Hi, So I am thinking of the following in terms of food/fertilising: - Gypsum - Osmocote Citrus (http://www.tuigarden.co.nz/product/scotts-osmocote%C2%AE-fruit-citrus-trees-shrubs) For trace elements anyone use seaweed stuff? http://www.yates.co.nz/products/fertilising/organic-based/natures-way-bio-gold-liquid-plant-food/ or http://www.seasol.com.au/ Would I need to feed with anything else? I can't seem to find a fertiliser with 3-1-2 ratio so far.

Hey, Sheila, my brother lives in Sacramento, and I'm familiar with the weather (I live up in the foothills near Auburn). I would say that it is too late in the season now to do the root pruning without seriously stressing your citrus. Can you post some pictures of your plants? That will really help with advice. Also, either the Gritty Mix or the 5-1-1 mix will work in Sacramento. Sourcing ingredients for the Gritty Mix is more difficult, as is the preparation, but it is a more durable mix. The 5-1-1 is easier to source and assemble, and is the mix I use for most of my Citrus - although I start with uncomposted bark, and I typically replace the peat with grittier ingredients, such as lava rock, perlite, turface, pumice, and quartzite. This allows the mix to last longer, 2 - 3 years if the container is sufficiently sized. Josh

@Nil13 made reference to the Whitcomb 311 mix, which is an earlier historical attempt to create a more coarse potting soil for container plants. I think it is extremely helpful to read a document written by Carl Whitcomb that explains how he came on this formula by accident. Essentially what happened is he accidentally left nine test pots under a bench and everyone forgot they were there. They had successfully nearly killed all of their test plants by watering in a normal potting soil mix and the unwatered plants started to do very well. What I have started to realize is that any plant can do well in many different soil mixes, if you are able to carefully control the watering. This explains why so many people on this forum claim gritty mix is not as good for their succulents as their (fill in some random horrible soil with lots of small particles) mix. Inevitably those people are growing their plants indoors. They have enormous experience with their plant type and they know exactly when to water the plant. So that is the case of a very skilled gardener compensating for a very bad soil. What gritty mix does for me is let me grow succulents outside in very abusive weather conditions, without the plant dying. A plant can get a week of rain and it will still drain well. During Summer, gritty mix will tolerate a bit of overwatering, although you still really need to pay attention to not overwatering. Whether you make your 511 mix with perlite/peat, or with two parts Turface, or with lava and pumice, is probably in the big picture not going to be the deciding factor in whether your plants grow well or not. Success can be add with any of those mixes because the size of the particles allows the roots to breathe and prevents capillary action of water from bring the perched water table to the top of the pot and drowning the roots. Fine-tuning how you make 511 is a question of matching the plant type to the moisture retention of the soil and to the watering habit and climate exposure. Any 511 variant is going to do better than almost any commercial potting soil because of the larger particles used in the majority of the mix.

Thanks so much mblan13. I have a 1/2", a 1/4" screen and I *think* I actually have one of those tops for a reptile tank kicking around. My friend gave me an old style tank w/ the metal corners with a top like that. I wanted the tank for fish, but I think I still have the screen top. If not, I can make one easily enough knowing the measurement. I have regular screen door material too, so can make a screen with that for the finest stuff. I figured that rinsing would be a good way to remove the smallet stuff/dust, so I am glad you brought that up and will do that w/ the Gran-I-Grit. I did get one of my Gran-i-grit bags at Agway. Had one from the local garden center but Agway was cheaper. Was gonna get two there but they only had one in stock. I didn't know they carried Turface, though. The closest Agway is in NJ, though. Dollar for dollar, I am better off using my garden supply and the landscaping place for the Grit and Turface. I hadn't considered Opti-sorb. It may be worth looking at. I was going with Turface because I was under the impression it held up the longest without breaking down. I do have raging ant issues. Seem to get in every pot I have outside, so it may be the way to go. I'll look into it. If I can find it close by, maybe it would be the way to go. The price I was quoted for the Turface MVP was less than I expected, so I was going to go with that and stick to the Gritty Mix as close as possible. And good to know someone else is using the Frey Brothers stuff! Thanks so much for all the info, mblan13. I do appreciate it! merlcat