Beginner Gardening: Good Growing Practices - an Overview for Beginners, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
You have the 5:1:1 mix right.

The gritty mix is:

1 part screened pine or fir bark
1 part screened Turface Allsport or MPV
1 part crushed granite or cherrystone (Gran-I-Grit in grower size or #2 cherrystone)

What you use as a fertilizer with the gritty mix determines whether or not you should add Gypsum as a Ca source and use Epsom salts as your magnesium source. If you just go with the Foliage-Pro 9-3-6, you don't need to add anything else to the soil. It's one of the few soluble fertilizers that contains Ca and Mg.

I'm not sure where the middle recipe came from. If I posted it, I was because I was helping someone address a specific issue. The gritty mix contains no small particles, as that would defeat the purpose - a root-friendly long-lasting soil with good water retention (w/o supporting perched water) and superlative aeration.

Al