no cat litier ( with in base sepiolite or attapulgite more alcalin )( easely to find) with others elements?
the sciarides grub love the peat substrat and the plants that are with
I try now for my temperate acid specie ' kanuma' a bonzaï clay more acid than 'akadama' more neutral
jeff
If finding aps localy is a problem you can find a substitute in Lesco. It sells aps under brand name turface. Or on turface.com look up other distributors in your area.I'm going to have to start experimenting with this stuff too. For what it's worth, I use a mix that's basically one part vermiculite, one part peat, and one part sand. All my pings are planted in this mix. I water these things using the tray method alongside my dews.
My P. 'Sethos' seems by far the happiest - it grows like a weed and flowers and divides like nobodies business. My P. 'Titan' flourishes after repotting but eventually slows down... perhaps the media becomes too compact? My P. esseriana just doesn't seem to like it too much, and I've killed so many P. moctezumae to keep experimenting with that species.
If only I could find APS at a local pet/aquarium store, but no dice. I don't really want to have a 20-lb bag shipped to me from Amazon, but I may have to bite the bullet and do it.
Definitely keep us posted on how your new soil mix works for you.
Nice comparison pics. I have never heard of Turface, what does it look like and where can I find some? Forgive my ignorance, trying to learn.
I've got aps in every cp mix I make, with no problems. I don't wash mine either, but I guess if your pots don't freely drain, you may want to do this.
Oh mine are freely draining, but this is what they start to look like after a while:
http://www.terraforums.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1061958&postcount=18
Gill, all of those pots are sitting in containers. How is that freely draining?