A quick update and a question: I've located Calcined Sepiolite in Industrial Absorbent format, apparently the local fire department uses it on flammable liquid spills. Unfortunately, the particle size it's available in is tiny -- fine sand (The bonsai crowd appears to have ruled out all the Sepiolite kitty litters, as none of them are calcined and they all break down eventually. This leaves me with the following options -- I'm having a hard time picking which one to use as a Turface replacement in Al's gritty mix and would appreciate your opinions. I've not yet completely given up hope on finding a Turface equivalent but things are looking grim. On the bright side, I've been able to locate coarse silica sand for aquarium use, 2-4mm. It's a bit pricey but available within walking distance and I don't have to screen it. One ingredient down at least! Still trying to hunt down pine bark fines in the right size range, the cheapest chipper I've been able to find is a whopping 700! No rentals available. :( Closest fines so far are in the 10-45mm range, way too big. The search continues... Option 1: Calcined Attapulgite in industrial absorbent format, available in "4/30 grain size". Still trying to figure out what size that is exactly, though I know 15/30 is 0.5-1.5mm. Option 2: Mystery clay! A Calcined Kaolinite/Montmorillonite mixture (5-10mm) used in ceramic production as grog. (Learned a new meaning for an old word!) Grain size seems a bit big, no idea if the stuff breaks down or is phytotoxic -- I was unable to find anything on Kaolinite in agricultural uses except as a pest control agent. Montmorillonite percentage is uncertain. Seems they only sell it by the metric ton, trying to get my hands on a sample. Option 3: The same company produces LECA/Hydroton in small grain sizes, so-called "mini LECA". Available in 3 formats and 3 different densities: 350 ± 50 Kg/m3, 550 ± 50 Kg/m3 or 750 ± 50 Kg/m3. I'm guessing lighter = more porous = more water retention, so I'd opt for the lightest of the three densities. The formats are ground (0-6mm), sand (0-4mm) or fine (3-10mm). Pictures in the link below. Option 4: Our final contender is raw Attapulgite (non-calcined) in kitty litter form, mentioned in previous posts. Conflicting reports from the bonsai folks on whether the stuff breaks down or not over the long term. If you were faced with these options, which would you choose?

Glad to see this thread is re-kindled... Npthaskell, you're right about the locality involved with the ingredients in kitty litters. Some are made of calcined clay products, some are made of zeolite, and others are made from Diatomaceous Earth (can be either "as is" or can be calcined). Not all big or small box stores have the good stuff that you'd be looking for. From the little that I know about zeolite, it seems to be a fairly good and stable material. However, I believe Turface and diatomaceous earth products can absorb more water and may be less dense. I've been using Turface for almost a year now and absolutely love it. However, about a month ago I got my hands on two diatomaceous earth products: Axis soil amendment (similar to PlayBall) NAPA Oil Absorbent (same uses as "OilDri", except OilDri is a calcined clay product and Napa's Oil Absorbent is a calcined diatomaceous earth product). I haven't used either the Axis or NAPA Oil Absorbent for very long, but so far I am very impressed. It's very lightweight (even lighter than Turface, but doesn't float like perlite) and according to their website, Axis absorbs and releases much more water than Turface (regular grade Axis absorbs 114% of it's own weight in water according to data sheets). I won't be able to get my hands on anymore Axis without buying a whole pallet and paying for the freight costs myself, but the NAPA Oil Absorbent product is available locally and very cheap. If you're interested, call your local NAPA store. The product code of the particular one you want is #8822. NAPA carries other oil absorbing products, but 8822 is the one you want. I'll try to spare you from a long story, but thought I'd share a conversation I had with the two sales clerks at my NAPA store when I was buying so many bags of the stuff. When I told them I was using it for a container soil amendment, I thought they would laugh. But they knew right away what I was talking about. Apparently a couple of the local high schools in my area buy a few pallets full of the stuff each year to amend their softball and football fields. The schools had used Turface in the past (after all, that's what Turface is made and marketed for), but the diatomaceous earth product has worked just as well if not better than Turface, and costs quite a bit less! So anyway, if you're interested take a look into it. Also, if you're going for the good kitty litter run a google search on "Kittydama" (an affectionate name for kitty litter that is suitable as a soil amendment; it's big with the bonsai folks too).

Well, I made it through Chapter 1 of that doctoral thesis. I had to go to "Wikipedia" to find out what a "2:1 clay" was (search for "Montmorillonite", LOL). Some things I learned: 1. Terra Green (I've used the name Pro's Choice for this brand in previous posts) is made from a different clay than Turface (I used to think that they were made from the same type of clay). Even worse, different lots of Terra Green apparently use different clays from two different quarries (I knew about the two quarries, but I thought that the clays were virtually the same). Several other potential substitutes for Turface were also mentioned, that I did not know about, which I will now have to Google! 2. Turface (and various "equivalent" competitors) possess an Anion Exchange Capacity -- at least for phosphate. They are thus controlled release fertilizers for phosphate. 3. Because these products absorb phosphate, you will have to add an initial charge of phosphate, otherwise they will compete against the roots for phosphate. 4. I think that the initial charge of phosphate required will probably be about 1/10 to 1 gram phosphorous per liter of absorbent. (Since phosphorous is given as a phosphate salt, you will have to add the weight of 4 atoms of oxygen plus the weight of either 2 atoms of potassium or 2 molecules of ammonium to calculate the amount of fertilizer to add.) Once given this initial charge, the absorbent will then act as a controlled release fertilizer for phosphate. Any phosphate lost by rain or plant growth will have to be replaced, in order to maintain a controlled release reservoir. 5. Axis is a weak absorber of phosphate, hence not a good controlled release reservoir of phosphate. Turface is a stronger absorber, hence a better controlled release matrix. Some of the other products absorb phosphate more strongly -- perhaps too much of a good thing in those cases. Or perhaps I will have to read Chapters 2 and Chapters 3 to find out, LOL. 6. Although Axis is a weak absorber of phosphate, it reduces wash out of phosphate when pots are watered. (Yes.... I peaked ahead of Chapter 1, LOL.) I would guess that that the mechanism is as follows: A. Phosphate diffuses into the water that is inside the pores within a grain of Axis, so that the concentration of phosphate outside Axis will equal the concentration of phosphate inside Axis. B. Once pots are watered and drained, the concentration of phosphate outside Axis is lower than that inside Axis. C. Watering pots is fast, and the pots drain fast. D. Even though phosphate is not bound to the silica surface of Axis, it still takes a long time for it to diffuse out of the pores inside a grain of Axis, into the water that is outside of the grain of Axis. E. The time required for phosphate to diffuse out of Axis, and reestablish equal concentrations in the water that is both inside and outside of Axis, is a much longer time than the time required to water and drain a pot. For example, it may take a few hours for phosphate to diffuse into (or out of) a grain of Axis, while watering and draining a pot takes just a few minutes. F. I will have to read chapters 2 & 3 to see if this PhD comes up with the same hypothesis I did.

Here it is 2013. I am growing Bromeliads and Brugmansia. I am Canadian but live winters in Florida A speaker at a Bromeliad meeting suggested and he said especially for Brugmansia to use tthis clay product Turface or Profile He brought in some fabulous plants growing in it. Looking for information and found this conversation Is anyone using it yet and what have you found as to its success