FlytrapCare Carnivorous Plant Forums

To answer a question that absolutely nobody asked, this is a fresh batch of my all mineral Ping media. It's 40-50% Turface (light orange) and includes crushed granite chicken feed (light grey), lava stone (large black lumps) and aragonite (beige). Obviously, it works for me - otherwise I wouldn't use it. But honestly, I think pings will grow on pretty much anything that'll give them the right amount of water without poisoning them in the process.

in fact in nature there are at least 3 types of substrate for ping: limestone, acid, gypsum
at the start make the correct diagnosis on the substrate of the species to be planted

Thank you @evenwind - agree that pings are fairly resilient to growing media (within reason)! Love having other grower's recipes! What's your aragonite - is it the aquarium sand? Or something more coarse?

I pretty much use turface - sometimes 100% if I'm being lazy, but often with pumice and/or perlite mixed in, at least lower in the pot. Then a topper of just turface to keep the pumice from floating everywhere. I've also read of folks using 1:1:1 perlite, pumice, and vermiliculite. Haven't tried it yet, but might this spring! We're on the cusp of 'the great annual repotting' where everybody get's a new pot/media to fend off the ever-encroaching moss layer.

aragonite: CaCO3
use it in sand form rather than mineral form
it is used in aquariums for the pH of the water

I generally use pure turface for my pings.

I find pure turface stays too wet in my conditions, so I try to get more air in with the chicken grit and lava stone. I've been adding the aragonite to get some calcium carbonate in the pot. It's certainly worthwhile to try special mixes for individual species (like gypsum growing gypsicola) but so much now seems to be crosses of whatever was in bloom at the same time that I like to have a generalized mix ready to go.

evenwind wrote:I find pure turface stays too wet in my conditions, so I try to get more air in with the chicken grit and lava stone. I've been adding the aragonite to get some calcium carbonate in the pot. It's certainly worthwhile to try special mixes for individual species (like gypsum growing gypsicola) but so much now seems to be crosses of whatever was in bloom at the same time that I like to have a generalized mix ready to go.

Do people generally buy the 50lb bag of turface or is there somewhere to buy smaller quantities? I'm sure I'd use 50lbs eventually, but I'd love to try it first.
Is this essentially the same thing? It's like 5x the price, but I wouldn't have to store 50lbs of turface so that's worth it to me Sent from my SM-A536U1 using Tapatalk

Dejavert wrote:Do people generally buy the 50lb bag of turface

Probably beginner ping growers just buy a mix from a nursery, but if (or should I say 'when') you get hooked, then that 50lb bag doesn't seem so daunting. But to answer your actual question - yes, 'calcined clay' is what Turface is, so what you showed in the picture is essentially the same thing.

madrone wrote:

Dejavert wrote:Do people generally buy the 50lb bag of turface

Probably beginner ping growers just buy a mix from a nursery, but if (or should I say 'when') you get hooked, then that 50lb bag doesn't seem so daunting. But to answer your actual question - yes, 'calcined clay' is what Turface is, so what you showed in the picture is essentially the same thing.

Oh yes, I'm sure I'll get hooked. Ping leaf pulls are so easy to propegate, I think I'm going to end up with a whole army eventually. Thank you, I'll probably pick up the calcined clay at Home Depot and see how I like it.

Also hello fellow Washington resident it's so cool seeing so many PNW folks around here

Sent from my SM-A536U1 using Tapatalk

I just got the Pinguicula soil mix from CalCarn and mixed in some chicken grit that's oyster shell and coral calcium. I have pings that like more calcium in their substrate though, those being:

- P. gigantea
- P. 'Mad Madame Mim' (a hybrid of cyclosecta x laueana)
- P. 'Raspberry Blonde'
- P. 'Aphrodite'

At least, they look like they're enjoying the more calcium mix better than just the CalCarn Pinguicula mix by itself. The mix ends up being:

- chicken grit, 2 parts
- sand, 1 part
- peat moss, 1 part
- crushed pumice, 1 part
- perlite, 1 part

Dejavert wrote:Also hello fellow Washington resident

Helllooo! We ARE starting to get more of a WA showing!

alecStewart1 wrote:The mix ends up being:

- chicken grit, 2 parts
- sand, 1 part
- peat moss, 1 part
- crushed pumice, 1 part
- perlite, 1 part

Thanks for sharing your mix! Interesting to hear that you're seeing a difference in plant 'happiness'. I keep meaning to do some media testing, but don't quite carry it off - this is encouraging me to just try it already!

I never used to pay too much attention to Mexy Ping substrate, one of the hazards of starting out with agnata I guess, but I have learned that some of them can be quite finicky when it comes right down to it. I wonder how much the other growing conditions affect which media is successful. Ah, so many questions, so little time...