I can use fresh soil, that's a good idea. And I'll top dress it a bit as well. Though, I think that once I unpot it , I'll probably want to do a full repot. Most times, I do a full repot and put into 511 mix, but this plant is so dear to me, I'd be heartbroken if I messed up the repot. If Al finds out that I am doing this half-cocked kind of planting, both of us will be in for a talking-to. See how I made it "us" instead of "me?" :)

jFlowerman you really hit the right approach for having fruit trees in containers! !! What a huge difference!! We're in Norco Hills high up with cool breezy winds and hot summers! The black plastic big containers -- 15 to 25 gallons seemed big enough and are but the hot summer sun hitting the black plastic cooked the tree roots so I was dragging pots to bottom shade or wind protection... Then I discovered Paradise Nursery in Riverside and they sold us big boxes -- the ones nurseries use for trees ---wood is light blond so cooler and huge compared to the pots. We bought 3" casters at Home Depot screwed on the casters -one at each corner... four each box and now our trees are ultra healthy and I can slide them into shade or away from wind like magic! Zero effort!!! The nurseries grow the bigger trees in these boxes and my miniatures to standard are easy to prune, cool in the heat and Super attractive on the patio! Buying the soil will cost but getting half a yard for 22.00 for four boxes---plus the 18.50 per box-- is super cheap compared to whiskey barrels or bags of soil in black deco hot pots! And one can always fill boxes half way if desired! hope this helps!

