Hi folks,

I am a long time gardener but new to the world of gritty mixes, and I have a couple of questions:

1) I've read that Al suggests using 5-1-1 mix if the plant will be in a pot for a short period of time, but the gritty mix if the plant will be in the pot longer. The rational I've seen given most often is that the 5-1-1 mix is less expensive. However, I have some young plants that I expect will put on a lot of growth and that I will probably repot within a year or two. If the gritty mix is a BETTER mix, shouldn't I start in gritty mix and then just reuse the mix (plus some) when I repot in a better mix? Or is there some other reason why I would want to use 5-1-1?

2) I also read in a few places that you can pot up into a larger pot when you use gritty mix that you would with a soil mix. How much larger should I pot up? For example, if I had a plant in a 6" pot, I would generally pot up to 8". Should I go 10" or even larger with the gritty mix?

3) I have a large number of plants and plan to transition all/most of them over to the gritty mix. I've read that Al recommends putting scilla in 5-1-1, but I can't find information on other plants. I know that people advise putting succulents and citrus in gritty for sure. Would you recommend putting any of the following in 5-1-1 or a different mix other than gritty? List: snake plants, many varieties of ficus (including edible), cactus, christmas cactus, pilea, pitcher plants (esp with humidity concerns), and ferns. (I have a big staghorn in moss right now so wouldn't move that, but I have several smaller ferns such as rabbit's foot fern and birds nest fern that I could repot).

Thanks for all the help and sorry for the super specific questions!! Also, if anyone is in the Boston area and wants to swap or go on a run for gritty mix ingredients, I'd be super up for it!