Gang -
There have been several discussion over the past couple of weeks over the merits (or lack of) of LFS as the sole or a portion of potting mix: I've only ever used pure LFS a handful of times, and have since slowly repotted everything out of it. Today, I finally had the time, and enough of the other mixes I prefer to use on hand so I took the liberty of unpotting my last pure LFS plant. I thought it might be of benefit to "document" this process.
My experience "unpotting" from LFS is always frustrating. The roots and LFS make a terribly tangled mess. It was near impossible to even come close to removing it all without massive root damage; unless I wanted to spend even more time and energy attempting to do so, at the possible cost of more root damage. Imagine a 8" pot with a depth of 8", full of LFS. After about ten minutes, I was left with this:
During the process I know I lost several roots as I could see them in the pile at the bottom. However, I know it didn't cause any permanent damage and will certainly recover. I only wish the LFS still in the ball would quickly turn into a slime and melt out the bottom of the pot and leave the new mix all by itself.
The dregs:
After working a little more, I finally repotted what was left in, in my opinion, a much preferable mix (orchid bark, some charcoal, perlite, some peat, and a pinch of LFS):
And, now we all get a chance to see why xvart is going to sleep on the couch tonight! (Just kidding) It was much worse, but I did quite a bit of cleanup of the dirty water that was spotting the carpet and the LFS shreds that were everywhere.
xvart.
There have been several discussion over the past couple of weeks over the merits (or lack of) of LFS as the sole or a portion of potting mix: I've only ever used pure LFS a handful of times, and have since slowly repotted everything out of it. Today, I finally had the time, and enough of the other mixes I prefer to use on hand so I took the liberty of unpotting my last pure LFS plant. I thought it might be of benefit to "document" this process.
My experience "unpotting" from LFS is always frustrating. The roots and LFS make a terribly tangled mess. It was near impossible to even come close to removing it all without massive root damage; unless I wanted to spend even more time and energy attempting to do so, at the possible cost of more root damage. Imagine a 8" pot with a depth of 8", full of LFS. After about ten minutes, I was left with this:
During the process I know I lost several roots as I could see them in the pile at the bottom. However, I know it didn't cause any permanent damage and will certainly recover. I only wish the LFS still in the ball would quickly turn into a slime and melt out the bottom of the pot and leave the new mix all by itself.
The dregs:
After working a little more, I finally repotted what was left in, in my opinion, a much preferable mix (orchid bark, some charcoal, perlite, some peat, and a pinch of LFS):
And, now we all get a chance to see why xvart is going to sleep on the couch tonight! (Just kidding) It was much worse, but I did quite a bit of cleanup of the dirty water that was spotting the carpet and the LFS shreds that were everywhere.
xvart.