Ah, the search continues to find the elusive Pine bark fines! I am in awe of Al's vast knowledge and in fact, became a Member of the Garden Web after reading the "Al Chronicles" in seven (or is it 8 now?) Volumes. Al, you are the Zen Master of wicks, water plateaus, and medium mixology! .....but I digress. I wanted to mention one source of nitrogen that will slow release and is more to my liking as it doesn't come out of a bottle (though it does come in pelleted form), which is Alfalfa Pellets. (the horse kind, not the rabbit). The pellets will swell and fall apart as soon as water is applied and offer a quick fix of readily available nitrogen to offset those pesky sap woods in your pine bark nuggets. For my OCD tenancies, I don't care for any of the bagged bark products available from your local Home Improvement Palaces, because in my estimation, none qualify as true Pine Bark Fines. What I consider pine bark fines is always PARTIALLY COMPOSTED PINE BARK, which by it's very nature, you can crumble into bits through a diamond mesh screen. Almost without exception today's "Forest Products" are the byproduct of lumber harvesting, which is ground up and dispensed into bags. Nothing even approaching composting of pine bark is occurring with these products because it takes too long. I haven't found a reliable source of "fines" other than harvesting my own from around the bases of harvested Ponerosa pines cut over a decade ago.Old timber operations often left the bark and branches piled at the harvesting site, which is another good source, as are old dead snags, which will have the bark slip from them and land about their bases. All of this requires a bit of labor on your part, but then again, it's a lovely way to spend the weekend, right? National Forests in California are quite accommodating and will issue a permit if required, or happily point you in the direction of a likely spot to forage. I can usually fill my pickup truck bed in about 4 hours and all it costs me is my time and gas for the truck. I attribute my OCD behavior on the subject to an ancient Bonsai Master I had the privilege to study under back in the late '60's, who was very exacting in his tutelage. "Fines" were exclusively "Partially Composted Pine Bark", period.

hahaha... Same here! I was thinking "Huh? What on earth did this person do!" It's always the softball or soccer moms that are the freakiest! hahaha... Just teasing SoftballMom! They Look Beautiful! I Love the Firesticks! I've never had the red type... only the common green Pencil tree. Gorgeous! I think you did fine with your mix! They will, of course need to be repotted eventually. Is that a paddle plant behind the Aloe?

My impression when I started growing succulents is that everybody who's been doing it for awhile has a different "recipe." After looking at about a dozen of said recipes, I came to the conclusion that everybody seems to use a volcanic glass for drainage, some organic matter to retain water, and sand or fine gravel for the delicate roots, even if the exact ingredients and ratios differ. I thus used a mixture very similar to yours (with copra instead of bark). I used a ratio of 1:1 copra/perlite on the bottom two thirds, and 1:1:1 copra/perlite/sand on the top third. I'd probably use less sand in the future, but my little cactilings seem to be doing very well so far.

I see no reason why you wouldn't be able to grow vigorous plants in that media. Happy growing!