What do you mean by "fancy?" I would say no at this point. My trees are currently growing in Miracle Grow Potting Mix, mini pine bark nuggets, extra handfuls of perlite and a bit of lime. The potting mix and nuggets look equal as I don't take the time to measure.

After reading how good 5-1-1 was for 2 years by so many people, I decided to make it in March of 2018. Once I had everything mixed up, I didn't like it. It was too dry for my liking and so I just added more potting mix until I got what I wanted. It looks like 50/50 and added enough perlite so it looked evenly distributed throughout the mix. Now people say peat is not good, but I am not willing to be a slave to my trees by watering on a daily basis and my water is metered. So the less water I have to use, the better for my husband's wallet. Also, if I want to go on vacation somewhere, I don't have to worry about my trees drying out while being absent for a week or so.

Thus far, my trees are doing well in my concoction as I have had to do very little watering while inside my sunroom. I want to keep it that way as my sunroom has no ventilation and mold will grow in the room fairly quickly from the moisture evaporating from the pots. I will know in late March if there is any root rot as I will be checking all my trees which are planted in it.

There are unlimited ways to grow citrus in containers as people grow them around the world and materials available to them varies. When I lived in CA, redwood was mainly used on all outdoor projects because it was so readily available and resisted rotting. I used redwood compost in my citrus tree's pots in addition to potting mix. Here in GA, you cannot get redwood at all, but you can get pine. If you watch videos from people in the UK, they use sand and peat in terra cotta pots. I have read to use rose or azalea mixes for citrus. Stan McKenzie uses sand and pine bark in his pots. The citrus nurseries use peat because it's cost effective for them.

My point is there is no reason to be consumed in finding the perfect mix. I went round and round trying to decide what to use as there are so many materials on the market. If a tree can grow in 90% bark, then citrus can grow in whatever rich organic mix you decide to try. If it doesn't work, try something else. The one variable that doesn't change with any plant medium is to NOT OVERWATER. lol.

Fancy soils? Most know by now that you can buy package stuff anywhere between $20.00 and $45.00 or more. More so, some stuff s are just too hard to find, turface, gritt,small pine bark, I mean small pinebark. Did I miss something?

Always good to hear recommendations, Kellogs is an easy name to remember but not sold around here but maybe someone delivers. Miracle grow garden soil was also mentioned by some. It's hit or miss in box stores. 5-1-1 has its advantages and disadvantages. if you can find bagged stuff that works right away and/or modify it to suit more power to you. The key is aeration and moisture without water logging and breakdown. After starting out people see what works best for them. My initial blend was more water retentive but I also found Pine bark breaks down pretty quick.......Since my stuff is inside half the year I'm erring on the less water retentive mix. I could always water, not so easy to take away. I'm on a 7 or 8 day watering schedule for large pots, 4 days on 2 gallon or less pots while they get a full spritz misting inspection in a slop sink. An hour a week is not too bad. But I don't have that many trees nor want too either - its a hobby. In mid-summer, that can turn into daily watering but that's what a hose is for when your in the garden likely watering something somewhere anyway. I use reptibark (no sifting) it's delivered which is large chunks of fir and which seems to be long lasting with far less breakdown than pine bark fines ...I got a cement bag size of perlite I may need a lifetime to use up.....

Many years ago, Garden Gate magazine ran an article recommending African violet soil as a potting medium. Luke Miller got the recommendation from Ken Durio of Louisiana Nursery. Has anybody ever tried a potting mix designed for a specific plant other than citrus?

This post is just for newly young tree,s before they grow through a series of up potting.

If you grafted a small tree or bought one, potting soil is good enough. Small bag for 2 or 3 bucks is all you need for starters.

I use what I use for everything -- young trees, old trees, plumerias, mangos, whatever. I use Sta-Green potting soil plus extra-large, course, horticultural-grade perlite (when I can find it) -- mixed about 2:1. If I can find pine fines and they are fairly uniform, I'll add those as well.

Although when I'm rooting cuttings, I use a higher % of perlite. 1:1 or even more. But for cuttings it's more important that the soil is not overly wet from the get-go. When I root cuttings, usually once the cuttings are set in, the whole thing is bagged and I don't touch it for up to a month. It's got its own little environment.

I don't have even one tree in 5-1-1 mix, so no experience with that. All my trees grow in Promix and we like it :)

Sunshine, Promix here cost too much, they come in big bags.

I get the large bags on sale in late fall most of the time!

