Hello, Lucy!
Just a few quick answers:
1) Vermiculite is NOT a substitute for Turface. A substitute for Turface would be pumice, lava rock, or hard DE (diatomaceous earth).

2) Most "orchid bark" is Fir bark, sometimes Pine bark, and sometimes tree fern(?) if I remember rightly. The key is finding the bark in a fine-grade or small size so that you aren't paying for waste (bark that's too big).

3) Garden Lime will raise the pH of the mix, which is already high enough. It would be better to omit the gypsum, and simply fertilize regularly with a fertilizer that provides Calcium and Magnesium.

Josh

Thankyou for the quick response. Just a quick follow up.

I can't find any DE thats not in powder form, and all the lava rock and pumice I can find are either hugely expensive or large aquarium stones. None of these seem suitable, Where do you source these items or do you use something else?

And all the poultry grit I can find contains shell, is this ok or would the horticultural grit be better?

Lucy

Also please let me know of any brands that could work, as that makes it far easier for me to find what you mean.

-Lucy

Hi Lucy

I just saw your post, I live in the UK (London) and I use cat litter from tesco. It is DE and I have been using it for a long time.

Many bonsai growers use it aswell as many members of the BCSS.

Here is the link to the BCSS discussion.

http://www.bcss.org.uk/foruma/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=155821

I have also attached the tesco link so you can see the one to use.

Here is a link that might be useful: Tesco Cat Litter

Hi folks, I'm in wiltshire. I've been growing adenium from seed and I use 50-50 cactus compost and vermiculite which I get at B and Q or any garden centre. They are doing ok but I could do with a more gritty mix. Is the cat litter used instead of vermiculite or are both used in the mix. Sorry to have intruded on this thread
Kind regards Averil

thank you Nikki. I was on the verge of traipsing round to different car places to find oil dry, so you've saved me a lot of faf. And the picture is a great help.

Averil- is vermiculite similar to perlite or is it absorbent? I was told in an above response that its not a suitable replacement for the cat litter but i'm not sure about the science behind it.

My understanding of the gritty mix is that you need one part organic, generally pine/fir bark. One part of something non absorbent and gritty, something like poltry grit, small granite or perlite can be used (perlite can float though so people don't recommend it) and then one part absorbent, so the cat litter or oil dry.

you can adjust that to suit your needs though. The most important thing just seems to be the size of the particles in the mix pretty uniform in size (around 1/4"-1/8") as you want to allow air flow around the roots.

Probably get a second opinion though as I've yet to test any of this and may be getting my wires crossed.

I dont use vermiculite, I was told it holds water.

In my mix I use John Innes No2 from Homebase, perlite from Wilkos and cat litter from Tesco lol :-)

Hi!
I'm in Essex and very intrigued to know how this panned out for you. I'm currently on the same path, trying to source the ingredients for a gritty mix for my Jade plant inherited from my Nan (so I want to do a good job!!). Would love to hear how you got on and with what.

Pam

I had the same problem ended up settling with an expanded clay aggregate 2-8 mm (clay pebbles) from ebay, the smallest I could find, although some of it is certainly the larger and rounded of the particles, but not large enough to stratify.

For the bark I went with Melcourt propagating bark, and a 3-5mm granite grit. All of them needed rinsing with a 3mm riddle. It works great with normal and especially exotic plants that are prone to root rot over winter.

I tend to order a 20kg bag of potting grit online from Marshall's Seeds, then mix it with Perlite & Cactus/Succulent Compost from B&Q/Homebase or wherever. Seems to work a treat for me & will last me a while once it's all mixed up.

How much of this would apply/carry over for Aloe Vera/succulents? Pumice instead of Turface makes sense, and the bark, but not sure on the cat litter..?

Hi Roxette,

I know this is an old thread/discussion, but thought I'd still comment. I also read the other discussion about looking for ingredients for a mix for your aloe, and discussing using Tesco cat litter, but as this was headed UK help for gritty mix, I'll comment here. First off, as you probably know, gritty mix is 1/1/1 bark, turface and grit in similar particle sizes.

Cat litter: if you did use Tesco's, you'd want Tesco low-dust (non-clumping) cat litter:

https://www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/265235247 

or (just saw how to insert a link!):

Tesco cat litter

This is not DE, but fired clay. Many people use it in UK, both for bonsai and for cacti/succulents. But the particle size is too small, according to the info given by Al/Tapla, for his gritty mix. However, there is a very similar product, also made from fired clay (also known as Moler in bonsai circles), which has a larger particle size: Sanicat/Sophiticat Pink. It is available from Amazon, about £15 for 30 litres. That works as a substitute for turface in the gritty mix. Btw: the perfume in both Tesco and Sanicat cat litter does not seem to be harmful to plants. You can wash it first, but the perfume tends to linger after washing, although many people attest to it not being harmful - look on Bonsai4me, his article about cat litter, for example. He uses it for all his bonsais (Tesco's).