Holy cow, Al! It seems you very quickly become defensive of grit, even when it isn't under fire. You aren't being fair, or helpful, and you've accused me of making statements I never made. I said, "the moral of the story is: know your medium." I don't know how you interpreted that, or anything else I said, as blaming the medium, but now I see how grit has become a point of contention on the forum. "I'm one of the first to acknowledge or point out any limitations inherent in either the 5:1:1 mix or the gritty mix." I don't recall these discussions. In your opinion/experience, what are those limitations? "In this case, you're using a soil 'sort of' like the gritty mix, but not the gritty mix." I thought I was using a medium almost exactly like your 1:1:1. If I thought it was significantly different, I wouldn't have used it. I have depended on your advice throughout this process. Perhaps you don't remember me consulting you before I mixed it. You told me the bark wasn't important, and was really just there for those who weren't comfortable without an organic fraction. You also said DE was a perfectly acceptable substitute for Turface, and it was on your advice that I made my mix 2 parts granite to 1 part DE instead of the 1:1 ratio I'd have thought. You didn't warn me that it wouldn't perform the same (and I don't think we know that, still). I'm not blaming you, but I also don't think it's fair of you to blame me. This was a joint effort - done with your advice, knowledge, and blessing. "You have plants that were repotted in the fall and then lifted from the soil so you could inspect the roots - and were subjected to either over or under-watering - we don't know which." You can't blame pulling the plants since that wasn't done until just a few days ago, when it was obvious that something was very wrong. and we'd been unable to figure it out. My only recourse was to pull the plants and check the roots because they were ALREADY dying. Not being able to readily tell whether a plant is over- or under-watered is a frustrating drawback of grit. I also followed your advice on how and when to water. I took every piece of advice you gave me. One of the purported advantages of grit is that it's almost impossible to over-water, so do you really think that watering succulents in grit once a week was too much, especially since some of the affected plants are winter-growers, and they were in direct sunlight and reasonably warm? We don't know that they weren't overwatered, but it seems unlikely. "There is no way I would have suggested that you start repotting plants in the middle of winter." C'mon, Al. October 15 is mid-autumn, not the middle of winter, and for a summer-dormant species like the Aeonium and jades, hardly an inappropriate time to pot, especially since I bought the Aeonium already uprooted. Please don't exaggerate to make me look foolish. "Additionally, you have no experience growing in a medium like the gritty mix, so to assume the shortcomings associated with your efforts are the soil's fault isn't logical. If many are able to grow plants that exhibit excellent vitality in the gritty mix or by just efficiently implementing the concept behind the soils, how can any one grower blame the soil or the concept? ...the grower's obligation doesn't stop at providing a good medium. Who blamed the soil or the concept? I didn't. Whose post are you reading? And I haven't ASSUMED anything. I base all my hypotheses on evidence. My approach is ANYTHING BUT illogical. Go back and read all my posts on the subject of grit, and find me a single example in which I'm illogical. I resent that remark. It's entirely off-base. I simply pointed out a difference between grit and other media I've used: the top of grit dries very fast. Do you deny that? You can't easily tell if the plants are getting too much or not enough water. Do you deny that? "There is no practical way to put the roots of the Aeonium and those of the other plant at the same depth. I refer you to my "how do these roots look to you" post in the cacti forum .... It was those plants I was thinking about when I offered that suggestion." What suggestion? I'm not sure what you're referring to here. "...there IS a way to do it, it just requires a little patience. If you really wanted to pot the shortest AND tallest plants together...you might've planned ahead instead of just doing it...and it would've been no problem to do it in the summer...all you would need to do is lop off the bottom of the tall plants and start the tops as cuttings; or, lop off the top of the tall plants and discard them - then plant the roots at the same depth as the shorter plants." I said practical way to do it. I don't consider chopping a lovely plant in half to be very practical. I like my Aeonium at its current height. I don't want to cut it in half, at least not now or then, especially since when I potted it, I had just rescued it from poor conditions at the nursery. It was on its side, uprooted, and had to be potted - which is why it was put in grit in October (actually more likely August or early September) - it couldn't wait. You, yourself told me that I'd made the right choice in not cutting it back until it had recovered. Furthermore, since Aeonium's are summer-dormant, fall would seem a fine time to transplant them. In fact, the Aeonium was growing VERY WELL this winter after I planted it, so the re-potting isn't to blame. The problem didn't arise until I discovered the smaller plants were apparently water-stressed, and I tried to surface water just for them. That IS something one can do in most soils. It doesn't work well in grit. Get as defensive as you please; accuse me of "blaming" the medium if you like, but the truth remains the same: water doesn't stay on the surface of grit like it does in more absorbent media. That isn't criticism or blame. It's an observable difference between two types of media. "Blaming the soil is like blaming a bicycle you don't know how to ride or a math problem you don't know how to solve." Again, I didn't blame anything. I simply sought help and advice for a problem I had with my plants growing in grit because grit is different from what I'm used to. I didn't expect to be hauled over the coals for seeking help.

Karen, the blooms of C. woodii are indeed unusual. There is a variegated form available so you might look for it. Your hydroponics grown sans is interesting. I don't know much about hydroponics, but your system is obviously a basic one. So you just pour the same water over and over thru the medium into the bucket below? A brief primer is appreciated. chippedchinaplate, aroids have been my favorite group of plants for over 40 years and I'm always looking for one more, especially philodendrons and aglaonemas. Brasil is variable and with time and size they often produce narrow and wide slashes of variegation on leaves of the same plant. Reiger begonias are tuberous and won't grow well here in Florida because of the heat, they like cooler temperatures. Because of this I don't grow them, but I do love cane and rhizomatous begonias. I've grown zonal geraniums over the years but not recently. You should have propagated them a couple of months ago when temps were warmer, but if you still want to try it's an easy process. Take 6 inch cuttings, take off all the bottom leaves and flower stalks, then plant into a very porous mix. Peat moss or any light, peat-based commercial soil mixed 50-50 with perlite is fine. If you're using 5-1-1 for your other plants, just mix some extra perlite with it. Water the cuttings well and put the pot into a 1-gallon zip lock plastic bag to keep humidity high. Place in a bright location but no direct sun. If droplets form on the inside of the bag, open it slightly for a while so it can dry out. Bottom heat always works better for propagating in winter, there are heat mats available for this purpose but I've never used them. Russ