I use a variation on the 5-1-1 mix and have a more gritty mix I use for some plants. I won't call it 'Al's mix' as it isn't a 100% reproduction, but I certainly learn a lot from Al.

As a rule I don't screen things (laziness).

The most difficult thing for me to find locally is the bark fines so when I do find them I buy them in bulk and store them in my shed.

I don't use this for houseplants as I use hydroculture and can't really comment on life span for outside plants as most are annuals or I treat them as such. I think it would be fair to say I haven't lost any plants to what I would consider a soil related issue.

I use it - sort of like it, too.

Al

I use it and LOVE it!! I have Mangoes, Citrus, Coffee, Norfolk Pine,Succulents,Many varieites of Flowers, Hoyas. I customize the mix, depending on the type of plants I am growing. Right now, the hardest thing for me to find is the Turface MVP...I bought the Allsport (Lesco) brand, for some reason I've noticed its size is smaller than the Schultz Aquatic Soil. Just found out a couple of weeks ago, that Home Depot will not longer carry the Schultz aquatic soil, they clearance what they had,bought their last two bags. After that I will have to find a supplier for the MVP Turface in my area?

Yes, I have the watering/fertilzing down pretty well now ;o)

Crushed Granite is very hard to come by for me also, the closest feed store that sells it in more than 5lb. bad is two hours away...So I have to get enough to last. But well worth the trip!

My plants are doing very well in this mix, and I just wanted to say "THANKS" again to Al for sharing this invaluable information to all of us!! My plants and myself are very glad you did...

I even have some poinsettias that are re-blooming for the third year in this mix, normally they would have been dead a few months after Christmas in my old soil, LOL...

I use it for all my potted bulbs and indoor plants... they absolutely love it! I've got very healthy root systems, and haven't had any fungus or rot problems, normally associated with potted Hippeastrum bulbs.

I do have to water a bit more often, but I find that to be an even trade for healthy plants.

So far, everything I've planted in Al's mix is thriving! I'm very pleased with the results!

I use it and love it. I use it for plants that I'm planning on bringing in for they winter. I love the fact that you don't have to worry about it being too wet during the dark low light days of winter. I also use it grow on cuttings that I started in pure turface. They thrive in it! filix.

I use it, have transferred about 1/2 of my outdoor pots, they love it, have lost a couple to bare-rooting during the hot summer.

I especially noticed it when I got some 2" perennials and baby trees from ebay, and potted them up with Al's mix to hold until I could plant them in the cooler weather (not here yet!). I did put in a few aster plants and the little 2" rootball was at least 5" round, in only 6 weeks! Wow!

Next I have to do my larger plants like citrus in 26" clay. Yeeks! Scarey!

I now add a teaspoon of vinegar per gallon of water, along with the miracle grow. My plants are soooooooooo green!

As with many mediums, plants learn to thrive in many soils and soiless mixes as long as they receive certain other requirements including sunlight and nutrition when they can use it.
Plants regularly grow well in sand, perlite, vermiculite, different combos of soil and soiless mixes. He**, they even do well in nothing but water.

Whether one wishes to suggest that a plant is doing well--better maybe, than when it was given something different at another time, is giving an opinion...not a testimony to its veracity.
If one would wish to suggest 6 plants of the same type, were given one medium, another 6 plnats were given a different medium, and then 6 others given what medium is being discussed, and finding something remarkably better, then you have something to suggest to others.

Otherwise, its all just so much hokum and brings on head shaking dubious thinking.

Where is the value of a medium that drains, not well, but too well, if the plant cant at least pause long enough to take a drink.
What plant would you wish to treat so tortuously.

According to H.L. Mencken, "Criticism is prejudice made plausible." The prejudice has been well established in many dozens of the previous poster's other posts, but still the burden of plausibility remains. ;o)

Al

Many years ago, when I was still a little kid, I thought there were many little mouths in the plant's root that drink up the water in the soil.

After experimenting with Al's mix, i've come up with my own mix. Basically it's:

3 part pine bark fines
1 part peat moss
1 part expanded shale.

The hardest part is probably finding pine bark fines that I like. I don't really like having to sift out fine stuff out of it. Sometimes I end up with a lot of fine stuff.

I've done away from Turface for good. It seems very wasteful screening away half of it to desired size. I don't have to do it with expanded shale at all. Readily available too.

I am new to this forum. I love container gardening.
Unfortunately moving from state to state I haven't been able to take my containers with me.

I am living in Florida now and I have been reading on Al' mixes and I think he's a genius!

I am using the mixes for all my vegetables and citrus growing in containers.

This is my first season with the mix. My tomatoes had not BER compare to when I was using the other common mixes.

Thanks Al for sharing such a wealth of knowledge.

Willy

Hi
Have tried Al's mix on many different species of plants and find it far superion ,not to mention cheaper than commercial mixes lol.
One side effect has me puzzled on a hanging basket bougainvillea. At first it grew and flowered like gangbusters then went into a "dwarfing" mode.lol It is still growing and flowering well but leaves and flowers are about 1/3 normal size. Nothing else has been affected like this lol.
Any guesses as to why it's doing this?? I grow several in regular commercial mixes as well as compacted long fibered sphagnum,. Though there is a "dwafing" effect with these methods it takes years to kick in. lol thanks gary

Tarragon!! I'm growing tarragon! I've struggled to grow it for years. I have such a difficult time with it that it often dies in the little pot between the time I buy it at the nursery and get it planted out because it doesn't like wet feet and it doesn't like to dry out. Now I'm growing it in a big pot. It has survived a cold snap and Santa Ana winds and is growing like crazy in Al's mix. I have citrus doing remarkably well in a similar, coconut hull chip based mix but will re-pot them the next time in Al's mix since it's cheaper. I am not a careful gardener and Al's mix just makes it so much easier to grow in containers.