The only thing I can find wrong about premix that has been sitting for a long while that it is going to loose some of it potency. Premix package stuff is not intended for long term usesage, am I correct? If it is good for say 2 years then you are loosing some from laying around before it is sold.

Yes, every 2 years I repot my trees, it is still media (media to get the water and nutrients to the roots) and I also have a habit of crushing all the fallen dry leaves from my trees into very fine pieces and giving it back to my trees, placing it back in the containers. Some of my houseplants I have not given synthetic fertilizer for a long time, I give them crushed leaves and content of my used tea bags( without the bags) and they are happy and green. The top soil in those containers is so spongy and black, it is sort of imitation of mother nature in a container, no bug problems in them either.

Promix is not soil, it is a soilless media.

Yes Ken, I meant media.

Sunshine, boy your mix sounds so delicious actually!! Good job on keeping your mix chunky while at the same time avoiding flies. Such a balancing act and I commend you for that.

I too fool around with different mixes. I use a combination of Pro-mix, Farfard, 5.1.1, gritty and MGGS. Learning how to use them correctly is key, and any that are non compacted and in which allow you to water more often without rot even better

I use the 5.1.1 mix alot in which a majority of people have great success with it and yet many will use a variation of it keeping the same concepts in mind. From all the years I have been here, I can tell you what I like most about the gritty and 5.1.1 mixes. Not only do they work wonders for my trees, but they have also brought alot of attention to the real 'needs' of our trees and of the concepts of how water behaves in containers and how the soil we use affects the vitality of our trees. I am glad this outcome has come of these mixes.

Years ago when I first came on board, mostly everyone I knew was failing in improper, misunderstood, and poorly made or sold mixes. I for one of them.

From all the years I have been here, we have all learned to be on the same page about using good porous open chunky non compacted mixes and that is something in a feat of itself! Not fancy mixes, just those that work best for the vitality of our trees...

Now that everyone seems to be concious of what is best for their trees with the soil or soilless mixes they use and in helping others, bravo!

Mike

Fresh leaves, like the ones in the fall useses a fair amount of nitrogen just to burn up and not to benefit your tree,s. The same with new mulch I get from the electric company, got 2 mounds from them 3 years ago, just now this spring I be able to use it to benefit the tree,s.

I use the same mix for my seedlings vs older plants, no reason why one would get a more 'fancy' mix.

I was using promix but it is no longer available in my area, sooooo bummed. Really having a hard time finding a replacement, and I'm not thrilled with the way 5-1-1 functions.

Im not against anything, everyone has their own way but personally I have never used 5-1-1 and don't plan too in the near future.

Everything has its pros and cons and also perception matters too some prefer something super dry and porous, others more water retaining

The fact that it is able to drain and not stay soggy/swampy is the most important....plenty of factors that affect success with soil media as well like indoor/outdoor, humidity, rainfall, heat (don't want it to bake in the summer) and of course plant choice matters too (water loving, hardy rootstock or something more sensitive to moisture like a cactus or succulent).

No brand preference for me, I get what's available, usually I take one with a bit more peat and another one usually has more bark and wood in it...I mix them together, dilute with coarse perlite, and sometimes add a very coarse sand that I have access to (sand is tricky and generally not considered good since it is usually very fine, but I have a very coarse well draining one which even roots cuttings really well by itself without them rotting).

My soil always comes out great mixed myself, not to dry, not to water retaining, good drainage, great texture, doesn't compact to much...things grow great in it and if something rarely dies it's because of other stuff that happen to it.

Generally all of my plants big and small grow well, only exception is I usually add more perlite and very coarse sand when starting most annual seedlings, since I want drainage perfect during germination and want the soil to separate and fall apart to make workability for me easier when I repot the babies multiple times.

A W, you are good to go, perfect! When you tell that you have a hard time killing a tree, I know you have been on the right track all along.

An overlooked item are pots themselves. i just bought some 2 small plastic pots with built in saucers for non citrus that were manufactured so poorly nothing would drain. I wound up removing the saucer which didn't want to come off either from one and drilling small holes on the side of the other....but they were small pots sized right for the moment.....

The 5-1-1 is great if you follow it exactly. I managed to get what I need in the pinebark sizes. Reptibark is in my opinion still to big. Pinebark come in three sizes, first, second and third grinds. I can get second grinds, way smaller than reptibark, for me, one word, perfect.

The rest you can play around wth whatever you desire.