Whether or not the materials are suitable depends more on their size than anything else. You want all the particles in the soil to be pretty regular in size and concentrated around that 1/8" size, +/- 1/16". I use equal parts of pre-screened orchid (fir) bark in 1/8-1/4" size, screened Turface, and either Gran-I-Grit in grower size or #2 cherrystone. You can't avoid the major work of a full repot, and the first time you do it, if the roots have been neglected, is the most difficult. The bad news is if you don't do it, your plants will steadily decline. The good news is that once the plants are in the gritty mix pictured, subsequent repots and root-pruning are quite easy. I have all my houseplants (including cacti/succulents) and all my woody material in the gritty mix. If you've spent time here on the Container Forum, you can probably tell I've done a LOT of experimenting with soils, and I've yet to find a formulation that tops the one I just shared above. It is a VERY good choice for any of your plants. I'm not sure what to tell you about your 'time' constraints. You can research further to find what the individual components 'jobs' are in the soil, and see if you have anything that closely matches their 'job description'. I CAN say that if you're particular about your soils, looking for and finding the ingredients I listed will be worth the time/energy outlay. Good luck. ;o) Al

Well, I guess there are differeing opinions about everything, LOL. Just depends on your conditions and the resources available to you. That said, I will put in my 2 cents, even though it may be worse less than that. buyorsell888 is right...this is a really common philo that you should be able to pick up at almost any box store during the growing season for a few bucks. But, that can depend on where you live, as things like philos are very common in some areas and less so or even uncommon depending on where you live tootswisc, the leafless stems of philodendron (and epipremnum, rhaphidophora, and some vining types of anthurium) will root if you have at least 2-3 "nodes" that you can bury in the soil. The nodes on the stem of these plants give rise to either a root, a leaf, or in some cases both. If you have a 3-node cutting and plant 2 nodes under the soil and leave the 3rd above, a new offshoot with a new stem and leaves should arise from the 3rd node after the others root and the plant resumes growth I mix garden soil with my potting soil all the time. Its a common practise here with folks, especially those of us that live in rural areas. Florida's native soil is commonly called "Myakka fine sand". That's exactly what it is: sand. It drains fast, and has a pretty poor nutrient content unless its from an area where there is a lot of leaf mold mixed in. It makes a great soil extender when you mix your own soil blends for potting, along with perlite, organic humus and peat moss. If I lived somewhere where the soil was heavy clay I wouldn't use it, but mine is fine to mix in for containerized plants. An added bonus: the earthworms!

Mine --in Zone 6 -- slowly grows to about 10 ft, maybe even occasionally 12 ft, but it really depends on how much winter freeze it endured. Really bad winter kill one year, so I had to trim it rather low--about 3 ft tall--poor thing never really ever took off again and after a couple years went into decline. I have a new one now, planted a couple years ago. It is growing slowly, but should really take off this third year. About wrapping it, make sure you do the wrapping while it is young and still flexible. When it gets old, thicker, and stiff, it won't wrap well at all, though you can carefully get it to slant upward a bit. Mine was also on a pillar about the size of yours--perhaps a bit taller (with 1.5 ft in the ground for stability). It worked pretty good on that pillar, though the one year it shot up to 12 ft, there was a lot of wild waving extra length of cane extending up from the pillar. Other than it looked a bit wild and woolly, it was all right. Just make up your mind that you won't get a lot of horizontal placement with it, but it still blooms well--especially in the springtime. Here it is exceeding the height of the pillar. Kate

After growing these pines indoors, they definitely don’t like their roots disturbed. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t disturb them. With say a Ficus, I can be rough, remove all soil, blast roots with water and prune them and the tree won’t skip a beat. With the Norfolk Island pine, it always gives me a little bit of a hard time when I do a full repot. Some branches always die and fall off and it takes a little bit to get back on track. Mine hasn’t been repotted in over two years and is still currently putting out beautiful growth. im planning on repotting in June though. I would also wait until that point U S. If you’re in the northern hemisphere. If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, well, them now is a great time. the 5:1:1 mix is a great choice for this tree.