Beginner Gardening: Turface on bromeliads?, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
To avoid confusion, lets stay focused on the gritty soil mix for this discussion. If you want more information on the 5:1:1 mix, be sure to read the stickies at the top of the container gardening forum. The science re how water behaves in soils and it's effect on plants can be had there as well. Of course, you can always just pop up with other specific questions when you have them.

The bark is sometimes difficult to find at first. For the gritty mix, I buy 4 cu ft bags of pre-screened fir bark from an orchid supply place just NW of CHI. I bought 15 bags this summer, which will last a good long while. Apparently, there is a bark product (fir) you can buy at pet stores called 'Repti Bark' or something like that. I haven't looked at to see if the particle size is appropriate, but others say it works well. By the pictures, it LOOKS like it could be exactly what I use, but again, I can't tell. Size is important.

Those are the main ingredients and I've found they're well worth looking for. BTW - the Turface 'smokes' because it's such a hot commodity. ;o)

In the picture below, the product I use for the gritty mix (1/8 - 1/4" fir bark) is at 12. The other 3 products at the perimeter would all be acceptable (pine bark) if the fines are screened out. The soil in the middle is the 5:1:1 mix when it's dry.

Al