. No need to force anything through the screen. article size varies a little from bag to bag or lot to lot.

Al

So, um, I'd left some turface on the screen long enough that it dried out, and interestingly a fair bit fell through the screen. So I tried dry sifting a few quarts of turface and "floor dry" (good ol' Napa 8822), and it seems a lot more fell through. Was I supposed to be dry sifting all this time?

Mmhmm - at least that's what I always do. ;o)

Al

Speaking of sifting for the gritty mix, I am finding that when I sift the Grower Gran-i-Grit through the 1/8" screen I am also getting amount and size of grit roughly equal to that the same amount of turface sifted.

Perhaps I misunderstood but I thought we didn't need to sift
the Grower Gran-i-Grit for grit dust we didn't want?

Thank God the pine bark fines do fall neatly through the
1/4" screen with very little dust going through the 1/8"
screen. The stuff was expensive from an orchid grower in
Southern New Jersey, and I am grateful to have it! :-)

I screen the Turface through insect screen and save the large fraction. I do screen the granite, but it's only to get rid of the dust - same thing for the 1/8-1/4" fir bark; I screen only to eliminate dust. You don't have to if you don't want to. I do it because I use very shallow containers for bonsai and I want to guard against a layer of mud (from the dust) collecting on the very bottom of the pots. Screening it only takes a few seconds.

Al

Slightly off topic, but what is the best use for all the sifted fines - especially the turface fines? Seed starting? Sticking cuttings? anything?

I'm sure some of you resourceful people have found a great use for all the screened fines. Thanks,

Chris

Too fine for cuttings and seed starting, other than as a light covering for seeds broadcast on top of a coarse medium. Both seeds and cuttings want a very porous medium.

I use them as a replacement for sand in hypertufa projects (they're GREAT here) and mix them into my raised bed soils or scatter them on the gardens/beds.

I've never had need to them this way, but if you had bark for the 5:1:1 mix that was a little too large, a handful or 2 per gallon of soil would help with extra water retention; but you would need to be careful and not go overboard.

Al

Okay, dry sifting better than wet, that's one obvious improvement. Now I'm wondering about my insect screening, which I use just loose (i.e., it's not pulled taut against a frame or box, it's just a big piece of that very flexible (fiberglass?) insect screen that I lay kinda flat. Am I off the mark here too?

I'm eager to improve my turface/floor dry container results. I've been using LECA/hydroculture for a few years now, and most plants have done well enough with it indoors, but I have this sense that turface could potentially work even better. However, I don't seem to "get" turface as a medium, and my results seem rather wildly unpredictable. In particular, though no plants show any initial signs of shock when moved to turface, some will just collapse after a few days, and it seems at least possible that my "turface techniques" are wrong, incomplete, or careless!

Cheers,

Alan

I use aluminum insect screening stapled to the bottom of a 1x4 frame with metal handles attached.

We should probably take a closer look at how you're making the gritty mix or investigate possible sources of problems.

Al