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Ping planting media

I am getting to repot my existing Mexican Pings and am expecting to add three more to my collection in the next week. I read Joseph's "sticky" on the care and feeding of Pings and he recommends silica sand...that I have...Schultz aquatic plant soil and iron oxide as the planting media. None of the local pet stores carry it, or the iron oxide. Does anyone have an idea where to purchase these two items?
If not, any other ideas of what I can use?
I have acess to plenty of beach sand, which is nothing but ground up shells and coral, right outside my door. Could that be used in an any way?
 
Hi,
For the Schultz aquatic plant soil I found mine at Lowes.The iron oxide I bought from www.baileypottery.com.They have a minimum order so I ended up buying 5lbs of it.

Mark W.
 
Deet,daa,dee.Been a lllooonnngg week
 
I'm still a newbie to pings, but I planted mine in 50/50 peat/perlite mix, and they are doing fine.

You might want to be careful of beach sand. I've always heard that salt in beach sand and wood is bad for CPs. I think you can wash it really good to get rid of the salt...but I have no idea how to wash sand.
 
I use equal parts peatmoss, perlite, and vermiculite for my Mexican pings.
Then the top 1/8" - 1/4" is pure vermiculite.
 
I use equal parts peatmoss, perlite, and vermiculite for my Mexican pings.
Then the top 1/8" - 1/4" is pure vermiculite.

I do practically the exact same thing.

xvart.
 
Mexican pings are really not picky about growing medium, other than maybe having an alkaline substrat for P. gypsicola, for which I am using a little bit of crushed coral. Most people use some combination of peat and perlite. I happen to like mixing sand & peat, with LFS on top. Joseph has made mention of an LFS layer on top of perlite, which keeps things bot moist and drained.
 
I have transferred most of my pings to the Schultz APS. It's great stuff for pings. I have seen superior root growth. I use about 65/35 APS and sand.
I think i get mine from Lowes, or HD.
Peter.
 
  • #10
What is APS?
 
  • #11
aps= aquatic plant soil

It looks like clay colored #2 size perlite
Peter.
 
  • #12
I'm betting aquatic plant soil.
 
  • #13
ive grown Mexi's in pure peat kept wet year round............however in this set of conditions they dont really produce roots.....they kinda just "float" on the soil surface.......they also never went into their succulent leaf phase............now that ive switched to 3 parts Schultz Aquatic plant soil and 1 part peat ive gotten alot of good root growth and some have started moving themselves in and out of succulent growth on their own accord even being kept wet year round
 
  • #14
APS is the shizzle! I love the stuff for everything.
 
  • #15
curious, is Schultz APS actually "fuller's earth"...

TIA,
Av
 
  • #16
Durnit.

My local Lowe's doesn't carry Schultz' APS.

They don't even carry the Schultz brand! :(

I'd really like to try this APS on my suffering pings.

What exactly is in the APS anyway?
 
  • #17
Durnit.

My local Lowe's doesn't carry Schultz' APS.

They don't even carry the Schultz brand! :(

I'd really like to try this APS on my suffering pings.

What exactly is in the APS anyway?

My question, excatly! Never heard of it.
 
  • #18
Basically, it looks like tan kitty litter,the cheap stuff not the "scoopable"type. It is used for aquatic plantsa in backyard ponds as far as I know so if you know of someplace that sells pond plants,pondliners,etc.I bet they would have it.I hope this helps.
 
  • #19
From what I understand,

It's "traditional" name is "fuller's earth", it can be found in some cat litter products as well as quite a bit of other items and uses

fuller's earth got its name by being used by English textile workers (who were known as fuller's at the time) to remove oils from the textiles

It is a highly adsorbent claylike substance consisting of hydrated aluminum silicates

proper names are attapulgite or montmorillonite (may contain both)

HTH's
Av

edit: I checked a bag of their orchid mix, there it is listed as Arcillite which is a synonym for Montmorillonite
 
  • #20
Here's a couple shots of a Pinguicula debbertiana that I got from Peter in some of his APS based Ping mix. It's in a two inch pot.

P5200093.jpg

P5200096.jpg
 
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