Many ppl buy from BJ - not much choice out there to buy pre-made mixes. If you have only very few plants, that is easy way of getting the mix.

Pelrite seems to be available just about everywhere (Lowe's, HD, Wallmart, any garden center...) and quite inexpensive. Pumice is more $, I think most ppl in US buy it from General pumice products? Grit should be available too (Manna pro, cherrystone..) - but do not know if in small quantities. I buy chicken grit in 50lb bags for just about $10 (that's in Canada).

Your Christmas cactus will be probably better off in mix with more bark in it - if my plant, I would buy a bag of orchid bark and perlite and mix them together for it (sifting the perlite).

I haven't done the arithmetic but I bet perlite ends up being expensive as well. I've tried sifting a bag of it to get the unusable powdery bits out and got about a cup of usable material. The rest was junk. So that's $5 per cup. Maybe other random bags will yield more but I don't really like paying for MG powder.

Orchid bark is quite a bit larger than perlite. Is that ok? I thought the pieces needed to be about the same size?

I can find the chicken grit (is that a substitute for crushed granite?), it is the 1/8-3/8" pine or fir bark, and Turface MVP I cannot find.

Pagan, what do you think of the BJ mix?

Gigi

Orchid bark is available in 3 sizes, but I do not know what BJ sells...chicken grit is granite chips (make sure you don't buy grit with shells in it - good for chickens, not so much for many plants). Many ppl use Napa 8228 (I think that's the #) instead of turface, or Dry Stall. I do not use bark in gritty.

Pagan

You could be quite correct about price of perlite - I was just lucky to get few huge bags of quite coarse (not as much dust as usually). And never really figured price per unit. Buying pumice adds a lot to shipping to Canada (probably more than price of a bag). But I would definitely use it if easier to get.

Gigi - I have searched for Turface MVP for years. And finally one day, someone posted that Ewing Irrigation carries it! Yea!! It runs $16-17 for a 50 lb. bag.

https://www.ewingirrigation.com/locations
They have a store in Greer, near the airport.
Turface MVP runs $16-17 a 50 lb. bag. Turface Athletics will do, but the particle size is nicer in the MVP.

I get tons of rain in the summers. For my plants to survive I have had to tweak toward a full on gritty substrate. My mix is perlite, granite grit and turface. I add the perlite to lighten the weight of the pots. =) Since my mix is so gritty I do have to water more often during the dry winters.

Many do not like perlite because it floats. It will also blow out of the pot with wind. (My pool often has it floating in it.) Top dressing helps hold the perlite in.

I cannot get pumice here, so I can't comment on its wonders. =)

Pagan

NP! I can get to Toronto easily (have 3 kids living there anyway:)

Gigi

If you are using bark & perlite mix for your TC as could be seen in your photo (not sure if yours is actually true Christmas cactus - but their needs are same), maybe you don't water properly. Ppl swear by orchid mix. I have added quite a bit of bark I had to gritty mix for my Easter cacti and it is growing much better, actually it has many new buds just about to open right now (it missed Easter, haha...)

The only Pumice I was able to find locally is Black Gold. Does not say the size of the particles....

rina - not watering properly? Too much or not enough? I let them dry out between waterings but these are small 4" pots...perhaps more water?

Gigi

I do not know - could be either. How do you know the mix is dry enough (or not yet)? Or could be some totally different reason: what is the last time you checked the roots - and how did they look? That smaller piece look damaged - was I soft before it dried up? Did you root it? If it had roots - were they in good shape or dry or damaged? So many things could be a problem, and we only see the photo. Sometimes it is hard to tell what happened. I was only commenting on the mix: as many ppl say they use bark and perlite (as you said yours is) and have great looking, healthy plants - the mix sounds ok, so what could be wrong...?

I would aim to keep the barky orchid mix uniformly moist. With that much aeration, you don't need to let the mix dry out as you would a heavy peat-based mix.

Your plants are Thanksgiving cactus, Schlumbergera truncate.

Josh

Chic grit is easily available at most feed stores.

As far as smaller grade bark, vendors who cater to the orchid crowd are the ones to contact. I would suggest Roberts Flower Supply. (Note: It is run by a nice older couple. There is no online shopping cart so your order would need phoned in or emailed in.)

Roberts Flower Supply