Napa 8822

swords · Post by **swords** » Mon May 18, 2009 5:39 am

I don't know about the addition of cactus mix, I'm a peat-a-phobe when it comes to succulents. If you can use it go for it. I do use coir in my mix but not very much, maybe 10%? Just enough to knit all the grit material together and make it not fall out the drainage holes of the pots. In a handful of my mix you can barely make out the coir fibers. But I use such a mix cos succulents tend to rot off at the base in my conditions if not grown in something like this. Since I look at my plants every day it's no problem to get out the turkey baster to spot-water the little pots if any show signs of shrinking or shriveling.

I just bought a bale of peat for repotting my Carnivores though, and since the sand they sell around here sucks I will use the Napa in the peat 50/50 for the CPs and see how that goes.

The only time I've had pots go hard was when I used pelleted limestone for some lime-lovers. After a few waterings I could knock someone out wielding those pots!

Silenus · Post by **Silenus** » Mon May 18, 2009 2:41 pm

I can't find coir in my area and ordering online seems a bit expensive.

I think I'm just going to end up using a generic potting soil, or I'll get the cactus soil that has some peat in it and remove the larger organic material and break up the peat, mix in perlite and gravel, the cat litter is not so great. Like a 60-70% potting soil to 40%-30% perlite, I'm in Florida so it's pretty hot in the summer.

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:01 pm

Like Tony, i've been using the NAPA for a little over a year and have had good results. I started with just seedlings, but moved it to the regular mix as well. Works great for us.

Silenus · Post by **Silenus** » Mon May 18, 2009 3:32 pm

Which type of NAPA the larger pieces or smaller, and only NAPA auto stores would be the only places selling this, correct? I can't find info on where to buy by searching NAPA 8822, I think mixing it with perlite and potting soil would provide excellent results.

swords · Post by **swords** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:13 pm

I don't have any local nurseries which sell coir either, I bought a 5 cu ft compressed bale off ebay for $25 + $20 shipping and I may never need coir again! After 2 years I've made a small dent in it.

I'm sure you probably have a Petsmart or Petco or some other pet shop down in FL, go in there and ask for a brick of "Bed-A-Beast Reptile Bedding", if they don't have that there's another brick called "Coco Bedding". These little bricks run about $4-$7 around here depending upon the shop. Reptile shops charge more - of course! This product is compressed coir. Put the brick in a bucket and dump a gallon or two of hot water on it and wait, it'll puff up and there's your coir fiber. Squeeze it out and spread it out and let it dry. You'll get about half of a 5 gallon pail full from one brick. If possible you might be able to snap the dry brick in two and grind each half against each other and powder it that way. My big bale is soft enough I can tear off two handfuls at at shot and grind it up, tossing out any large wads that form. That saves the time of expanding and drying it, but some of those little bricks I've boughten in the past were seriously, brick hard and had to be water expanded.

We have Napa shops everywhere here, every town has at least one! Aren't there any in FL? Check any auto parts store they all probably sell it since spilled oil/fluids is a universal problem in fix-it garages. Just make sure it's Napa part #8822, who knows what the other brands of oil dry might be made of?

I don't know if there's any larger or smaller diameter bags of Napa, it was just bags on a palate. The Cherrystone chicken grit comes in various sizes.

Silenus · Post by **Silenus** » Mon May 18, 2009 6:59 pm

http://www.napaonline.com/NOLPPSE/(S(obmehln3pj4pomfkow4k3m55))/Detail.aspx?R=NOD8822_0006414227

Is local, I guess I have to make a drive, I think I can omit coir, it seems like the generic cacti mix although they use the material that can harden up don't really become that much of an issue. Plus coir is expensive to ship.

iann · Post by **iann** » Mon May 18, 2009 7:21 pm

We still don't know why one mix hardened up. It would be interesting to know whether that particular bag of NAPA granules harden up on their own, or only n combination with some other ingredients.

I'm not sure why you'd want to mix NAPA and cat litter together. If you have the right stuff then they are both the same. If they're not the same then one of them is the wrong stuff. Size might be different but I'm not a big fan of mixing in lots of different sized materials, that's just a recipe for clogging up all the gaps you're trying to create for good drainage and air retention.

I feel kind of the same way about clay granules and perlite. Why on earth would you want to add perlite to the very stuff that you hunted down so you don't have to use perlite? They don't behave 100% identically in soil but they're close enough that either one will do the job, and given the choice I'd rather not have perlite floating to the top of my pots and blowing all over the garden.

