I have a need for this mix in larger doses, which behooves me to look for the largest sizes/least expensive effective materials. As a replacement for Turface (which was more dust than granules that I needed), I found a product called Safe T Sorb is "100% Fuller's Earth", which is Montmorllinite Clay, which is what Turface is. Very little dust, nice sized particles, and less than half the price of Turface. Instead of buying crushed granite grit by the 40lb. bag, what about buying crushed stone in that pebble size? It is still the cracked, irregular pieces and it costs about the same for a ton as for a bag. My only concern is that my quarry is a limestone quarry, so the stone would be limestone (but washed and essentially as inert as any other stone--granite or other. Any thoughts or personal experience are welcome!

Since you are obviously a reader, I'll give you some more wordy info (that I doubt anyone else will read). The ingredients for Al's Gritty Mix can be a bit of work to find for some people. Others, can get it rather quickly. Which to use: 1) the gritty, 2) the 5-1-1 or 3) Millet's CHC mix depends on your preferences, objectives, $$, and how much effort you are willing to expend up-front vs. down-the-road. The gritty mix can be watered and watered and watered -- without much issue for killing the tree. In your area, during summer, you'd probably need to water every other day for the gritty mix. Even when it was 110F here in Fresno, I never had to water "several times per day" which the opponents of the mix will try to warn you. In fact, I think every 1.5 days were working for me; basically, not even every day. The CHC mix can be watered quite a bit as well without concern. But probably wont' need to be watered more than every other day or third. How often one needs to water a container citrus depends on the mix you choose, but equally depends on the size of soil (medium/container) balanced by with the root and canopy sizes. If you put a small tree in a large pot, you don't need to water as often and vice versa. Don't use a bagged mix off-the-shelf unless you add at least 50% small sized (thumbnail) bark chips. Then add a little Perlite to it, also. Doing this is at the door-step to finishing the 5-1-1 mix, so you could just follow those directions. The 5-1-1 mix for Citrus is basically 5 parts dust-screened small bark, 1 part Acid-lovers bagged mix (or plain peat) and 1 part dust-screened Perlite. Then add calcium (either a small amount of Dolomite (lime) or a larger amount of gypsum) -- which to use you should probably ask Al. He'll probably say the Dolomite. The gritty and CHC last a very long time without replacement (like 5 years? not sure). The 511 is 2 years, I believe. All 3 have their pros-cons and can work in our climates. I personally have the majority of mine in the Gritty, a few in the other two, and a few in bagged mixes. I have the most trouble with bagged mixes, but they were the cheapest and least work -- up front, that is. They need to be replaced more often. Bagged mixes are far from ideal for container citrus. However, once you figure out how to compensate for them (some people never do), it is fine.... not ideal, but fine. Attempting "ideal" is worth it to many folks and their trees, thus the proliferation of Gritty mix users in the Container forum and the praise for Al/Tapla. When do you stop up-sizing containers? In general, the answer is: when your tree reaches the maximum size you'd like and is healthy; stick with that final container size. This assumes continuous upgrades of container size (like 4" every pot-up). Example, starting at a 12" width, next container is 16", then 20", and 24" (probably your final one 5+ years from now). If you use the 5-1-1 or the CHC mix you should follow this procedure. However if you choose gritty mix, you could buy the 24" container, or half wine-barrel or plastic rope-handle tub (15-19gal), and fill it up and put a small tree in there and never have to up-size again. That would be the final container used until the tree is fully mature. Someday, you will need to replace the gritty mix itself as the bark component will have decomposed completely. But the gritty mix is expensive to fill such a huge container when you only need like 1/4th that amount for the first couple years. I have done it though, putting a young tree in the plastic 19gallon rope-handle tubs. It functions extremely well, except in landscape appeal. With a strong prompting from my wife, I ended up putting the tree in the ugly blue $5 plastic tub inside a nice wooden container (to keep the roots cool anyway). The reason I love the last approach is b/c when I bare-root the Citrus for the gritty mix, it sets the tree back several months, sometimes an entire growing season. The ones I've put in the largest tubs don't need to be disturbed for a long time and only by the 2nd season are leaving the others way behind. Good luck, Chris

I would cut the top, let it dry out for about 2 weeks and then root it using any of the methods talked about on this forum. Cut the damaged area from the stem. If you dont have white sap or clean wood you can keep cutting back until you either find clean wood or run out out of stem. Seems to me that the stem looks discolored. Maybe its just the picture. You would think that tip would be shiny and starting to push leaves by this time of year. I would assume the damage is bad enough to prevent new growth.

Hello and welcome! In Phoenix you can certainly grow plumeria. You're actually starting at the "end" of plumeria season, typically plumeria go dormant over the winter and you'll probably need to bring plants indoors when your temps dip below about 50 degrees. However, overwintering is a different subject! LOL! If you have cuttings on the way I've been told that you are better off to try and root them than to keep them until spring, but maybe someone else has different advice. I would think you'd probably need a grow light / heat mat to root a cutting over the winter. They typically like to be around 85 degrees to root (they like bottom heat a lot), so you can see the cooler night temps are not enough. Plenty of people root over the winter, so although challenging, certainly not impossible! The same will go for your seeds. I would definitely re-pot your HD purchase, the soil in those is usually WAY too peaty and moisture retentive. Once cuttings are established, for the most part they branch after they bloom. After your plant pushes out the "inflo" typically you'll see the branch tip begin to divide. The number of tips will vary from plant to plant. I hope this answers some of your questions, you're certainly in the right place for plumie advice, everyone here is great!