Anyone who follows the Container Gardening board here knows that much of the discussion about pine bark fines is regarding where to find the damn stuff. Obviously it is not easy to find for most people, and it is not available in most big box stores. The pine bark mulch sold in most big box stores is not fines. Most the discussion on the Container gardening forum stems from the fact that most people don't even know what they are looking for, even know what bark fines are despite all the info available about them on the web. And yes I know that the bags of pine mulch sold in the big box stores is not the same thing. Pine bark fines are not sold outside in the mulches section. They are sold inside the section devoted to starting seeds and growing plants. In the Lowe's here, just there yesterday, they are inside on the shelves next to the exotic plants section where the big containers, container plants, cactus mix, the violet mix, the perlite, vermiculite, decorative container gravel etc. is located. At Home Depot, in both of them here, they are just outside the door into the gardening section (not with the bags of mulches), the section on the shelves next to the super sized containers and the similar exotic soils and mixes. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Pine bark fines pics compared to pine bark mulch

Adding sand to a potting soil mix is not usually a good idea. Sand is not coarse enough to improve drainage with typical potting soil ingredients such as peat, bark, or coir, it will just weigh down the soil and clog up the spaces which already exist. In these soils you need a very coarse, and preferably light, aggregate such as pumice or perlite. Grit is sufficiently coarse but can collapse "fluffy" soils such as peat. Sand can improve the drainage of loams, that is soils which are based on clay. In circumstances when high levels of clay particles cause a drainage problem, the drainage can be improved by adding enough sand that the clay particles are kept apart and air pockets are maintained. Cacti and succulents are often grown in loam soils, but in a pot even a sandy loam generally has insufficient drainage and a more coarse material such as grit is also required. In summary, sand will rarely help drainage in a pot, use a material with larger particles like pumice, grit, perlite, etc.

Hmm... unfortunately it's too late for that :( Hopefully this will grow and not give up on me. Finished work after pruning/ repotting is attached. Do I have to water it now or wait for a weak or two? My guess is I would expect to see some leaf shedding over the next week or so, but it should stop after that? Also ran out of perlite so bottom half of the soil is 70% perlite and top half is 50%. Top 1 inch is less than 30% and have to get some extra perlite and re-mix in that top layer. Thanks again for all the advice. Btw I got a bunch of small cuttings!!! :-) I want to try and propagate at least a couple of them. Am I able to leave the cuttings out (indoor) for a week and do this next weekend? Or put them in water or something in the meantime? I am guessing same procedure same soil mix same watering interval smaller pot (terracotta) would do. Is that correct?

If you're looking to increase water retention of gritty mix, you could increase the amount of any of the following in the mix: Turface Bark Pumice Lava rock Gritty sand (careful, depends on type/amount) Of course, you could also add a bit of soil (very small amounts are okay) or peat (has many caveats). Both of these should be added in limited amounts or else the obvious advantage of gritty mix will be lost. Seems like your two goals are a bit conflicting of each other - holding more water but not holding too much water? For tropical cacti, I am using a completely different (well draining) mix altogether - gritty mix is not an ideal substrate for them. Never grown nerve plants before, so I can't comment on how picky they are. If the plant is healthy and has good roots, perhaps may have some leeway to experiment.