Cat litter

[Herts Mike]

Just noticed Sophisticat cat litter pink 30l for £21.87 on Amazon.

[brugge]

Having never used cat litter, without sounding too stupid, do you place a layer at the bottom of the pot or do you mix it in the compost when re potting a plant.
Is there cat litter that is rubbish to use, ie supermarket low cost own brand? or how do l tell if its any good.

[MatDz]

Having never used cat litter, without sounding too stupid, do you place a layer at the bottom of the pot or do you mix it in the compost when re potting a plant.
Is there cat litter that is rubbish to use, ie supermarket low cost own brand? or how do l tell if its any good.

1. You mix it with the rest of your ingredients.

2. As you asked about this, a "layer at the bottom" doesn't improve drainage at all, all it does is it raises the level of saturation in the pot (give me a sec, I'll find a link to a video on that).

3. It has to be a moler clay one, there are multiple brands mentioned on the forum, including spillage absorbents.

Edit re. #2: https://youtu.be/hw1j48GjFXo, about 28:00.

[Tina]

Cheers Mike,
2 bags ordered, I do like the larger size for the bigger pots & plants.

[Mike P]

They sent me an email recently confirming that stocks are available again and it should be reappearing in all the old locations shortly. Serious price hike thou.

[Trilobite]

Aha, finally , very good news!

[ianstrutt]

I’ve just started using this for the majority of my plants. I think I’ve added too much cat litter in relation to grit and a bit of compost. Pots seem to be taking a long time to dry out.
Do others use this alongside compost or instead of?


I’ve since upped the amount of grit im using and that seems to have done the trick.

[Darren S]

I've used it in various combinations Ian. Very few plants are now in pure cat litter. Most have some grit added and maybe a little humus in the form of a bark based compost. It depends on the plants.

Pure cat litter needs you to really keep on top of the feeding and nutrient balance. Also my wife experimented with it as part of her Hort degree research and found it was disastrous for her test plants (Sedum) under drought conditions because it actually seems to wick moisture out of the plants via the roots and they shrivelled badly compared with plants in a mix with 20% composted bark and/or grit added. Her hypothesis was that the additives interrupted the capillary connections between the cat litter particles and reduced the effect. As a result I won't use it undiluted for anything with a prolonged summer dormancy. Winter dormancy might be OK.

My Pterocactus are currently in deep pots of pure Sanicat pink. And they do seem to need a long time between waterings but that might be pot depth more than anything. I'm not convinced they wouldn't be happier in a richer mix.

[brugge]

Having never used cat litter, without sounding too stupid, do you place a layer at the bottom of the pot or do you mix it in the compost when re potting a plant.
Is there cat litter that is rubbish to use, ie supermarket low cost own brand? or how do l tell if its any good.

1. You mix it with the rest of your ingredients.

2. As you asked about this, a "layer at the bottom" doesn't improve drainage at all, all it does is it raises the level of saturation in the pot (give me a sec, I'll find a link to a video on that).

3. It has to be a moler clay one, there are multiple brands mentioned on the forum, including spillage absorbents.

Edit re. #2: https://youtu.be/hw1j48GjFXo, about 28:00.

Thank you for your answer, do l still mix perlite with it or should l forget the perlite with adding cat litter.

[iann]

No need for perlite if you use cat litter. Mixes with cat litter will retain more water than perlite, so adjust your mix accordingly, or your watering.