Both mixes are exceptional. In the first year, you'll probably see little difference in growth between the two mixes. The Gritty Mix, however, really excels beyond that first year, and is especially suited to woody plants that will spend 1 - 3 years in containers between re-potting...of course, that doesn't absolve you of your re-potting duties if the plants outgrows the container volume in that span of time ;-) 5-1-1 is generally more of a "warm season" mix because it provides more moisture. But, as with the Gritty Mix, it is very adjustable - minor tinkering with the ratios or ingredients can create the perfect amount of moisture retention for your particular climate. To extend the life of 5-1-1: 1) Use an uncomposted bark. 2) Eliminate or reduce the peat moss. 3) Use fine bark dust instead of peat moss for "binding" and moisture retention. 4) Use durable ingredients such as turface, pumice, scoria instead of the peat moss fraction. 5) Use soluble synthetic fertilizer instead of organic fertilizer. The outer limit of my particular long-life 5-1-1 is about 3 years, especially if the mix is exposed to the elements (or if I use Fish Emulsion, as with my big outdoor Chainfern). Josh

Great post. I tried this method this past weekend. Relative to the lawn mower method of chopping up large pine bark chunks, I found this method to be cleaner (it doesn't shoot pine chunks out the sides like a mower will), a bit slower than the mower, and produced a lot more fine particles. I have a high speed Toro leaf blower/mulcher with a metal impeller. A large percentage of the particles coming out felt like fine compost, and a large number of chunks went through looking unscathed, so I didn't get the mix of particle sizes that I was hoping for. I suppose if I had a 1/8" screen, I could have sifted out some of the fine stuff. As it was, I got about 3 gallons of material, and made a side batch of 5-1-1 to try with some peppers, but I didn't mix it in with the rest of my 5-1-1.

Only he can say for sure, but I think Al's recipes call for pine bark because it's pretty easy to find good bark on the east coast. He also recommends fir bark, which seems to be more common around here right now, but that may be because everything is scarce off season. Some members have posted about finding something called mini nuggets that were just right for 5-1-1. There's no standard terminology for this stuff, so the only way to tell if it's right is to open the bag to get a closer look. A guy at HD was happy to do that for me and even had a bunch of tape 'patches' to close the bag when I was done. Mulch can be completely uncomposted, slightly composted, or so broken down that only a small portion of a bag is usable. "Soil conditioner" is often exactly the kind of bark fines that work in 5-1-1 or even gritty mix, but I've seen bags labeled soil conditioner made of all kinds of things that wouldn't act like bark fines in either mix.

WT You are right. I understand that it takes a while for ppl to really 'get it'. First, such unusual mix...than water just runs out...And some of the ingredients that many of us didn't even know that existed, and never knew that they will do such good job as a potting medium. And some re difficult to source! That is the reason, IMO, that posts like it should be read few times. At first, I thought it was completely different post since reading it 2nd time, I found many 'new' things there - yet there were there all the time. It is the concept to understand, and that may - or may not - take time. Also understand what the properties of each ingredient are, how they hold/retain any water and how much, how it is gradually released to the plant. ewwmayo mentioned experiment with turface: ..."Try watering a transparent plastic cup of gritty mix - it's easy to miss spots and under water"...He did lots of research, lots of measurements (that most likely won't do - I don't, just read his results he generously shared). He is using gritty mix, and his plants are really great. Unless one can see it, it may be difficult to understand. I didn't - I was overwatering succulents in first gritty mix I made: didn't know then that turface could hold lots of water (as much as it could have dry patches). So I read Al's post again (and probably asked some 'annoying' questions :), until I got it. I think that litterbuggy summarized it very well here (about watering): ..."wetting the whole surface, wetting the whole surface of the pot, going on to water the rest of his plants, then going back to water each gritty pot again. That makes sense if your think about it: the water drains through the pot too fast to get the turface and bark thoroughly wet in one shot, so it would have to take a few rounds of watering to do the job"... (that is written in Al's posts, and it is kind of a guide to watering). It is very frustrating not to be able to get results we expect, after going thru the steps of making the mix. One of the important things to remember may be that 'receipt' for making either of the mixes could be and should be, if necessary, adjusted to suit the particular situation. That could be done if one understands the concept.