Looking for a clarification to this old thread that keeps giving:) ... [ @tapla needing advice on possibly slightly changing up Gritty mix after lugging all of my succulent pots plus my 3 FLF trees in and out of my Houston home over the last 3 mo (in when temp dropped into 50' and then back out 2 days later when we are back @70-90 deg winter days cycles ). It's been worth the hassle for sure since I'm almost one year into my mission to quickly grow these Home Depot one pot/ two tree FLF" bushes" into beautiful indoor 7-9 ft trees so letting them thrive acclimated to hours of afternoon direct sun outside since purchase. I repoted one bush into two trees last May/ June into true Gritty and I need to repot my last "bush" this May into two separate pots to move to Gritty and curious on what your thoughts are on adding a fraction of perlite to the original Gritty mix to take away some weight in the size pot I want to use (roughly 14"x12") would you think that is "okay" / and if so what breakdown of fractions do you recommend? And if not okay, maybe verse me in your knowledge and thoughts why as I've been blindly experimenting with perlite my succulent propagating.... I've been having trouble getting some species of succulents to root in Gritty mix / esp difficulty getting propagated leaves to grow roots on GM as well as they do in soil( I usually spray well prop.succulent leaves with spray bottle every 2-4 days so Gritty issue for this purpose likely due to me not spraying/ watering daily and surface too dry for the callused ends. I get terrific roots but occasional leaf rot propagating on soil So I've been experimenting w mixing perlite with cactus soil and a small fraction of Gritty mix ( random I know - just literally grab a handful of each ) and so far it seems to be working well so this is what got me curious on the repot of the FLF. I'm sure it helps to note that I do not desire to need to water anything daily since I'm out of town on weekends often but do like being able to check in w plants and water weekly to biweekly. The FLF's I have in Gritty do well outside ( high humidity) with only weekly, thorough, watering. Maybe it's our constant 70-90% Houston humidity ( plus plants stay semi sheltered under covered patio) but I only find my Gritty gets dry to touch one to two inches down by day 2-3 in the hot summer months/ otherwise it's Usually still slightly damp under the surface 2 days later even though water in pot drains quickly in large quantities within seconds of me watering. Hope that all helps you offer me more of your expertise!

Blue, you talk about watering "as I thought needed" and you refer to "I think they get enough lighting". For some of us such 'seat of the pants' flying is unacceptably instinctual. If it works at all is fairly easy to determine but if there are problems then perhaps a move to more objective methods is in order? Beginning with light, of course, it rarely is enough in North America in the best of places. Indoors is even worse. There simply is no leeway for niceties like 'diffused' or 'dappled' or 'bright shade'. Truth be told, greenhouse growers in the north latitudes use shadecloth to control temperature not to reduce light levels!! So, no, I don't think you have sufficient light unless you are supplementing the dappled west window light with artificial light. I find that a fixed day of the week (or two) on which to water does less harm than the catch as catch can approach. With CHC, or any medium for that matter, you are not so much waiting for the medium to reach a certain level of dryness before you water again as you are topping up the reservoir of water held in suspension before it runs completely dry. Read that again, everyone. It is key to the overwhelming misconception about watering orchids in North America and similar environs. In situ when an orchid receives rain the many crannies in the bark of its mount and the overgrowths of moss and the usual high humidity of the sub/tropical environment all conspire to ensure that rarely if ever will the roots see anything approaching total dryness. Not just phals but Catts too. Climb a tree some summer afternoon when it hasn't rained in days. The bark will have a vaguely damp feel to it and this is quite enough. In a tropical environment the bark would be damper still. When you water a pot full of bark the moisture level will still be quite high the next day, the day after that and maybe even the day after that. In nature although still not totally dry, the root environment will admittely be much less soggy than in the pot. Do you really think that waiting seven days to water again gives the roots anything approaching a natural wet/dry cycle? No it doesen't. Nor do you want it to for in North America, especially indoors, we haven't the humidity levels nor the guarantee of daily rainfal or dew, etc. We may as well learn to rely on the inbuilt capacity of the medium to ensure that adequate gas exchange is possible regardless of the amount of moisture present and water as often as neccessary to ensure that the moisture level never falls below zero. But as far as there being a maximum, there is no such thing. Every day watering while wasteful of water should not be harmful if other aspects of culture are exemplary! In North America, however, things are rarely exemplary and a whole regime of countermeasures has arisen to compensate for reduced light, low humidity, temerature extremes, etc. I haven't seen these measures work to my satisfaction so I am trying (and preaching) a method of creating the environment that promotes vigorous growth and development of the orchid like natural conditions do rather than attempting via water starvation regimens to forestall problems brought about by insufficient light and/or insufficient daytime max temp (in winter), low humidity, etc. Finally, from Blue's language I am pretty certain, like Clara, that s/he is referring to CHC and not coir. And I do believe CHC can be obtained pressed into bricks though mine did come loose in a bag. H

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The difference between 'small' and 'medium' isn't that much. What it really means is that per square inch, the larger chips have a smaller surface area. I know that might not make sense at first, but if you think about it, a bunch of tiny little marbles in a fishbowl has a much larger surface area than a bowling ball would, even though the volume of the smaller marbles added together is less than the bowling ball. For small CHC, this means there is less air in the soil solution and the roots are more tightly surrounded than in larger CHC. Make of that what you will, because I really can't see the major difference other than aesthetics and root-growth in smaller trees. Long story short, I've got my first cutting, a pre-grafting learning experience, planted in medium CHC. It's doing just fine outside in the wind and weather. I've even tipped it out of the container to see tiny little roots growing into the 'gigantic' CHC. It looks kind of funny in the pot, but other than that it's doing just fine and has a good grip on its 'soil'.