Hi there, Al and Everyone!

I am venturing into making my first gritty mix after reading, saving, and researching Al's posts for years. Yes, I am often behind schedule. :-)

But, my potted grapefruit I grew from a seed is suddenly having a terrible season. It is in desperate need of pruning, as well as repotting.I am not potting up. I know the potting medium has compacted and is causing root rot/issues, and it has been a at least 4 years since repotting so it is very much time, past time. Very sad it is in trouble since it never has been before, and I really need to save my tree.

I plan on root pruning and pruning the tree to remove the dieback of the branches I am seeing. It does have new growth, so I am hoping that by switching to Gritty mix, root pruning and pruning it will recover.

The actual plans for that are still being researched as to exactly how to do the repotting. I am not potting up. The citrus issues are maybe best talked about in the citrus forum, but any insight about repotting and root pruning citrus would be great. It is not a tree I expect fruit from. It did give me it's first flower this winter, but I just love my tree, fruit or not

My questions are about particle size of the Turface and screening to what size.

I have purchased:

Pine Bark Fines

"Frey Brothers Organic Soil Conditioner" All pine bark, no hardwood, sold as pine bark fines by the bag at my local garden center. Kinda locally bagged by Frye brothers in Quarryville, Pa.

"Gran-i-Grit" Growers size

North Carolina Gratie Co, 50lb bags. Also found at local garden center.

I still need to screen these products. I am not clear as to what size hardware cloth to use exactly, and will work that out. I have 3 screens I made for screening my topsoil, but need to check the diameters on them. I think I will have to make at least one screen for the final screening of the grit and turface, but not sure what the # sizes mean. I have just started to read about this and am trying to understand all the screen sizes.

When I screened my topsoil I used a window screen for the final screening. I was mostly screening out Star of Bethlehem bulbs, worked pretty well but that screen is all beaten up, and may be too small in diameter. But, perhaps this is exactly what I need to do the final screening.

I CAN get Turface at my local garden center, too, but it is re-bagged and looks to be a mix of both MVP and Pro League. It's more expensive and since I need at least two 50lb bags I am not going with this. Mostly because I am not sure what the mix is in the repackaged bags, other than it is Turface, for sure.

I can also get Turface locally, non-rebagged, 50lb bags. It is sold as "All-Sport" which is rebranded for them by Turface and is exctly what is sold branded as "Turface MVP". They also have the "Turface Pro" rebranded as "All-Sport Pro". I checked w/ Turface and it is exactly the same, just rebranded.

I can't get Cherrystone, but for comparison, if the Cherrystone #2 Grit is about 3/16 an inch in size, and the Gran-I-Grit Grower is comparable, Does the MVP Turface actually have a composition of 4.76mm?

The Turface website data sheets say the following:

Turface MVP

TYPICAL SIEVE ANALYSIS: % Retained

6 MESH (3.36 mm) 18.3%

8 MESH (2.38 mm) 38.5%

12 MESH (1.68 mm) 22.8%

20 MESH (.841 mm) 19.2%

30 MESH (.595 mm) 0.7%

50 MESH (.297 mm) 0.2%

Pan 0.1%

Pro League:

TYPICAL SIEVE ANALYSIS: % Retained

5 MESH (4 mm) 0.0%

8 MESH (2.38 mm) 6.0%

16 MESH (1.19 mm) 91.0%

20 MESH (.841 mm) 2.5%

50 MESH (.297 mm)

0.4% PAN 0.1%

When I called Turface, they were super nice. They describes the MVP as having #16 mesh size 1.19mm at 91%

Al, if theCherrystone #2 Grit is about 3/16 an inch in size, a good size for the Gritty Mix and the Gran-I-Grit Grower is comparable, the MVP pro is described a little differently to me on the phone than the web composition. I assume i still mant MVP to match the Gran-I-Grit grower size.

When i research mesh size, I *think* this means I want to run it through mesh size from the largest being #4 (.22 of an inch) down to what number? I think I saw through these threads that #6 to #8 is what I am looking for for both the Grit and the MVP.

Then, I screen for dust to get that out.

What size screening it that? I Read it refered to as bug screen. Would that be the same as what is used for a typical storm window screen, or one of those expandable wood screens you place in your window below the sash when open if you dont have screens? That is what I used for my Star of Bethlehem screening.

I hope my questions make sense.

Any insight, answers or suggestions are MOST welcome!!

Thanks! merlcat