Beginner Gardening: Potting mix amendments, 0 by jewelsbyshari

jewelsbyshari wrote:
Yes, sorry I meant "Allsport".

I'm posting a photo below of the soil condition. It seems as though yesterday it appeared somewhat 'fuzzier' than today, but three of my my plants, all in deeper pots, with heave soil have this, and yes I have been giving them 'sips'. I know that the soil is dense enough that to flush them would only mean long-standing perched water. The spider plant that I repotted last night had been getting a white (almost) crust on it that I had scraped off and it came back, I'm sure from salt build-up. It looked slightly different from this stuff, although this may be the beginnings up the build-up?

I know the spider I repotted last night had several gross squishy roots on it that I removed and cleaned off the old soil before reotting in the gritty mix, and the leaves are starting to stand back up some and it already looks healthier over-all.

I don't plant on repotting everything right now, as I'm sure several of my plants wouldn't be too pleased with me, but just the ones that are already looking stressed.. and maybe these ones with the white gunk on the soil. These include 2 snake plants, and a Chinese evergreen. I'd like to repot the 2 'bonsai' ficus now also, but will likely just do one of them, as leaves keep turning yellow and dropping, and it's down to few leaves now anyway. It has rocks glued on top of the soil.

I will likely switch my fertilizer when what I'm currently using runs out.

So I also get from your post that I need to use about 1/4 of the fertilizer I'm using in the gritty mix, but not for a couple of weeks after I repot. The sharpened dowel is a great idea, thank you.

I really appreciate your time answering my posts, I know you answer a lot of posts by other folks, and you end up telling most of us something that you've already said probably hundreds of times.

If you see something in my posts that is dead wrong, and you believe would be detrimental, please let me know. I value your input and help and the ability to weigh viewpoints more than I value a dead plant.

Thanks again.