Personally, unless all of my cactus collection was epiphytic, I'd not use two of those three things, the two being bark of that size and the charcoal. I don't like to use bark anyway (I make up my own gritty mix of #2/#1 poultry grit, Turface and sieved potting soil). It's of course what works for you, but so much of that is experience and environment (the former making the latter understood). There's no reason that I know of to use the pictured materials for a 'conventional' cactus mix, but if you ask 200 C&S Volk, you'll likely get 200+ answers on the subject. Most of the time it's porosity that is a problem. Let's see the other answers you get.

Hi & Welcome,

Nor would I use what you're suggesting, to me it's too large a difference in their sizes (tho' I don't use bark in my succulent mixes).

For the short term, you might just add 40-50% perlite to the mix you're already using & that would buy you time to figure out further what mix you wish to make/use.

Thank you cactusmcharris, pirate_girl; however, as I said:

"I know that the mix needs to be finer . . . If I were to amend this . . ."

I meant that I intend on breaking the bark and charcoal into finer bits. Some of the perlite, even, could do with downsizing. I don't mind working on it, because in the end, I hope, it'll be worth it, and I don't want to end up hardly using those bags at all.

Do you think that it would be worth a go, or are you standing by what you said above? I'm just curious--I thank you for and am considering all input.

No, because they're unsuitable, IMO, to begin with - making them smaller doesn't diminish the fact that they're elements I wouldn't use anyway. What are you going to grow in this intended mix?

Ah, okay. I'm mixing for cacti, succulents, adenium and other container plants that need a medium that drains well, breathes, etc.

One of the keys to creating a mix that has beneficial physical properties is all the particles being a similar size. That's difficult to do when starting with chunky bits of fir bark. Also, pine bark takes longer to degrade than fir bark, so theoretically it would have a longer useful life.

Another consideration is how long will the plant remain in the same pot. If you were planting Lithops into a pot where they can conceivably remain for a decade, I wouldn't use anything organic at all, including bark, peat, etc. But a tropical succulent like Adenium needs to be potted up regularly as it grows so there is more flexibility there.

x

Oh! Thanks, xerophyte_nyc. I misunderstood what cactusmcharris and pirate_girl were trying to say; that is, I took it wrong, as pure personal preference instead of advice. It's hard to break away from the "organic all the way" mentality, but, given the nature of my collection and what more I've learned, I guess it's time to loosen up and branch out.

P.S. I hope I didn't come off as rude in any of my messages above; if I did, I'm sorry.

This post was edited by thecactuskid on Wed, May 22, 13 at 20:35

Speaking for myself, I did not sense any rudeness in your posts. And even if you were rude, I wouldn't care, it's just a plant forum, LOL!

Organic stuff is great in the ground where there are worms, microbes and other creatures that process it. In a pot, it's a whole other world - anything "organic" is unpredictable and potentially dangerous for a variety of reasons. Water physics in a pot is also very different than the ground. The Earth has just a tad better drainage than a measly little pot.../sarcasm

When growing plants in pots, we go out of our way to enable maximum control of the environment, so we have to maximize drainage and aeration and minimize organic breakdown, all while making a feeble attempt at keeping the root zone at a suitable temperature range to keep rootlets alive. Lucky for us succulents can tolerate all this abuse.

x

Ha, too true. I felt bad, though, because I tend to be short and frank when I'm trying to problem-solve; so, if anyone did find me rude, know that it wasn't intentional or spiteful.

Anywho! Thank you again, x. That makes a lot of sense.