I needed a lot of soil for 7-10 gallon pots (and a few 25 gallons), and as I'm presently (and for the next few months) run pillar-to-post I needed it fast and simple, and of course inexpensive. An outfit here bulk markets a complete organic soil for raised beds and such, based on used mushroom compost diluted with fairly finely ground wood fiber (or maybe it's bark). It's called "DixieMix." It drains well and doesn't stay saturated (i.e., in the voids between the particles or fibers) but is highly sorptive and retentive of water in the many tiny voids within the sponge-like organic solids, and thus it is pretty soggy when wet, too much so for citrus. I have simply mixed it with a large amount (not quite 50:50) of perlite, which I buy in the cheaper big bags from a farm supply place. In just examining the mix, I don't think it will or can be too soggy for citrus. In a few years, though, it conceivably may become too light, as the organics decompose and oxidize away. I'll deal with that then (maybe with nondecomposable vermiculite). What I was shooting for is an analog to the "hammock" soils that were so sought for citrus in Florida a century ago, sands with a little carbonate to make pH near-neutral and with significant enrichment of organic matter by the hammock forest ("hammock" there means broadleaf evergreen trees). We'll see how it goes.