I was looking at the Deco-Pak grit for myself, but the alpine coarse grit is too large for gritty mix, from what I saw. Their horticultural coarse grit is the correct size, but that looks more like what is typically sold as horticultural grit in the UK, which is not really grit, but pea gravel. It's hard to get proper grit, like Al uses for his mix, in correct size in UK. The one from e-coco is correct size and looks to be the correct type, but costs a fortune, like all of their products (although they also tend to be very good and arrive very quickly if ordered via Amazon). I don't know whether the pea gravel type would work - not as well, I would think, at minimum, because the irregular shape is partly what encourages root branching and development of fine feeder roots. But it might serve the same purpose of aiding drainage in the mix - although there is extensive discussion about whether adding grit really does aid drainage in gardening circles (maybe due to pea gravel being sold as grit?). Anyway, for an aloe or succulent, at a pinch, I would think you could use any type of good horticultural grit in correct size (think about 2.5 mm minimum - 4 mm for gritty mix).

For bark, best I've found is Melcourt Propagating bark, which is also available on Amazon or ebay. It's 2 - 7 mm, and doesn't really even need screening when fresh.

Another good place to get substitutes for the gritty mix is Kaizan Bonsai. They sell pumice in the correct size, Moler (which is just like cat litter, and even perfumed, although they caution against using cat litter, strangely, considering their moler is admittedly perfumed) and other similar ingredients, such as lapillo (similar to pumice). You'd want their medium pumice if you wanted to use that. That would be another substitute option for the turface in gritty mix. But their ingredients are also quite expensive.

I won't post links to these products, because they're all very easy to find using Google..

What I would say, if you want to use gritty mix, apart from finding correct ingredients, it is important that you understand the principle behind using it, and the purpose of each ingredient, in order to be able to substitute them confidently.

Although this is about 6 months late, hope it's of some help..

Oh, yes: there's also another mix, btw, called 5/1/1, which is 5 parts bark, 1 part peat and 1 part perlite, recommended by Al/Tapla for plants that like more water. It's not as stable as gritty mix, nor as well draining.

I will be trying both for my plants, as think Al is definitely correct about normal compost causing a Perched Water Table (standing water, basically) in bottom section of the pot, which is what kills roots and makes plants sick, even with the most careful watering.

Ok, enough now, don't even know if you're still interested!

Oops, just seen this actually started in 2014 - only saw the October 2016 first..

Sarah

You said (1 hr ago): ..."Although this is about 6 months late, hope it's of some help"...

October 9, 2016 to today, March 25, 2018 is 6 mo????

I would reply myself, but a 4 year old thread, where the OP hasn´t been seen in years?? Won´t waste my time.

Yes, you're totally right, of course, don't know what I was thinking there, waste of time.. I came across it when looking myself for help for ingredients in UK - just put it down to me being a daffy Brit!

Just signing in to say thank you @Sarah... years later I have found this and its very useful! You're very right when you said that it'll help others! Hopefully, you will receive this message... and hopefully it'll be ok if I asked you a few more questions after I pore through this a bit.

Thanks again!

Sorry, forgot to post comment.. Glad you found it helpful, and yes, do ask, if you have questions. I have since found that for grit, the best you can get in Uk is Jondo Growers Grit for chickens, which is pure grit, no oyster shell. I buy that from Wacky Pets on that large online platform with 4 letters (can't remember if this site allows mention of such names), which have been 100% reliable. Grower's size is slightly on small size, so most around 2-3 mm particle size, but still works well for me, with nearly no waste. Next size up is hen's grit, which is on large size, so average of around 5-6 mm particle size, which I only bought once to test, and have still not used up. While it's far more expensive and more work than buying normal potting soil, using these mixes has revolutionised my container growing experience. It's the one thing that's made 100% difference, I can say without exaggeration, so well worth extra cost and effort.

Thank you again @Sarah. I'm glad that you received my message.

I'll definitely check the grit out.

I'm glad to know that, as you say, it has revolutionised your container growing experience.

I'm very excited to try it out myself.

Out of curiosity, do you use this mix only for your indoor plants, or have you tried it for your outdoor plants as well.

Thanks again :)

Hi Sarah, Sujay,

I was wondering if you could share your opinion/recommendation. I am a proud owner of two big beauties, Fiddle Leaf Fig (circa 110cm tall) and Rubber Plant (circa 95cm). Both kept indoors. I was wondering, given my location (Hampshire) which of Al's mix would be best for these two, 5-1-1 or 1-1-1 (gritty mix). I can see you're referring here to 1-1-1 mix in this thread. I have not repotted yet (honestly, trying to avoid for as long as possible as I am afraid of repotting) so I am a bit clueless here. It seems that 5-1-1 mix is better for outdoors plants, while 1-1-1 is better for indoor plants, however, most of the threads refer to the U.S. locations and I wonder if that makes any difference? Apologies if that's the wrong thread, however, I have not come across one that would help me with my query,

Hi Anna,

I'm quite an amateur with all of this, but from what I've gleaned reading through various posts related to Al's mixes (5-1-1) and (1-1-1), the 1-1-1 gritty mix works better for indoor plants since it retains less moisture and therefore lesser the chance for root rot and related problems.

