I like Josh's pond basket idea, too, and when I get to the larger garden center this spring, I plan on buying a few. In the meantime, I use whatever is handy and workable to sieve the ingredients. For example, I use a piece of hardware cloth with holes about the size of Al's screen with the larger looking holes to sift bark for my outdoor 511 mix, and I have some other oddities from kitchen and crafting that have decent holes for getting rid of dust and tiny particles, or whatever else I need. I would love to get my hands on a set of those really nice bonsai screens, but they're expensive. But I think the pond baskets will work great!

Barb, try mixing a bit of vermiculite into Al's Mix for added help in retaining water... I can't tell you how flattering it is to find one of my threads used as a link for informational purposes! I certainly hope someone is able to draw some good conclusions and useful information from it! My medium of choice is, of course, mainly inorganic... it's comprised of pine bark particles, turface or granite chips, perlite, a bit of vermiculite, and occasionally a handful of quality bagged potting mix. I water from the top, leaching occasionally to remove any salt and mineral build-up, and the majority of my bulbs remain indoors all year long, with an eastern exposure and supplemental lighting. Since I grow indoors, my bulbs are exposed to heat from the furnace in winter and cool air from the AC unit in summer... in other words, the temperature is rather consistent all year long. The only thing that really changes is the sun coming in the east facing window... in spring, the days lengthen... and in winter, they shorten. One very important thing to remember is that a container environment is VERY different from a garden environment... In the garden, there is a constantly working and self-balancing palate of worms, insects, nematodes, micro-organisms, bacterias and fungi... they are constantly breaking down the soil components, helping to keep it aerated, and digesting any organic materials which makes it available to the plants for food. That's one of the reasons organic fertilizers work so well in the garden... they have help! All this decomp and action keeps a balance of "good and bad". In a container, we don't have those things... so it's important that the decomp be very slow, that the medium provides for excellent aeration and drainage, and that we carefully water and feed a fertilizer that is readily available to our plants for use. I'm lazy indoors, and quite busy working outside for as much of the year as I possibly can... so I might re-pot my bulbs once every 3 years, or sooner or later depending on how they're growing. For fertilizer, I use a regular store bought liquid for houseplants and I supplement with a micro-nutrient. Right now, I'm using Miracle-Gro liquid. It's better to keep a plant on a constant feeding schedule with a low dose of food than to risk burning the plant with higher doses less often... and so, I use a diluted mix of liquid food and water about every other time I water. I use the food at about half-strength or less. When choosing a decent medium for your bulbs, it's important to think about where you'll be growing them, what the climate and environment is like, and how much time you'll be able to devote to growing. Proper watering is going to play a key role in growing anything in a container. More plants are killed by over-watering than any other one thing! Bulbs are very forgiving, and it's actually better to err on the dry side with Hippeastrums... if you're not sure you can feel moisture when checking the soil, it's better to wait until you're certain they're dry than to overdo the moisture... while the soil surface my feel dry, the actual area around the root ball may be plenty moist. And since Hippeastrum bulbs are prone to rotting in a poor environment, it would be better to make certain the bulb needs a drink. My pot of choice is an unglazed clay one... the material is porous and allows for "breathing"... the porosity also allows excess salts and minerals to exit, collecting around the outside of the pot. It can be wiped away and the plant leached with plenty of clear water. I will use plastic pots if I have no other choice, but I try to re-pot into clay as soon as I am able. I find that plastic holds too much moisture for too long in my particular environment. I think I've answered all the questions asked in the original post... but if I missed anything, please ask again! I'd be happy to share my growing methods, and perhaps something I share will be usable information for someone! We all have to take into consideration our climate, the environment we can provide for our bulbs, and what materials will be available to us. Hippeastrum bulbs are very resilient, but the better we care for them, the more rewarding they will be! Happy Gardening!

I am thoroughly disgusted with peat. It breaks down, compresses, rapidly decomposes into a solid rock like substance unless large amounts of vermiculite and perlite are added, and that makes it extremely difficult to maintain moisture in the pots. I am watering everyday and sometimes need to water twice a day. Wick watering is not an option because of how I display my plants and also because of rapid evaporation. I need a heavier soil that does not retain moisture like peat does. Peat also is devoid of any nutrients, does not retain nutrients so fertilizing is more the art of hydroponics rather than soil based science. I don't have garden loam this being Arizona rock and sand desert soil. Any suggestions? I can get well rotted manure, blood meal, bone meal. Anything else necessary?

Jeff, I should think you'd be able to find countless success stories w/ GM in the gardening forum - houseplants, C&S, container gardening, to start! The hardest (or most daunting) part is that first step of bringing together the components, so I'm not surprised that videos focus on this. Afterwards, it's pretty smooth sailing, if you've read up about it enough to have a general understanding of what follows. I love gritty mix, and not just as soil. I love it as a learning experience. It was just fascinating to try at first, but it ended up really teaching me about gardening and plants in general (in addition to Al's posts themselves, and his feedback, of course). I tried both 5-1-1 and GM, and while both are undoubtedly useful for their own purposes, I gravitated toward changing virtually everything into GM except edibles like tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Peppers were good, actually, but the upkeep required was significant. I think tomatoes in GM would be fascinating, but I shudder at the amount of mix I'd need to create to fill 15 gallon pots. Yikes. No. Of the house plants I have now, almost all have been grown in "real" GM or my variation of it. (Oh, except the Ficus lyrata, which never had the opportunity because I was out of GM when I got the plant.) I don't think I have a single succulent outside that hasn't lived for years in GM. And the best part is - when the gardening bug hits me and I'm fawning over everything in the spring, should I choose to water every single day -- it's fine. Everything from Clivia, Adenium, Hoya, Draceana, lemon and kumquat trees, etc. -- have performed amazingly in GM. While I am not a "GM or bust" person, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that when used properly, it's a far superior potting medium. Like I said, it makes you a better gardener overall. While I have switched much of my plants to potting mix in recent weeks, that's only because of the ridiculously low humidity here and the fact that I am not home enough, watering enough, or diligent enough these days to provide the care that they need, and potting mix buys me a little more time than GM the way I made it. (With Turface, the moisture should definitely last longer.) The only dings I can think of when it comes to GM is that (1) it is heavy...oh, so heavy....especially w/ my pea gravel; and (2) YOU need to provide all it needs in terms of nutrition--there is no "set it and forget it" mentality. I think many of us prefer the latter as I tend to fuss over my plants, but with my larger plants, how heavy GM can be is a deal-killer. Oh, and another deterrent for me here in LV is that my house has a pool outside, and sifting out perlite dust (a spectacle in and of itself) means I'll invariably get some in the pool. My back also feels broken enough to not want to lug around lava rocks and pea gravel. If someone would make it the way I want and off my property, and then water when I asked them to, I'd use it for virtually everything, still. :)