Well-drained growing media (was Oh No! A Boophone disaster!)
Tom Mitchell (Sun, 04 Oct 2009 02:25:00 PDT)

There was an interesting article in the most recent issue of The
Plantsman (8, 3, p. 189-191) reporting great success growing
Fritillaria from seed to maturity, without any repotting, in pure
Seramis, a proprietary expanded clay product from Germany. The
author, Paul Cumbleton, reported that the medium is apparently NOT
successful with winter growing South African bulbs perhaps because,
he speculated, the feeding regime is hard to get right. I wonder
whether anyone else has tried Seramis or another expanded clay
material with genera other than Fritillaria and, if so, with what
results?

On a related point, I wonder if anyone with experience of using it
would advise me which grade or particle size of pumice to use for
horticultural applications. I've never used it but am keen to
experiment with it after reading the recent correspondence on
Boophone and other SA Amaryllidaceae.

Tom, Zone 8 (Boophone seedlings currently doing well in a coir/
perlite mix)