treebeard55

I like Turface myself, or another product, different brand name, that's available around here and is essentially the same thing.

A good friend of mine goes a less expensive route: he uses floor-dry, as it's called here: calcined clay granules that come in 50-lb bags and are used to soak up spilled oil, water, what-have-you.

It looks very much like Turface. The only significant difference between floor-dry and Turface is that Turface is fired at a higher temperature, so it lasts longer before its structure starts to break down. But from what my friend has told me, floor-dry holds up just fine for 2-3 years, and by then he's usually ready to re-pot anyway.

Here in northern IN floor-dry is available at any auto-supply store. One important caution: be sure that what you get has no additives. Some additives can poison your trees in short order.

__________________
Treebeard 55

"... the Lord God made all kinds of trees ... trees that were pleasing to the eye ..." (Genesis 2:9, NIV.)