You're in Canada, so that probably messes up everything I'm going to say, because the products might not be available, or might be sold under different names. You may need to try to get in touch with someone from your nearest bonsai club & find out if they are familiar with the products I'll describe. I've used that approach dozens of times (bonsai contacts) when trying to find a suitable soil ingredient or substitute in any given area. Haydite (it's like little pieces of brick)is a suitable substitute for pumice, size for size. The problem you may encounter is in the fact that Haydite holds little water. If it IS an issue, you can look for a product like Turface (calcined clay) or floor-dry/oil-dry products made of calcined diatomaceous earth. These products hold lots of water, so you can mix them with the Haydite, or the Haydite with the other ingredient you find, until you find the water retention you need. The most desirable particle size will be around 2.5-4.5 mm. If the Haydite or pumice is a little larger than that, it's ok because the issue will be water retention & you can adjust that with the other, smaller and more porous product. If you find these products, you really should come back and talk about your nutritional supplementation program. Al

ines 99, thank you for the meadowbrook refererence. I am in Mercer county, central Jersey - so not far from Burlington county. I used to buy Dry Stall (the pumice horse stable product) from an Agway in Englishtown (Monmouth county, but also horse territory). The problem is that Agway apparently stopped carrying Dry Stall in the last few months. Do you have a particular stable supply store in Burlington county in mind?

I placed an order several weeks back from a nursery on line and today I gave them a call for it is not here.. Well my fault my email changed and then with not working and being out in the yard playing recovering from surgery I hardly ever use or answered the phone :-( but anyway they wanted to let me know that it would cost almost 50 dollars to ship me the pumice I ordered, I ordered ten small bags.. well I told them I really like that they did not just ship... So no pumice this way... So today my cutting that I repotted about 3 weeks ago because I wet them to much and I would have lost allot of them if I did not repot... Well anyway... they are not sturdy in the pots because now I am afraid to water them LOL so today I put what I had here on top of the dirt to hold the plumeria in place and make the pot stay also.. I used crushed marble.. I will not put these outside for it is not warm again here so just for now... Does anybody else know what I should or could use? Thanks and sorry I can't explain what I mean very well.. I am brain dead... Susan

Inna, I've found two types of sand I like. One is coarse silica sand from Ohio, called Best Sand. I pick it up when I visit family out there or have people bring it when coming to see me. The other is more readily available. It's the fine version of the crushed granite used for chicks, called chick grit. I think the brand is Speedy-Mo. That is generally available at any feed store. Definitely do not use play sand. It holds WAY too much water. I really like the idea of using the orchid mix as a base, but I would have trouble with watering. I just repotted mine into a slightly tighter mix because they were just sitting there. It wasn't holding enough water to develop a good root system. The plants survived, they just didn't thrive. I'm already getting very good growth on a hallii that had not grown... I'm embarrassed to say... in four years. I think it was Norma that mentioned she didn't use pine bark because desert plants don't do well with it. That may be a consideration also. I've used it in the past, still do for some. They seem to be Ok, but it is well composted. Stush, I've seen pictures of the places in Somalia of sites where Sanses were collected. Can we say DRY? Amazing. It looked like pure sand with a little gravel. Of course, that's simply conjecture, it could be nearly anything. I think there are soil maps on line of nearly everywhere. That may be a start. Michael