Ironically, I long ago discovered that vegetables grown in raised beds do particularly well in a "soil" that consists largely of chopped, woody garden refuse mixed with compost and cheap clay kitty litter. It never occurred to me to use a similar mixture in containers.

Omelets! Tarragon chicken! Green beans with tarragon!

Add one more name to the hat!

I, too, have been converting all of my potted plants to a medium most similar to Tapla's. I don't have Turface, so I use sharp gravel, aquarium stones, and charcoal for grit. Perlite makes up at least half of my mix. The organic component is small bark, similar to what one would find in a bag of African violet bark (not African violet pre-mixed soil, however).

If you have a plant with even the slightest tendency toward root-rot (especially during the winter), you should re-pot in Al's mix immediately. Now that my succulents (Jades, Port. afras, Christmas cactus) are in Al's mix, I watered when needed and never give drainage or rot a second thought.

I also have a blackberry vine, pachira, multiple willows, a cryptomeria, osage oranges, Japanese maple, gardenias, and a giant pot of lemongrass in this fast-draining mix. Super easy to re-pot/pot up plants.

Josh

Ok...I have to tell you about my holiday cactus!!
I have 2 that NEVER ever flowered for me. In fact they would grow so slowly, and sometimes some branches would just break off. My local gardener told me in the spring that they were in a soil staying damp to long and it was to compact for the roots to grow and breathe. So I took these plants, rinsed every last bit of PEATMOSS ot of those porr babies roots, and transferred them into Al's mix thinking, what do I have to loose. They always look sickly anyways.Oh ya, I have had them for over 10 years, and one only flowered onced at work for me.
Well, all summer it rained everyday, and it was awsome to have confidence in a soilles mix that would not stay wet even with rain everyday and rot them, just moist. The same held true for my plumerias, which HATE wet feet. If I had grown all these in the same potting SOIL or soiless media with peatmoss, which holds a perched water table, and compacts over time I use to use, they would of never survived a wet summer. I would have had to bring them under shelter the most of my summer.
Now ,after growing all summer, in Als' mix, without dying of rot, they are both in my living room loaded, I mean loaded with flowers growing faster than ever. I will take pictures and post them when I finally learn how to. It's a miracle with me on these babies. I am showing them off to my guests. THESE CACTUS LOVE THE SOILLES MIX! From my holiday cactus to you Al, thanks!!
So far I have not lost a ONE plant to root rot since using your soil!!!!!!!!:-) That is a big feat for me.

I use Al's mix, too, and my plants like it. I'm in a tropical weather where it rains cats-and-dogs for 6 months of the year and all my plants in Al's mix stay very healthy! I've promised my plants that I would never pot them in anything else!

Xuan (from Vietnam)

I started using Al's recipe last winter for the wife's houseplants. I will never stop using it. Very healthy houseplants. The wife is very happy with them.

Only thing Al is wrong about is his recipe readily lends itself to organic amendments, etc. (He is modest about that but he shouldn't be.)

Anyway, great recipe.

Btw, I used his recipe for a mounded planting of a peach tree outside (with some native soil of course). It is growing extremely well.

Al was worried about the classic advice we all know of (i.e., not making the planting soil too rich in the planting hole).

Well, a mix of one-half of his stuff and one-half native soil worked very well. Once again Al was being modest about his recipe. He was wrong, it worked great.

Thanks Al!! Stop being so modest about your soil recipe for Godsakes.

It works everywhere I've used it. Just use common sense when using it outside for new plantings. It is very good for drainage if used properly IMHO. And that is critical in my clay dominated soil.

I have to brag. The wife has always said I have a green thumb. Well, with Al's recipe, it got a lot greener!!

Well... it's very obvious from all the positive posts that there is, indeed, something to Al's concepts and his medium mixes!

I just planted my new Clivia in Al's Mix, and I guarantee that little guy will grow well and love its new home! I have a Eucharis that's about to get re-potted in... you guessed it... Al's Mix!

With all these wonderful testaments to Al's Mix, I'd have to conclude that it's a very healthy container medium, also useful in the garden, and it promotes healthy plants! So, when can we expect to see it available at a retail store near us, Al? LOL!

Add another fan to the list. I container garden all my vegetables, herbs, and fruit in this medium, with adjustments here and there for the particular plant. I currently have blueberries, red raspberries, blackberries, lettuce, tomatoes, peppers, onions, strawberries, pineapple, rosemary, basil, thyme, chives, oregano, and parsley all growing in this medium and all are healthy and vigorous.

I also have Bearss Lime, Satsuma, and Pickering Mango trees potted in this mixture. They all hate wet feet, and I never have to worry about them.

I love, love, love this mixture. I have seen a huge difference in my tomatoes since switching, both in plant vigor and fruit production. Both of my citrus trees improved in health and appearance after transplanting to this mixture.