Yes, I stated that I'm not worried about the aluminum, all the same I won't use aluminum sulfate either. Although it may be safe, I worry about toxic levels. Just because lead is in all soils doesn't mean it's a good idea to add more. Same with aluminum. And if you mix turface without a mask, you will be exposed to it. As far as water absorption Axis noted that turface holds 95% of it's weight in water. Pumice only holds 15% and DE holds 142% Try diatomaceous earth in your tests. Optisorb is about the largest size available to home gardeners. Axis makes an excellent size, but is for commercial use only. Numerous studies document it's use as superior to most other amendments. Such as " Effects of diatomite on soil consistency limits and soil compactibility" by Ekrem Lutfi Aksakala, Ilker Anginb, , , and Taskin Oztasa Or "Effects of diatomite on soil physical properties" by the same authors. Also "Sustainable effects of diatomite on the growth criteria and phytochemical contents of Vicia faba plants." Mona M. Abdalla* Department of Botany, Faculty of Science, Ain Shams University, Cairo, Egypt. The Axis company also has great info on all amendments. As far as particle size, do a test. Fill a pot with sand, and one with gravel. Stick a pole in, and see which one gives more resistance. It seems to me gravel would. But I might be wrong? I don't know physics well enough to figure it out on paper. Ah and pumice is further dashed to the ground and called a fake, not a single user rises to defend. Well we can agree to disagree, my day job is a laboratory researcher,or was, I'm retired. If turface has various pore sizes then it is not very well made. Thanks for pointing that out. So you do not believe the manufacturer? Controlling pore size in fired clays is often accomplished with the use of polymers such as Polyethylene glycol. This process is extremely important to control how well purifiers work, or how well they hold up with the addition of salts. You are incorrect about the pore size. Yes pore sizes differs, but that process is used to make different products, and is very controlled. Turface is meant to have small pores size or it would ineffective in it's intended use. The porosity of fired clays is extremely important to have a consistent product such as fired brick used to built houses. Varying pore sizes will compromise the strength of the brick. Selling a product and manufacturing one are very different things. The pore size I reported is for calcinated clay. Range of pore sizes is from .1 -.01 microns. Median is .045 . Plants need a .2 micron minimum pore size to utilize. This info is from a study by Andreas Kalytta-Mewes, Kathrin Mattern, and Armin Reller University of Augsburg, Chair of Solid Body Chemistry Georg Armbruster Soil Laboratory. The pore analysis in the study was conducted by Quantachrome,Bavarian Institute of Applied Environmental Research and Applied Technology. Of course it appears none of these sources trump Al. Who has not provided any data at all to back his claims. Please prove to me that pore size is bigger, thinking Al is right because you sell clay products is not proof. After saying all this will turface work? Yes, it will. Works pretty good! Is it ideal? No, it's not, but what is? It's still worth trying for sure. It didn't work for me, but that means nothing. it has worked well for others. It would be nice if it allowed easier access to stored water, but it does store water, and air, and it lasts a long time, maybe 20 years. That's decent. It's a decent product, or appears to be. It would not be on the market if it didn't work. I know it's not meant for potted plants, but it is meant for grass. DE seems a better product, it has it's own problems. it is marketed though for plants more than ball fields, although it is marketed for that too. It's marketed for large commercial gardens. I use it in my garden. I use turface too for my grass, works well. Just not that well in pots for me. All i said that it didn't work for me. Sorry blame me, it's what you usually do when the mixes fail, you blame the poster. Many have said DE doesn't work for them. I actually believe them. All gardening is local. This post was edited by Drew51 on Mon, Dec 29, 14 at 15:33

Thanks Mike and nice to meet you too. Castiloga recommended that mixing perlite into the potting mix that I already have will help albeit a little. Should I start off with this? As for the sand that I found available at the local garden shop was the red type - looking like the builder sand - but it was not coarse enough (let alone very coarse). Is there some sort of measure to determine how much coarse the sand should be for potting mix purposes? I have found a picture of the red sand from the internet and thought this might help you in assessing what I am referring to. Also I found a very huge supply of tiny gravel (around 5mm) just lying scattered besides my apartment building in quite a large quantity. Can that be used for any purpose? By appropriately mixing it with the potting soil or sand etc? Will this be helpful in water flow and aeration? O and btw, the potting soil that I will now be using (my fourth try) is on the link provided below - has details about what fertlizer and PH it has. It also says it has 125% water retention ability!! Thanks again. Here is a link that might be useful: Al Bustan Potting Soil. This post was edited by saood on Wed, Oct 9, 13 at 2:51

Fruitnut, I deal with numerous root bound potted trees every season in my nursery. Your plants look to be in better shape as far as circling roots than my potted plants. I don't power wash the soil away, however, although this is often recommended. I just don't find it at all necessary, and I prefer leaving some fine roots imbedded in the potting medium when I move the tree into real soil (I realize that this is not what your project is about). What I do is pull the circling roots piece by piece out of the ball (this is mostly with apple trees). When I put the tree into real soil I stretch the roots straight and as well distributed as possible- pegging the roots down if necessary. I often will be able to provide a transplanted 15 gallon potted tree with a root distribution that extends out in as much as a 6' diameter "circle" from the trunk. This allows the tree to do far better than some B+B'd tree that's lost most of its functional root system. The only problem is that it can take up to half an hour or more untangling the roots and then digging trenches to place them in that go way beyond the initial planting hole. Obviously this info is not of much use for people repotting plants where the idea would probably be to cut back the circling roots to fit into the new pot.

I just had to say thanks for this post Leon. I had done a few air layers in the past with grape vines but never with figs. this past season I air layered about 10 off of one tree that I wanted to share with friends and they came out great. Your pictures are so clear and tell the complete story. The only thing I changed was on horizontal branches I used a water bottle cut in half lengthwise. It was easier to get the soil to stay in place. Below is pictures of one such success. I've shared your pictures with others that were interested and they also found them so clear and helpful. Once again Thanks, "gene" This airlayer was started on July 22 and cut off on Oct. 16. I let it go for 11 weeks because of it's size. My grandson holding up a very nice one. The root ball