I thought I posted this on the gardenweb forum. Now it's houzz? Had to sign up for a new user name. Anyway soo - you can get the Naked Gardener Compost or Debco Premium Potting Mix from Masters (closing soon). Course Perlite is from The Perlite & Vermiculite Factory Myaree (much cheaper than anywhere else). Sand I got from a bulk landscape place (lawn mix) but you can get 10 or 20kg bags of builders sand at Bunnings. Zeochlor is in the pool section at Bunnings. Rock Dust I got from the manufacturer direct somewhere in Bibralake (called Natural PK) but I think but you can now get a similar product from Waldecks (in Myaree at least). Waldecks also sell bentonite clay. I still want to try the gritty mix but getting my hands on all the materials has proved very difficult when I tried last year. I found a Queensland company that makes course DE (for mopping up oil/chemicals) but they didn't have a distributor in Perth. Nobody I could find has pine bark in the right size - and even if they did I'd have to by a cement mixer and modify it with a fine wire to screen it. Honestly, if an agricultural company were to produce the gritty mix and sell it in bags I think they'd make bank - even considering how long it lasts.

I've used many different kinds of potting mixes and will NEVER use anything but Fafard again, though NOT the product on the retail shelves. Their (so called)professional mix is much like the rest of the stuff....barely so-so. But Fafard makes a line of mixes for growers and that's what I use. You may have to have your retailer special order it, but it will be totally worth it for container growing. I used these mediums back when I was a grower of nursery crops and that's how I became introduced to Fafard. My salesman was smart...I had been using ProMix and MetroMix....he left me 5 or 6 bags "to try" and I've never looked back, lol. That was over 20 years ago. I've attached a link so that you can look at the packaging and read the ingredients. I always go for the heavy weight mixes. I buy the Nursery Mix most of the time but keep some of the #3 on hand, too. You'll probably need to visit a locally owned garden center or nursery for a special order. If you're lucky, the nursery, if they do any growing at all, might even have some in stock that they will be willing to sell you. I have a large bail of ProMix in my garage that someone gave me years ago, and I haven't touched it. I'll use it in the gardens one of these days, but never in a container. Here is a link that might be useful: Click here for more information

Not really all that much of a difference. Most types of orchids and bromeliads are epiphytes (plants that grow up in the canopies of the rainforests, clinging to the sides of trees). So they pretty much grow under similar conditions.

Seems to be exorbitantly expensive!! For that price you could purchase a reasonable quantity of the individual ingredients and make up a huge batch yourself. Others may have a differing opinion but I do not find the gritty mix to be essential for most houseplants - cacti and succulents being an exception. I would prefer something closer to the 5-1-1 mix to increase water retention so I wouldn't have to water as often. I tend to ignore indoor plants a lot compared to my containers and gardens outside and the heat and lack of humidity indoors can dry out things far too rapidly for my preference to attempt use something like a gritty mix on them.