I use 511 regularly, where I work we provide machinery that focuses on cleaning grains, plastic extrusions, reclaimed sheet rock, reclaimed glass etc. we separate unwanted fines, or unwanted particle sizes from many various products via screening, air aspiration as well as other methods. This brings me to my question about gritty mix, I just happened upon some poly beads about 3/16 diameter, could this be used as the grit fraction in gritty mix? What I mean by grit is the the granite, or the inert fraction of the mix, the beads seem to be nearly inert, I process all my pine bark through a machine called a reel eliminator, it has various sizes of screens so I can dictate what particle size I want by varying the screen size, I always look for the bags of pine bark mulch that looks some what composted, and separate that into the fines I want, typical what ever will go through a 3/8 screen. I processed 4ea. 2.5 cubic bags in 10 minutes last week, sure makes it easy compared to my screens at home. I am wanting to make up some gritty mix primarily for some citrus trees in my greenhouse, these polystyrene beads have become plentiful and don't weigh very much. You guys are the experts and would love to hear your opinions, Thanks

Sure chicken stock can support growth of botulism. Any low acid food can, and meat and meat broths are low acid. I think everyone goes through that 'scared' to eat it phase. Especially so if they haven't watched an experienced canner a few times do a certain product. The first time I made saurkraut, and the fermentation started I freaked out. Nothing smelling that bad could surely be edible. I talked it over with a couple of experienced kraut makers, and even had one go down and inspect my 'work in progress' and guess what, when it was done.......it was so good. Try to keep things in perspective. If you use a method you know is current and safe, and you followed directions, and the product sealed well you are probably just fine. If you have any doubts whatsoever when it comes time to eat it, follow common sense. If it smells off, doesn't look right, is growing something, or the lid pops off like an explosion when you open it, for pity's sake don't even smell it. Dispose of it safely. If it looks fine and you still have doubts, heat it to the boiling point for twenty minutes. That will kill the bacteria and break down the toxins. I have read the stats on botulism poisoning each year at the CDC websites. If you disregard the cases of infant botulism and wound botulism there are relatively few cases of it from food consumption considering the amount of food preserved annually in this country. That's not going to help you if you are one of the cases, though, is it? In my case the only time I was concerned was when I canned up a huge surplus of potatoes in a good gardening year. Even commercially canned spuds will sometimes get cloudy liquid from the potatoes disintegrating in the heating process.......but it turned me off. I think I pitched them, and am really sure in retrospect they were probably wonderful and safe. I followed the directions to the T.

I copy and paste into a Word document then place in an appropriate folder. I have a recipe folder and within that folder have folders for Appetizers, Breads, Breakfast, etc. And, occasionally, within those folder have other folders; for example, in the Beverage folder there are additional folders, one for Alcoholic and one for Non-Alcoholic. In the Vegetable folder, there are folder for Legumes with additional folders, Root Vegetables with additional folders. You get the idea. These are saved in an external drive. And are very easy to locate. Forgot to say that the folders are on the computer, not actual paper folders. I don't print a recipe until I am ready to use it. Also just remembered to say that I keep these in a master folder called "Recipes to Try." If we don't like the finished product, the recipe is deleted. If we do like the finished product, the recipe is moved to another folder called "My Favorite Recipes." I make notes on these as to when I made it and who was present to eat it and favored it.

Tuba Which one is the sand? Agree with palmsandsnow - forget about vermiculite. Those suggestions/recipes for mix are same as mine I am going to post :) Lava rock is too big (I am assuming it is the large pieces in a plastic pot next to the glass bowl) 2mm gravel is on the small size According tohardiness zone map - click here Istanbul is z9a Further info I found: Istanbul has a humid subtropical climate that is mild with no dry season, constantly moist (year-round rainfall). Summers are hot and muggy with thunderstorms. Winters are mild with precipitation from mid-latitude cyclones. Seasonality is moderate. If you have lots of rainfall, excellent drainage is very important. I would start with pumice and grit in approx. equal amount and add about 10% of total amount of soil you have. You have few different materials available for grit part, I would use one of them that is close in size to pumice. There is no need to mix all of them together, but if you like, you can mix couple of different ones to make a grit part. You could use perlite instead of pumice if you want to try it, and mix that same way as suggested above. You could make few different mixes and pot some plants in them and see how they are doing. If I remember correctly, you have few plants of the same type and that would be best way to experiment. I think you had one of the 'holiday cacti' - these are epiphytic plants, and the mix should be little different: from ingredients you listed, I would use approx. 60% your potting soil and add 40% pumice. Or perlite. These are only suggestions, and I would urge you to make few different mixes to try out. You should try potting some plants in a mix without any soil, just grit and pumice or perlite, approx. equal amounts. In wet & humid climate these may be quite good. (Btw, I am guessing but 'kuvars' is Turkish for quartz?)