@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.

Pictures would help a lot; include the whole plant and one of the pot and soil. What did you do when you put it in the 17 inch pot? Put the existing rootball in the pot and surround it with fresh soil or remove the old soil and replace it? What kind of soil was it in and what kind of fresh soil was it? Was it rootbound? It's possible the new pot is too big, making the soil stay very wet for too long, causing roots to suffocate for lack of air to pull oxygen from. If so, the easiest remedy would be to put it back in the old pot and wait until June to repot in a faster draining highly aerated soil that would be harder to overwater. Meanwhile, check out the posts upthread about watering, using a dowel to check soil moisture, and the kinds of soil and light conditions lyratas do best in, and start to water only when the soil at the bottom is the pot is dry. Lenore

It may be beneficial to check out this article about Fiddle Leaf Fig fertilizer. Fiddle Leaf Fig Plant Food

This is a response to a post on the Trees Forum. Here is a smattering of my maples. I haven't watered them in two weeks. It should be noted that I live in the mid-Atlantic and we have been inundated with rain and it looks like Barry will continue that trend. These maples grow pot-to-pot and only get direct sun in the AM. This thread on the Professionals forum has a commercial recipe for potting mix for woodies. Plants are grown in this mix for few months and then shifted up or sold. It is next to impossible to make relevant rules about watering containers because there are so many variables. How much foliage does the plant have, how long ago was it potted, how much rainfall does your area have, what are your temps & humidity like, is it in full sun, are you using a lightweight mix, etc.etc.etc. Something else worth considering is watering practices. In my case, newly potted trees are thoroughly watered, (go over them two or three times) and then observe for a day or two. Another variable, was your plant formerly containerized or bareroot. If bareroot go easy on the water until it leafs out. If you are watering by hand you really need a breaker something like this. Might seem obvious to most however some beginners don't know this. The breaker reuces the velocity of the water and imitates rainfall.