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Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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Posted by
krismast 6 (
My Page) on
Mon, May 7, 12 at 8:11
| Hi everyone. This is my first time mixing up gritty mix and I had a question about the Turface. I was sifting the Turface last night using a homemade sifter with insect screen on the bottom. I had read from others that when they sifted their Turface they lost up to 50% of the bag! But I don't feel that I lost much at all. I just wanted to make sure that I sifted it right and got rid of the fines. I put a few scoops in the sifter and just shook it back and forth until only a few small pieces were falling out. I also took my hand and rubbed it over the screen to help push more of the smaller pieces out. After all this it took me about two hours to sift a 50 pound bag and I hope that I don't have to resift! Do you think I sifted it thoroughly enough?
Thanks for the help!
Kristopher |
Follow-Up Postings:
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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| The amount you lose varies from bag to bag. You will also notice most of the finer stuff is near the bottom of the bag. You are doing fine and you do not need to work so hard. I can go through a 50 lb bag in 20 min or less. |
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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| Sometimes life smiles at you, and you may have lucked out with a good bag! As long as it was turface "MVP" or "Allsport", sounds good... |
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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| Are you using aluminum or fiberglass insect screen? The fiberglass screen has thicker strands which means smaller holes. You want to use aluminum screen so that more of the smaller particles are allowed to pass through. Also, I think many of the people losing around half of their Turface (like myself) are using something coarser than insect screen which is probably unnecessary in most cases. -Chris |
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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| I average about 1/4 of the bag lost to "fines". As mentioned, you'll feel like you're doing great, until you get to the bottom, where the small stuff is. Then you feel like 95% of it is lost. Joe |
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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- Posted by tapla z5b-6a mid-MI (My Page) on
Mon, May 7, 12 at 20:08
| I usually lose around 1/5, maybe 1/4. Al |
RE: Question about Turface for Gritty Mix
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| Thanks for the responses everyone! I am using aluminum screen. I guess I must have just gotten lucky with a good bag because even at the bottom it didn't seem all that dusty! Thanks again!
Kristopher |
I did not screen it
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| Since I had to order my turface on the internet. I had not very much of it. The bark was 1/4 size from a good orchid place, the turface was 1/4 and so was the granite. I can't see any point in losing some of the turface because it gets ground into powder from the screening. It worked out great for me anyway. I was a bit heavier on the bark, due to a lack of the turface and granite, but the plants still look good and they are not sitting there wet. I checked and they are draining out. So, I don't think one needs to screen it. If the plant is a super fussy plant and ultra expensive maybe, but these were just test plants. They need good, but not excellent drainage. |
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