Once you find your sources, it's really not difficult to use gritty mix. And what you can't find, you can easily use other substitutes. Almost any place that sells the ingredients needed will sell it in bulk; if I buy the stuff once, I have enough to last me a year, give or take. Costwise, it's a small fraction of buying anything similar premixed. And if it is similar to Al's mix, Lord help us all with shipping. Hell, I'd make it for you for free but shipping it would cost a fortune. And 5-1-1 is about the easiest thing to source. Recently, I bought bags of something called GreenAll Microbark (common), an enormous bag of perlite from Lowe's, and I always have peat moss soil on hand. This time, it was Roots Organic, which buying did make me a little self conscious as its popular with 420 growrrs, apparently. Garden Lime is at basically every big box store...and that's all you need. And if you can't find that bark, you can go to Petsmart and get the repti-bark so many seem to use for a higher price but still cheaper than that premade one. That same bark can be used for GM, and Turface is at John Deere (or if not they can order it for you for some $13?) and I'd be comfortable using medium perlite screened if you really, really cannot find pebbles. But almost anywhere in the US will have some landscaping place close enough to go buy pea gravel or something for the grit portion. I admit it's daunting to think about. And probably a PITA if you feel your plants are fine. I read and read, and barely understood what on earth Al was talking about, haha, until I found the stuff, tried it out, experienced how little water all of my plants actually need, learned I drowned many of my previous plants and finally, what he was saying started making sense. But once you actually do it, it's so easy and cheap there's no reason not to. I pay over $30 for 2.2 cu. ft of Pro-Mix HP....which last a helluva lot longer if I make one of the mixes or I'd go through $30 in soil every 2 weeks haha. A cu.ft. bag of bark costs me about $3. The pea gravel in the same size costs about $5. And with cheap HUGE bags of Turface costing $13....it's not expensive to make.

I never have any issue with soils being hydrophobic overall, except when I get a crusty build-up on the soil surface from using organic fertilizers (fish emulsion). I usually then just scrape it off or break it up. Sometimes the gritty soil will dry down so much that the bark particles will become hydrophobic, but the soil as a whole never does. The reason it doesn't is that Turface and the crushed granite seem to always be willing to hold water - Turface internally and on it's extensive surface, and the granite surface quickly becomes coated with water as I water. Then, even if the bark is very dry and hydrophobic, water moves into it over time by diffusion. Yes, it robs water from the Turface and granite components, but soon after watering a very dry soil (10-15 min) the soil becomes rather evenly moist. If I then wish to maximize water retention, I would simply water again. The pine bark will have lost its tendency toward hydrophobia and the Turface/granite would again be willing to absorb the water they have given up to the bark by diffusion. Short version: A) Don't let your soils dry down so much. Soils FEEL dry at around 40% water content, but hydrophobia in peat and pine bark occurs when the soil is just above 30% water content, or B) Water twice. The first watering will add enough water so the 'hydrophobic lock' on certain soil components is overcome & the second watering will 'top-off' the soil's water retention. I really like the fragrance of the Osmanthus. I hope it does well for you. Any time is ok for established plants with rootballs intact. For bare-root, if you don't have a greenhouse or bright humid sunroom, I think the best shipping time would be in spring, as soon as there is no danger of the plant freezing in transit. Fall would be ok if you have a greenhouse because it favors quick establishment, but if you're overwintering it as a houseplant, I'd be inclined to wait. Al

Hey Al, just wanted to make sure that 2 years later all this advice is current. Some of my gritty mix is now just about 2 years old also. It seems to be holding up but I got to thinking, like some of those in this thread, that it sure would be nice to have a permanent mixture for the long term plantings, by withholding the organic ingredient. Plus it's one less ingredient to have to buy and later screen. I see your main purpose for including it was to lessen the fears of potential gritty mix users that plants couldn't possibly grow in it. It's also used to average the particle size and water retention of the two other ingredients. I use FP to fertilize and look after my plants often enough that this isn't a fear of mine. I utilized a 1:1 ratio of Cherrystone:Turface for two basjoo banana trees planted in the ground here in zone 4. I have heavy clay and when I grew them the last time, they grew slow and their corms later rotted over the winter. I also don't think I properly watered/fertilized. So this year after reading your posts in the link below, I upped the FP by 4x to 1 tsp of FP per gal, rather than 1/4 tsp I used before, and brought the PH down to 5.5 with vinegar rather than the unacidified 7 of my tap water. I know you water with this dosage weekly with outdoor plants but I watered with it almost every day during the hot summer days with no apparent issues. I found that this amount of FP was too much for the indoor plants though... I also experimented with digging about a 4-5 gal hole where I planted the bananas and poured in the 1:1, so at least some of the soil near the corm and roots didn't have to deal with the heavy clay. The plants grew waaay faster this summer and hopefully it'll help the stems/corms survive this winter. I utilized the 1:1 before reading your post in this thread about using a higher ratio of granite/cherrystone to compensate for the small particle size of the turface. Even though the basjoo's did great in the 1:1, I'm guessing in a pot, a proper ratio (2:1 or 3:2 like you mentioned) would be a bit more important. Is this a safe assumption? Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing advice

Sounds good. It's hard to learn anything without a control. If I were doing it, I'd do two groups of two, since individual plants may vary unaccountably. Local passalong roses can often be rooted by sticking hardwood cuttings right into the garden soil, in the shade, in cool weather, 3/4 buried.