Quote:
Originally Posted by sirdoofus
Perlite is quite fragile and crumbles easily. Presumably under prolonged pressure it would eventually become a mass of fine particles.
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perlite.
that was a think while i was typing..............many of us can't get the coarse sand/rock that is available to you. BUT PERLITE ADDED TO THE ROCK?
now mike can go to the mountains, find a nice mountain stream with some screen nailed between boards and get all the substrate he wants.
as for me, towards the east coast we a have what we call shell sand. it perks very well and can have some courses. not a lot of shell, so i don't believe i have to worry about alkalinity. i have not done this yet.
now to keep the rock in the pot, the best thing i found is a couple of inches of leaves. large pot, 2 1/2 to 3 gallon pot. because the rock is so heavy i use a frying pan with a hole in the side about 3/4 of inch high so i can keep water at the bottom of the pot. what i found is, the roots always go to the leaves and the water and grow great. i liked your suggestion of using potting soil in the bottom. so, leaves, potting soil and then your rock above that, enough rock to keep the corm aeriated. for us people who don't have the materials readily available to us.