Potting medium (gritty mix?) questions.

8 years ago

I've been looking back at old posts in an attempt to answer my own questions, but really I've just ended up with a few more. Hopefully I can make sense of things once I have a few answers :)

• What IS gritty mix? I've seen mention of gritty mix, Al's gritty mix, 5-1-1, and 1-1-1. Obviously it's a mix with more grit to it for better drainage, but is that the main purpose? Is it just for drought tolerant plants?

•Are Al's gritty mix and gritty mix two different things?

• And most importantly, where do I start to figure out what soil mix will best help my succulents to thrive? They're alright in what I've got now, but eventually I'd like to repot into something without ANY sand. (There's a little beginners mistake)

Thanks in advance!

Featured Answer

bernardyjh

8 years ago

Sierra,

There are wealth of information in this forum, especiallylinking to Al's posts page and sometimes we just need to sit down and digest them slowly. As a relatively new grower, I'm still re-reading the same post over and over again. Each time I gain a better understanding as I put them into practices, learn from mistakes and re-try them, and each time the information makes even more sense after re-reading.

To answer your qn:

(1) Girtty mix is a 3 part component extremely porous soil that is formulated by Al.

It's 1) Bark 2) Turface 3) Gravel/Grit

5-1-1 works by having more bark in the mix (resulting in a more water retentive soil) as compared to a 1-1-1. You can read more here if you are looking for drainage explanations.

Cliff Notes Version through a blogger on gritty mix

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1378017/what-is-this-als-gritty-mix

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/1384763/new-gritty-mix-user-questions

(2) Al's gritty mix and gritty mix are both the same thing

(3) I think the gritty mix is the most porous soil you can ever acquire, which are exactly ideal on what Cacti and Succulents thrive.

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Comments (9)

ewwmayo
8 years ago
Gritty mix is good for other plants too, not just drought tolerant plants. Right now I'm growing chocolate mint in gritty mix, but for it to do really well I have to water it every day.

I can see that there is a lot of merit customizing the ratios/ingredients of the mix to the specific plants you have, your geography, and the size of pot used. Right now I'm on the curve of learning what my plants like/dislike in the standard gritty mix, so eventually in the far future I would like to customize based on each plant's specific habits.

Not there yet, but I would like to be!
Sierra thanked ewwmayo
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Sierra
Original Author
8 years ago
Bernardyjh, that's exactly the kind of info I was looking for. Thank you! Looks like I have quiet a bit of reading/research to do. Thankfully, my plants are happy enough in their current situation while I do that.

Ewwmayo, it's interesting to think what else you could grow that way. I'll definitely have to give that a try once I've got my succulents settled in to a new mix.
andy_e
8 years ago
Sierra make sure you read this post thoroughly as it sets down the basic principles of container soils and the theory behind why gritty mixes work: CONTAINER SOILS - WATER MOVEMENT and RETENTION XXII
Sierra thanked andy_e
deva33 Z8 Atlanta
8 years ago
Sierra, it is a lot of information and can take a while to absorb. So don't be discouraged if you are initially confused. I was for a while. I have switched to gritty mix about 18 months ago and I am now to the point of playing with the ratio for different plants. Mesembs for example get very little bark and turface, and the mix is about 60-70% sifted chicken grit. My string of bananas on the other hand like more water, so their mix has more turface. Most other plants have the straight up 1:1:1 mix, but I am also playing with loosing the bark and just using turface and chicken grit, largely because I live in windy Iowa and any bark that is on top blows away. At the end of the day, I have found it to be a great potting media and strongly recommend making the switch.
Sierra thanked deva33 Z8 Atlanta
breathnez
8 years ago
You can also vary the particle size to alter drainage. For my ficus, I use #1 chicken grit and pine bark fines. For cactus and succulents, I've started using #2 chicken grit and pine bark sifted to a quarter-inch.
Sierra thanked breathnez
jalcon
8 years ago
Not to confuse you any more, but I can tell you that I've had much better results using regular miracle grow cactus mix than the 1-1-1 gritty mix. I have 6 jades, 3 in the cactus and 3 in the gritty mix. The three in the gritty mix do just fine mind you, but don't grow a ton. The ones in the cactus mix grow like weeds. Just my experience. YMMV.
Sierra thanked jalcon
Sierra
Original Author
8 years ago
I feel like I opened a can of worms...

I'm kidding. I really appreciate all of the info! My plants are all indoors for now so I wouldn't have to worry about things blowing away.

Differing the particle size will probably make more sense to me once I've got a firmer understanding of everything, but it's certainly worth experimenting with.

Jalcon, right now I'm using a little bit of the miracle grow lightened some grit and perlite and my plants definitely aren't stunted in growth. The issue is, they're growing too much for the amount of light they get, so maybe slowing that down a little wouldn't be a bad thing?
jalcon
8 years ago
Yeah, you know I should have added.. I did add some perlite to the miracle grow cactus mix. Stuff is great.

Potting medium (gritty mix?) questions.

bernardyjh

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