I use the Black Gold Cactus Mix distributed by Sun Gro of Bellevue, WA. I mix in Turface. I have a bag of E.B. Stone as well, but the first 2 mentioned are what I use most, although all 3 products are in the mix pictured below. I potted up my free echinocacti with it. And this Aloe Vera (3 bucks at a garage sale)... got potted up too because there were a bunch of rocks in the old pot around the base of the plant, there were privet seedlings growing there, and the soil was not ideal. This be the end result, although I did clean up the dried out lower fronds later because I was also cooking dinner during the repotting project.

Like I said I use some compost in my mix, but that does not say it is the best for plant yield. If that exact same organism was grown in a container with a high porosity mix, or hydroponics for that matter, the plant/organism would be even larger. There is no "magic" that manure or organics have. There are only macro and micronutrients that effect plant growth MOST. If you disagree with me, then you disagree hydroponics do NOT yield more then organic soil grown. I can say right now hydroponics yield more, a big reason is air porosity. For example: The 50/50 of manure and pumice- The manure holds water and buffers ph, and gives a little nutrients. If the grower used a auto watering system with 100% pumace, watering 3 times a day with ph balanced solution of water/ complete fertilizers ect, the plant would be 20% larger. Why? Because of increased air porosity. For my peppers I use the compost in my mix because I want a water holding potting mix that will not dry in the heat. If I had a self watering or auto watering system then I could use a very light high porosity mix, but I need the easy to grow in, water holding abilty of potting mix, for my pepper plants that is. I understand if I use a auto watering system with a high air porosity grow medium- I will need to watch ph a little more, and need to be on top of fertilizing even more direct. With all of that will come a larger harvest per square foot. I am not disagreeing, as I do too use compost im mix. I am just pointing out some things.

Hi all. Thanks for the response. I already have a cactus and succulent mix which is organic and I have gotten good reviews on Al's Gritty Mix. I was wondering if I could you it alongside what I've already bought. Perhaps 3:1 of the als mixture vs the other one.

@meanom most people here mix gritty mix as equal parts of: * granite stone that is 1/4" to 3/8" (no fines or sand) * turface MVP that is filtered, and many people here "cheat" and filter out only particles smaller than 1/16" * bark filtered 1/4" to 3/8". Fortunately, I found a local supplier that prefilters to 1/4" I would recommend using some root hormone to get the roots growing into that medium. Then fertilize maybe starting two weeks later.