calistoga, Personally, I had bad results when I trialed Cactus Mix as an ingredient in one of my mixes. Porosity for aeration to the roots seems to be an important requirement for healthy plant development / production. Here is a clipping from an article on the Premier website regarding aeration and bark particle size: """The process of aeration is one of the most important factors of productivity. Plants absorb oxygen (O2) and release carbon dioxide (CO2) during the respiration process. "Respiring" roots use the sugars made during photosynthesis to provide the energy necessary to drive mineral salt absorption. For most plants, internal transfer of oxygen from the leaves and stems to the roots is too slow to supply enough oxygen to the roots. In order to have good plant growth, the growing media needs to be "aerated", meaning that air exchange between the growing medium and atmosphere has to provide the plant roots with sufficient oxygen and to remove excess carbon dioxide from the root zone. This air exchange takes place through a mechanism called diffusion. Figure 1. The yellow line extending from a to b represents the path which gas travels through this growing medium. Notice the path is short. It has a low tortuosity due to the uniform size of the media particles. Traditionally, only air-filled porosity (% air space) was used as a standard index to guide substrate manufacturing, but more recently scientists have found that air exchange properties (diffusion of gases), were more closely correlated with plant growth performance than was strict air-filled porosity. Air diffusion in a substrate will depend not only on the air space provided, but also on the way pores are interconnected and open to the atmosphere. Pore continuity and tortuosity (length of the path that the air must travel) will influence the movement of air through the substrate. Air (and water) will move faster from one point to another if the pores are well linked together to create a shorter, less tortuous path (fig.1). Figure 2. The yellow line extending from a to b is longer. Air has to go through a more tortuous path due to the large bark pieces. Some growing media components, like large-sized bark particles and large peat chunks, can form gas impermeable barriers that can increase tortuosity, which will make air diffusion more difficult (fig. 2). Studies conducted on both nursery and greenhouse plant species have shown that variations in tortuosity and gas relative diffusivity can decrease yield by up to 50%, despite the fact the growing medium had an adequate air-filled porosity (Caron, 1997). Having sufficient air space is important, but it appears to be even more important to make sure that our substrate components be of the right size to insure good pore continuity to maximize air circulation. Premier has recognized this and for these reasons has used smaller bark particles in our 2 bark mixes, PRO-MIX 'BRK' and PRO-MIX 'GSX'.""" Here is a link to the full Article: http://www.premierhort.com/website/profweb/aprofweb/premierpress/archives/spring00vol7-1/apress7-1a.html Raybo Here is a link that might be useful: Aeration Study by Premier

Its the million dollar question for a lot of us swc gardeners. Raybo is trailing several combination mixes this year as well as myself. My newest combination includes 5 parts fir bark fines that are 1/4" or smalller and I would say most of it is well under 1/4", 2 parts peat and 1 part perlite. You need an ingredient that is pretty fine for wicking, some use turface. I'm using 18 gallon totes made by Rubbermaid for my swc's. I've gone from a 6 inch diameter wicking basket to a 4 inch square basket to now a 3 inch diameter wicking basket. I've tried using a more gritter mix and for me it didn't work. If you get to gritty in your mix with swc's I think you start breaking that water bond which is important in swc's. I'm now using a crf this year that is 18-6-12 at half strength. I hope to get a 'seasons' use per swc out of this crf, but just in case I dont I've got some FP in my back pocket. damon

Justaguy, Tom Mobley has a had unbelievable success with just 14 14 14 in his pot n pot method. I am totally new at this business, my dad who just past away this year at 99 always had a large veggie garden in NC, but I was never interested until now at 72 ! I have put some MG in the water once they started blooming, but this first big beef is unbelievable (seems to be my favorite word this morning :>)). Our weather here is very subtropical, I have two very large mango trees that people said would not survive this far north and west (away from the Atlantic and gulf stream), but put them on the South side of my 12 cbs wall of the hangar and they have done extremely well. People keep tomatoes producing here from fall until June when it apparently is so humid that they fail to set new fruit. Typical day high here summer is 92 and 90% humidity and 70 low at night. Lots of rain in summer, we've had zip where we're located here west of port st lucie this winter and spring. Sorry about how dark the pictures turned out and with my palmetto background it is really hard to see how large the first bigbeef is in the bucket. Will try again to make a picture. bernie

Worked out the cheapest, most compact and most simple automatic watering system for me. Uses 3 buckets, one float valve, simple barbed fittings and clear 1/2" tubing. There are no penetrations below water level and no alterations to planters. Top bucket only holds 5 gal, so you can hook up to larger tank if you desire. Use only clear tubing to detect any air bubbles. I am going to use Hudson valve to feed top bucket when away from home. Used 3 Lowe's buckets. Top Bucket - no alterations Bucket 2 - Cut off top below the expanded "ring" for spacer to lift top bucket up additional 2 3/4". Discard bottom. Bottom Bucket Installed 1/2" US Plastics #23136 float valve slightly above desired water level. Installed barbed elbow on float inlet. Installed clear 1/2" tubing from elbow over the top of top bucket to reach bottom. (Siphon action feeds float valve on bottom bucket) Ran 1/2" tubing from bottom of bottom bucket through side (above water level) to barbed connector. Ran 1/2" tubing from the barbed connector to barbed "Tee" at top fill pipe of first container. Ran 1/2" tubing from "Tee" to bottom of fill tube. Tubing runs from bottom bucket to "Tee" on first container, to "Tee" on second container, to "Tee" on 3rd, etc. (Last container doesn't have "Tee", tubing runs directly from last "Tee" to bottom of container fill tube. Primed siphon of container tubing by holding end of tube in bottom bucket to garden hose. Put top bucket into bottom bucket and fill. Primed siphon of top bucket to float valve. Note: Fill planting containers first, as the siphon action to the float valve only supports a small but adequate flow rate.