I guess the 5-1-1 mix works as well, but it depends on how confident you are that you will not over-water/ have water-logging problems.

That being said, given the size of your plants, I'd say that you're obviously doing something right :)

I believe that their is a thread on caring for various figs (I presume the fiddle leaf fig will fall within this family), which Al has contributed to- though unfortunately I'm not able to find it right now.

It might help to go through some of that as well.

Also, I do believe that repotting might be best in early spring of the following year as the plants are emerging from their dormant period, though as I mentioned- I'm hardly an expert.

Hope that helps and best of luck :)

Just to confirm that 1.1.1 gmx has been a great improvement to my container gardening, all my 30 plants are in it.
I have a +/- 6 years old ficus elastica, in gmx (pumice - lava - seramis, 5-4-3 ratio), outside on my deck feom April until October. pot size = 30 l.
It works wonderfully for Aloes as well, the only aloe vera I have is now 6 years old.
I have tried 5.1.1 mix as well, but the reptibark was decomposing after around 2 years...so I went for 100% mineral.

Michael

I use both mixes, for indoor and outdoor plants, and generally speaking, I use 5-1-1 for plants that need more water, as that's the recommendation from Al. However, I can't say I've noticed much difference between the 2 for how long plants go between watering. I don't think indoor or outdoor use makes much difference, although 5-1-1 might break down quicker, as mostly bark. However, you can combat that by using larger particle bark. I use propagating bark by Melcourt for gritty mix, but usually, either potting bark or their Sylvan Premium Pine Mini Mulch (think that's what it's called) for 5-1-1, as those are larger particle and seems to work better for that. I also use 5-1-1 to save money, for shorter lived plants, btw, as bark is still the cheapest of the ingredients here. I would probably use either for plants you mentioned, but might tend to 5-1-1 for fiddle leaf. I wouldn't worry about over-watering for either mix: you will be very hard-pressed to over-water anything in either, I've found.

Evergreen plants, such as ficus, need re-potting in stages, as they're evergreen, so you can't bare-root them. Al describes the procedure in various places on here. Basically, you remove pie-shaped wedges of the potting soil, and fill those up with your chosen mix. I think Al said to remove about 1/3rd to 1/2 of total soil volume with each re-potting. Then next time, you remove the opposite wedges, so within 2-3 re-pottings, you will have them in fully in new mix. I've had good success with this method, for plants that were previously in normal soil, including ficus. At first, I was a bit worried about how the different types of soil would affect watering, so that the potting soil would stay far wetter, but if they do, it does not seem to harm the plants. Al says that it does not matter, as the extra water is drained out of the potting soil by the gritty mix or 5-1-1. You can also prune the roots in the wedges, or if you don't, you can use chop sticks or similar to get the mix in amongst the roots. As for time of re-potting, it's far more crucial for outdoor plants, than for indoor plants, advice is to re-pot after a growth spurt, I think. But I've re-potted indoor plants at all seasons, and not had any problems... Hope that helps - am no expert by far, either. But have found, since I've started using these mixes, it's hard to do anything much wrong - plants just thrive. Keeping up with watering is my biggest problem now.

Hi All,

Thank you ever so much for your responses!.

Sarah,

I've read all the posts in this thread and came with the following summary:

a) gritty mix (1/1/1)

instead of turface use Sanicat/Sophiticat Pink.

instead of Gran-i-grit use Jondo Growers Grit for chickens from Wacky Pets

bark, use Melcourt Propagating bark, 2 - 7 mm

b) 5/1/1,

Bark, use Sylvan Premium Pine Mini Mulch by Melcourt

peat, a specific brand/type has not been indicated, could you recommend what you use?

perlite, a specific brand/type has not been indicated, could you recommend what you use?

Sorry to be so daft, but could you kindly clarify what do you mean by removing "pie-shaped wedges"? When I take the plant out of the pot where/how do I start to remove the soil, from the very bottom or the sides? I was convinced I should start from the bottom, but the "pie-shaped wedges" makes me think I should look at the plant from the top (sort of bird's eye view), so that the soil around the trunk resembles a pie and then remove few "wedges". (please find attached a pic). Is that what you mean?

Furthermore, it is my understanding that Al recommends cutting off about 1/3 of the roots to start with, is that something that you do as well?

Thank you in advance for your response!

@Sarah Hi, I was hoping if you had a chance to see my previous comment. I tried to find an option to send you a DM but failed ;(