If you want to use it, I would use a wick to help drain any excess water. The whole purpose of the gritty mix is to build a soil that holds it's water INSIDE of particles instead of between them. Reducing particle size creates a perched water table, so you almost might as well use the 5:1:1 mix. I'm offering that observation purely from a practical perspective. If you do use a wick to help get the benefits from a fully drained soil, you can just remove the wick once the planting has matured & roots have colonized the soil mass. At that point, air will return to the whole soil mass quickly enough that the short duration of soggy soil won't likely have a significant effect. Al

I screen & measure everything when it's dry, then dump/pour them into the mixing tub, but moisten the ingredients before I mix them together. I usually start screening Turface on nice days during late winter when I'm in the mood, & store it in large containers. The bark and cherrystone comes prescreened, but I still give it a quick screen over insect screen to get the dust out. I don't rinse, just because of the volume of soil I go through in a year (well over 150 gallons - about 10 bags of Turface worth in most years), but I do agree it's a good thing to do if you have the ambition. ;-) Al

Doesn't hold the plant roots in very well, a sudden wind can lift the entire plant and roots out of the pot as most of the bark is left spread about. Is a PIA to break ( even after soaking) by hand for more favorable and still usable size. Second: it may hold to much moisture if to big in size not very critical but could rot a root here and there. If it's all you can find and can bare breaking it down to a smaller size it works fairly well as part of a mix in areas of tropical cacti.

I've been using a 50:50 base mix of perlite/ turface for many years. You can easily modify this mix for different needs. Most mesembs benefit from the addition of a clayey component. For me, I just dig beyond the topsoil in my yard for some good dirt. I also substitute perlite for some lava rock and small pebbles. It's a heavier, longer lasting mix which works when repotting infrequently for mesembs. This same mix is my preference for small cactus species like Aztekium, Blossfeldia, tricky mamms like luethyi, etc. "bigger" plants like some Crassula, aloes, aeonium etc. you could add more perlite to lighten big pots. It also makes it safer to leave outdoors all spring/summer/fall with rain. My palms, plumeria and cycads live in this mix too. Floating perlite is not an issue. But it does easily displace with high water pressure like from a hose. Some form of fertilizer is a must. I'm also a fan of submerging small pots with small plants into bigger, deeper containers to help stabilize root temperatures. Practically any healthy plant I've ever had to repot always has roots circling the bottom. I really don't understand the concept of shallow or regular pots. I think the deeper the better. I haven't really noticed any exception. For some species it's mandatory. Haworthias, many cactus plants with tuberous roots. Even Lithops which tolerate a shallow home will grow much better in very deep pots. Pleiospilos too. For anyone unsure or unconvinced, try an experiment. Take a pot with any plant you want, and bury it into much deeper pot for a growing season. Pull it out later and see what you find. Bury an Aloe, pachypodium or most any strong Echeveria or similar in the garden and watch it take off. We would all be great at bonsai, plenty good experience with root constriction and limiting growth lol!