Anurag - the thread about container soils and water retention was written with the hope that those reading it would come away with an understanding of how water behaves in soils, & particularly how particle size and other physical characteristics impact perched water retention and o/a water retention. It's up to the grower to decide what he/she wants to do - how diligently they want to work at reducing the amount of excess water their soils hold. 1:1:1, screened bark:screened Turface:grit is the most productive soil I've used, but I don't use it for everything. Veggies & plants I know are only going to live a year of go 1 year between repots, usually go in the 5:1:1 mix. All of my woody plants, housep0lants including succulents, and other plants I know will be in the same soil for 2 growth cycles or longer, go in the gritty 1:1:1 mix. The 1:1:1 and 5:1:1 ratios are guidelines, but they're good ones. They minimize the amount of perched water a soil holds, and the gritty mix makes a good run at maximizing the volume of water held inside soil particles while still offering additional adjustability. If you live in a rainy climate and you're using the gritty mix, you might want to increase the amount of grit and decrease the amount of Turface commensurately. If it's dry where you live, increase the Turface and decrease the grit - but make sure that the soil holds enough water to carry you through the dry days, but not so much your plant suffers during periods of prolonged rain. Shading the pots when it's hot is very helpful. High soil/root temps is one of the primary limiting factors for container growers. I like soluble synthetic fertilizers. There is no more efficient way to ensure your plants get what they need, when they need it, at the right ratio, and in a favorable o/a concentration. How you fertilize is up to you, but soluble synthetics make fertilizing almost foolproof, as long as the grower holds up his/her end of the deal. When you root prune, the object is to eliminate large roots that aren't attached to the trunk and are in unfavorable positions to make room for and increase the number of fine roots, which do all the work except anchoring and transport. You'll need to develop a feel for root pruning because all plants don't get the same treatment. Reread the thread about water movement in soil, and the one about trees in containers. Make sure you understand what's in those threads. If you do gain that understanding, it should make a significant difference in what you get back for your efforts. Best luck. Al

I was very fortunate to happen across this post...I normally make a modified gritty mix for container citrus using repti bark. I ordered 32 quarts of repti bark with delivery to Long Island earlier today, price $37.65. After reading this post, ordered about 59 quarts of screened bark from the website you mentioned (per conversion site I consulted, 1 cubic foot is 7.4 gallons, about 29.6 quarts -I hope that's right?) for $29.11. The bulk of the charge was for USPS shipping, but compared to what I was paying, this is great! All local Petcos are out of repti bark and say the manufacturer is short for some reason, which is why I mail ordered it today. Luckily I was able to cancel it...

While I generally wouldn't shop there for plants, I didn't find much in the seed section that piqued my interest...BUT...wanted to find out if you got an email with that $1 shipping link, because it didn't have $1 shipping when I did add things to my cart.

Well I made purchase from these guys. They have good ratings at eBay and The Garden Watchdog and Amazon.com. I was hoping to be able to mix and match and not have to buy four packs but they said they do not sell plants that way. Here is what I got. Pink Brandywine Tomato 4 Plants Juliet Tomato 4 Plants Giant Marconi Pepper - 4 Plants Not sure what I'm going to do with all of them. I only purchased them because I'm nearly ready to plant all my seedlings. I just didn't want to have to start more plants from seed this late.