Hi, what is the current "good" brand of John Innes to buy for cactus use? I've been reading that the quality of mix differs year on year so posts recommending one brand from a few years ago may not be valid anymore. For example on the B and Q website the reviews for the westland john innes...

Maybe some harmless soil microfauna, like Collembola. The fact that they weren't attached to your plans is possibly a good sign. Well all the soil is new as they were repotted autumn last year after a root mealybug outbreak, I used methylated spirits on the roots on the advice of a thread here and ...

Just noticed these crawling around the pot drainage holes on a number of cactus plants downstairs and the orchid on the landing, any ideas what they are? They're shiny white/slightly beige or cream and move at a fairly modest pace, close to but sub millimeter in size. Those long feelers at the fat e...

I have used both perlite and vermiculite in the past. As others have commented on this forum, the problem with perlite is that being very lightweight it accrues at the top of the potting mixture and, being white, is rather unsightly (in my opinion). As already mentioned I use vermiculite and cat li...

You've not spoiled the mix ..... just use it mixed with whatever you decide to use as your final mix ... your plants won't shout at you .... should you decide on grit plus ..... plus ..... whatever .... then make up your bucket of mix and stir in a handful of the experiment mix .... it'll soon be u...

Here is the test i use to determinate the property of my mix. I put the mix inside the regular pot i use. I first weight the mix dry.Then apply water,let it drain over night weight again. Calculate how many water is retain in mix. Put the mix&pot inside my greenhouse. weight it every 2 day to s...

Well that didn't work out, the grit just made it take several minutes for the water level to go down. It's kind of knocked my confidence a bit to be honest :sad: What should I try next, perlite for this cactus focus brand of soil and some john innes for use with the grit? I can get Westland branded...

Well that didn't work out, the grit just made it take several minutes for the water level to go down. It's kind of knocked my confidence a bit to be honest :sad: What should I try next, perlite for this cactus focus brand of soil and some john innes for use with the grit? I can get Westland branded ...

I have always gone for the granite ... but others may disagree .... and some will suggest other additives .... I get mine under a different label from a city council locally run garden centre because the special offers are often better. I've gone ahead and opened the granite bag and uploaded a pict...

Ok, went out to the local Charlies store and picked up two kelkay RHS grit bags to choose from. DSC_0010.JPG One is regular "potting grit" granite angular and this contains smaller granules of about 1-5mm, but I can see some stray chips smaller than that. They feel sharper too. DSC_0011.JP...