No. Their prices are insulting. For $16 I can get a big bag of repti-bark from Amazon and for $25 I can get a roughly equivalent volume of pumice from a supplier in California---free shipping for both. Even if I want to bother with granite grit (which I don't, it just makes pots heavy and there are easier ways to adjust proportions to make the substrate even less moisture-retaining.)

Just these two together is equivalent to... a lot. of gallons of substrate.

Pagan

yeah.. $38 for 12 quarts of media. didn't even look at the shipping.

My thoughts - overpriced, why imported pine bark? I'm not aware of any reason pinus radiata is superior to domestic timber species like loblolly, slash longleaf in the SE or sugar pine in the west. Too organic for bonsai 50 precent too much id use less than half that much. but probably fine for adenium. I'm not sure silicate from granite chips is chemically available they are very stable not very soluble. There are better organic choices than pine bark but pine bark is fine. Like a lot of things it would fine probably very well, but not the best, it's expensive, heavy, shipping would be expensive ... turface is cheap like 12 bucks, bark pecan shells and coir fibers are cheap. Lots of inexpensive readily available stuff for me so I would not buy that

My last batch was mostly turface, some zeolite, with charcoal, coir, and bark for organic. Probably 20 percent organic. And I made probably 10 times that volume for a comparable price.... and mine is better

I'm curious about the Charcoal and Zeolite.. I read an article and the person suggested using Charcoal and Zeolite..

http://labellegardenclub.org/docs/DesertRoseCulture.pdf

Don't know if you have ever read it before. But his medium recipe is:

1 part Aquarium Gravel (Flourite)

1 part Kitty Litter

1/2 part Activated Carbon

1/2 part Zeolite

It's like he replaced bark with Carbon\Zeolite.. What is the purpose of the Carbon\Zeolite?

I have never tried commercial soil mixes, better to mix your own if possible. Thank you spacecoastfl for the very informative link.

Joe

Zeolite and carbon are similar in that they have a huge surface area per unit of volume. A. Piece of zeolite smaller than a marble has more surface area than a football field. That surface area holds on to molecules against leaching. I used clinoptilolite. That zeolite holds onto nitrogen very well so well it is used to remove nitrogen from aquariums. Carbon same thing lots of surface aRea it holds onto nutrients. I've used different aquarium substrates before and the good ones are great, they are expensive. I used eco complete it's kinda like turface, but made from basalt soils its made for planTed aquariums. If money was no object I would use them more I've been wanting to try ADA aquasoil for planted aquariums. It's a really high quality product but it's expensive and I'd have to ship it. Zeolite can be had pretty cheaply though and there may not be a better thing out there. But also I'm against using just one thing.

I've noticed if you have to get an ingredient from the pet store it's gonna cost you. Especially if you have over 50 plants to repot...

Thank you Todd for the explanation.

Pagan, may I ask where you getting pumice in CA? I'm having a hard time finding it...

Yeah, share the pumice link! Woo!

Todd, where do you find cheap Zeolite?

Happy cat kitty litter is zeolite you can get it like 1 per pound with shipping. If you have a feed store around the same company makes a horse stall odor remover that is the same thing the pet store will have ammonia chips that is pure zeolite

Cool. Happy cat kitty litter is available at Walmart.com with free pickup at the store.. Thanks!!

I order pumice online from General Pumice Products. Details here.

Pagan, does the pumice you use look like this:

Obviously in the Netherlands I'll have to look for a different brand/name, and this seems close, right?

It looks wet, Connie. When it dries, you can sift all that dust out. Dusty bits defeat the purpose of rapid draining. We're in the middle of heavy rains and a thunderstorm at the mo, I'll take pics tomorrow.

Pagan

I have some net pots that have really fine holes on all the sides to rinse stuff like that I just fill up the pot and run hose through it