Hey folks,

Been awhile since I dropped in. Now that spring is practically here, I'm going to be in need of some new potting media for some re-pots that are badly needed.

I'm wondering if anyone would be interested in some kind of arrangement where I pay for ingredients or pay for the mix that you make. I live in the middle of Seattle, but would be willing to drive a ways for this, if I could bring back enough mix.

The reason for this is that I have a disability that makes sifting ingredients nearly impossible to do myself without causing some strain. Living in an apartment doesn't help much either, although I've made that work.

I've tried some labor saving measures mainly by designing some simple conical basket sifters that can be spun, but that still wasn't enough, and the sifters aren't that effective or all that reliable. (I've thought about trying to motorize this or another setup, but doesn't really seem worth the effort involved when handling the sifted ingredients can still be trouble.)

By the way, I already have some ingredients (partial bag of turface, repti-bark, some properly sized grit) and mostly know where to get them locally.

If anyone has come up with some good "lazy" alternatives to Al/tapla's gritty mix, that'd also be useful. I'd considered just getting a bunch of pumice and trying to use that with minimal sifting, but looking into water retention tests that have been done on this forum, it probably wouldn't be up to the task. Weight of the medium in a pot is also a consideration, as my poor lifting strength is one of the issues I deal with.

Failing any of this, I'll probably just try to get a higher quality (and lightweight) store bought mix of some kind, in spite of the drawbacks. Probably heavily amended, in any case.

Thanks,

-Bryan