Standard potting soil and cactus potting soil is essentially the same thing. Virtually every brand on the market is a mixture of bark or sawdust (labelled as forest products) and peat (of varying quality and texture), a very few with coir also. Then they add variable amounts of fertiliser, perlite, maybe vermiculite, and put different labels on them.

If you haven't made a decent dent in a bale of coir all I can say is that you need more plants

Silenus · Post by **Silenus** » Mon May 18, 2009 7:26 pm

Well then I guess I'll just get some NAPA, wash it off and mix it in with some regular higher quality potting soil, a bit of the expensive stuff omitting coir since I don't really have the ability to purchase large amounts and purchasing such small amounts considering my collection would be expensive. Do you think that would be a fine mixture, just the regular potting soil as long as it's higher quality (less large pieces of organic material) and the NAPA, if so which type of potting soil would you recommend.

swords · Post by **swords** » Mon May 18, 2009 9:20 pm

If you haven't made a decent dent in a bale of coir all I can say is that you need more plants

Of course I need more plants - I only have a couple hundred! I step into a nursery and it's like a weird junk addiction, I can feel the phytoplasm coursing through my veins!

As far as using potting soil I'd just go with a bale of Sphagnum Peat Moss. A 2.2 cu ft bale is $6 when it's not on sale, since this is prime gardening season I got one for $3.25 on Saturday at the Home Depot across the street. That way you don't have to contend with whatever "extras" they put in potting soils. You just have pure fine peat, no organics, barks, the rare perlite bits, fertilizers or anything else.

lancer99 · Post by **lancer99** » Tue May 19, 2009 8:44 am

I think I made a liar of myself...but in a good way!

lancer99 wrote:Actually I'm a little disappointed in the Napa 8822...it wasn't the panacea I had hoped it was.

It set up really hard in some of my mixes, despite having been washed multiple times. The more Napa, the harder it set up...

What I discovered is that it's just the top 1/2-1" that has set up hard. Underneath that, the mix is fairly friable. Seems counter-intuitive, but maybe I didn't wash the Napa enough, and the tiny particles ended up on the top. Whatever happened, it's definitely less solid, the farther you go down.

So I'm Napa-happy again!

-R

Me at the Napa parts store: "Hi. I'm looking for oil absorbent."
Napa dude: "We have that."
Me: "But I'm only interested in part #8822."
Napa dude: "You're in luck, that's the only one we carry. Did you look up the part number on the internet?"
Me: "Yes, it's for cacti."
Napa dude: "............"

He didn't say much after that.

Post by **CoronaCactus** » Tue May 19, 2009 3:31 pm

I've noticed a thin crust layer (1/4" or less) on some seedling pots that i let dry out too much. I think it also had to do with algae growing in there and made it stick together. But when i sterilized the soil that all went away.

I know it's not quite the same as larger potted cacti, but figured it may shed some light

Another thought would be too much sand or fine soil (clay?) to clog up the works...?

Did you use any top dressing?

Silenus · Post by **Silenus** » Tue May 19, 2009 3:39 pm

It has been so dreary and overcast in my area with so much rain that even though my plants are on the porch the soil is draining but not "drying" because of the lack of heat and sun.

But the NAPA mix seems to work well and since it's not regular clay like cat litter it's nice. But it's an absorbent, shouldn't that be a no-no considering that perlite doesn't absorb really it just spreads the water or material over it's surface, that's why it's bumpy to create a larger surface area.

Post by **daiv** » Tue May 19, 2009 3:55 pm

Silenus wrote:. Like a 60-70% potting soil to 40%-30% perlite, I'm in Florida so it's pretty hot in the summer.

Stick with those percentages, but reverse it would by my advice.

Post by **daiv** » Tue May 19, 2009 3:57 pm

lancer99 wrote:
Me at the Napa parts store: "Hi. I'm looking for oil absorbent."
Napa dude: "We have that."
Me: "But I'm only interested in part #8822."
Napa dude: "You're in luck, that's the only one we carry. Did you look up the part number on the internet?"
Me: "Yes, it's for cacti."
Napa dude: "............"

He didn't say much after that.

Funny! When I came busting in with a part number the guy asked me what account I wanted to put it on. Then I told him I'm just buying it for personal use.

iann · Post by **iann** » Tue May 19, 2009 4:49 pm

The guys at the farm store still haven't quite got their heads round me buying horse feed to spread on my lawn, and I don't even have a horse!