pure pumice?

[Jim_Mercer]

I think you have the wrong one Marise. It's Tesco low dust non clumping and the package is predominantly green.

Marise, This is the one. They changed the name from Low dust to Antibacterial! It has the same attributes in a different order - Odour control, Adsorbent, Low dust, Lightweight.

I think you have the wrong one - I bought the same one as Herts Mike

[Herts Mike]

Here you go Peter-

[Tony R]

Tesco online and in Kent don't seem to stock the Low Dust non-clumping one anymore, only stocking the Antibacterial (low dust non-clumping) one.
Perhaps some Tescos around the country stock all of the non-clumping ones as depicted on the back of Mike's bag?

[Marise]

Thanks everyone. That's very helpful. I shall try again next shopping trip.
Good job my neighbour has 2 cats!

[peter831shaw]

Here you go Peter-

IMG_20190407_1507015_rewind.jpg

thanks,

Peter

[Marise]

Thanks for the guidance everyone. Successful purchase today!

[Rob]

I purchased a 25L bag of crushed lava rock but haven't started repotting yet, does anyone know if it is as good as pumice?

Funnily enough I had a discussion with a fellow member about this at our last branch meeting in Aberdeen on Thursday. I did the same as you and bought some "lava rock" (also known as scoria) which is being sold on Amazon as pumice. I also bought some proper pumice from Specialist Aggregates. So I've been doing a bit of researching to find out the differences.
Plenty of people seem to use scoria, especially in the USA, also including mixing it with pumice, but it seems to be acknowledged as not as good as pumice. It is a bit heavier, not so quick to dry out, has more dust, and has a different mineral content than pumice. I'm going to do a trial comparison by potting seedlings into (a) pure pumice, (b) pure scoria, (c) a mix of the two and (d) my own original mix of JI, cat litter, grit and perlite. I will report back in a couple of years

Hi Paul
Any initial observations on the various mixes please?
I've been thinking about going over to a mineral mix for a while, and feel it is probably time to stop thinking and start doing! So I need to do a bit of serious research in to the mixes people are using to make sure I get it right.
Thanks

[Rob]

Just bumping this up to try again,
Anyone got any particular results from the various mixes mentioned in this thread.

I was leaning towards pumice, but the SpecialistAggregates website seems to be down (or defunct?), I cant find anywhere else selling in bulk at the moment.

[Nick_G]

Rob, I've used straight Sanicat cat litter, with nothing added, very successfully for 7 or 8 years now. I use this for all my cacti, Turbinicarpus included. I don't like the Tesco stuff, too small for me.

[Paul D]

Just bumping this up to try again,
Anyone got any particular results from the various mixes mentioned in this thread.

I was leaning towards pumice, but the SpecialistAggregates website seems to be down (or defunct?), I cant find anywhere else selling in bulk at the moment.

Reporting back- though too early for any proper results- the seedlings potted in a mix of scoria and pumice, 50/50, are doing fantastically well; not sure if better than the other substrates!
The two have different trace elements present and I guess it is the best of both worlds. But then if you feed correctly then the substrate becomes less important.

Rob, I got a delivery from Specialist Aggregates about 3 weeks ago, so they are up and running.