I too started off with about 50% gravel mixes an stressed a lot about where I could source 'exotic' ingredients like crushed and size graded pumice or crushed lava rock or diatomaceous earth or such like.ImNotTelling wrote: ↑Sun Apr 05, 2020 6:21 pm Don't know about perfect. I was terrible at making soil
My secret ingredient? Gravel. At least 40% of the soil per volume has to be gravel.
I also have used pearlite, baked clay, , lake gravel as supplementary components and crushed brick, leca and orchid bark as additions. Only peat as organic component, or re-used standard cactus soil.
Have even grown plants in pure gravel (almost, at least, still had some soil on the roots) like rebutia steinmanii ,armatocereus etc.
Then one day, quite by chance, I had bought a sickly looking Astrophytum from one of our local warehouses (Bunnings). I didn't bother going to the garage and dragging the bag of specially formulated cacti mix I had there. So, rather lazily, I scooped a couple of handfuls of builders sand from the side of the garden into a terracotta pot and shoved the Astro into it. Its been there for about 2 years now and looks absolutely gorgeous and healthy. Its even beaten other Astros that were grown in these so called speciality mixes.
The point I'm trying to make is - if there's a way to make money from dirt, people will so do - its called capitalism.
Now, I'm not advocating against capitalism, in fact I'm for it. But, why would you succumb to those pressures and buy these products when plain sand in a terracotta pot will do a simply amazing job?
The proof of the pudding is above in one of my earlier posts in this page - check out how healthy those cacti are.
Also, I don't have to worry about accidental over-watering due to the fact I am using terracotta pots - they are amazing products, not to mention completely recyclable (I know plastic pots are too).