Thank you for the help! I found Reptibark for $13.50/24qt. I think I'll wait for it to go on sale at Petsmart and compare. There seems to be a little less than a handful of Turface distributors in the local area. The rest are over 70 miles away. I'll call around and see if any nearby locations stock it or if they could order it. Laura, I live in southside Hampton Roads. Oddly enough, I've driven by the Southern States store on S Military Hwy so many times and never given it a thought until you mentioned it. I had no idea what Southern States was. I'll plan a visit the next time I'm out that way. I'll also plan a visit to the hydroponics store (can't remember the name) in Virginia Beach. I'm growing Desert Roses and Plumeria from seed this year! So far, the Desert Roses are in Miracle Grow cactus mix. They seem slightly more happy now, although, they are very slow growing. The plumeria have recently exploded in growth, but due to having been under a shaded porch for a few days of storms, I think they might have suffered a bit or need repotting.

The thread is over 2 years old but the subject is still fresh and interesting. With respect to pros and cons of 5-1-1 , there are several issues: 1) Its effectiveness, as far as plants are concerned. An I am considering annual plants like tomatoes, peppers, eggplants. NOT house plants. 2) Cost Effectiveness: 3) Growers' convenience. I am a pro on (1) and (2) but con on (3). Since 5--1-1 does not come in ready to use form, it requires some efforts to procure the ingredients, quality check, mix, add calcium/magnesium (Lime), store your mix ... In this respect, it is not for everyone. On number (2) , cost effectiveness, It all depends where you are, what your sources are. Currently I make my own mix for under $3.00 per cf. Even if ready mixed potting soils like MG or Pro Mix cost about the same (which is unlikely) , I still prefer my own 5-1-1 mix for its EFFECTIVENESS in drainage and correct moisture retention. I have to mentioned that, I have been studying container media for the last 4 months of my gardening winter break. And with my past experience with media like MG, I have come to the belief that the bark based 5-1-1 is a better option. I might even try to modify it to some extent to better suit my application and climate. But it will remain basically BARK-BASED.

I know this is VERY late - don't know if you will ever even see this posting at all - but for what its worth here goes. I am growing M. koenigii in fiber (fabric) pots. They have been in a mixture of either peat+bark (MM Soil pep in fact) + Growstone (GS2) or peat+bagged mix+GS2 Growstone when I couldn't get MM Soil Pep or anything like it any more. They were originally in a peat+bagged container mix when I started them from seed. It has been 3 years since they were potted up into the fiber plant bags and Growstone-based mix. Some were planted into a gritty-like mix - all of those have either been repotted into a Growstone mix where they are gamely struggling to catch up to their heartier brothers, or - they just flat out died. M. koenigii is a member of the citrus family, a cousin of the so-called "true" citrus such as lemons and oranges etc. I see no reason why what works for my M. koenigii wouldn't work for your citrus as well. You can get the Growstone from a hydroponics store. If they don't have it in stock, they should be able to order it for you. A 1.5 cu ft bag cost me around $35 the last time I bought one, a couple of years ago. That may seem steep at first but the stuff is easily recycled and reused, and it prevents compaction to the point where I've not had to repot for the entire 3 year period and will repot next spring only because most of the plants need to be potted up anyway. You want the middle size - GS2 - not the larger chunks nor the small gritty stuff sold for gnat control. Could be worth a try for you. Handing issues - it is dusty straight out of the bag, and since it is recycled glass, you don't want to breathe that dust. A 99c dust mask from Home Despot should be all you need. You need to rinse the dust off/out of it when you pop the bag open. Put it in a big tub of water and swish it around to de-dust it. If you're reusing/recycling - still put it in a big tub of water and swish it around - the spent organic matter will mostly fall to the bottom and you can just scoop the remaining Growstone into a bucket of bleach water to sterilize. I only sterilize when recycyling, don't see a need for it straight out of the bag. My initial mix proportions were 3:2:1 peat-bark-Growstone but that soon devolved to just mixing it all together until it "looked right". Especially after the MM Soil Pep wasn't available anymore and I was down to just peat and whatever bagged container mix I could find and afford that didn't have any sand in it and at least LOOKED like it had a fair amount of bark in it. It doesn't seem to have mattered, all my curry leaf trees that were initially planted into a Growstone mix at the same time (about 3 years ago) are roughly the same size and robustness. There may be issues of pH but if so, under my local conditions, it doesn't seem to have mattered. Plus all that peat moss is pretty acidic. But then my local water is pretty alkaline at about 9. At any rate it is working for me.

Anthony - So you are saying people cannot stop watering just like you cannot stop saying that. So here it goes: What makes a good member is having having good discussion skills. Happy. Now back to our regularly scheduled program. The only time I have used choir is the one they sell for seedling mix - sold as compressed bricks. I use them to sprinkle on top of 511 type mix when starting seeds and cuttings. Just to hold in the moisture. It wets very easy. Lena: I have been trying hard to pronounce your name and all that comes out is "Limoncello" :))