Turface MVP and quick dry

I finally picked up 3 x 50 pound bags of Turface MVP this weekend. I feel like I have been searching for a supplier for years. It turns out that a Garden suplpy shop less than an hour away has a few bags tucked away in the warehouse. I think at some point I paid $40 for a gallon or Turface remarketed as "Bonsai soil" at a fair. It is so true that there is 1000% mark up for anything with the word Bonsai on it.

It looks like the MVP bags have been there for years even though I never found them in my previous dozen visits. The MVP was almost completely obscured by some Turface quick dry stacked in front of it. I would imagine that the quick dry is too powdery or the particle size is too small. Anyone have any experience with quick dry?

Thanks,
David

From the Turface site spec sheets....

Quick Dry® SIEVE ANALYSIS:
80% minus 30 Mesh

MVP® SIEVE ANALYSIS:
Typical
6 MESH 15.0%
8 MESH 31.5%
12 MESH 18.9%
20 MESH 30.9%
30 MESH 3.1%
40 MESH 0.5%
Pan 0.1%

If this is accurate...I won't even consider quick dry.

I like this part...

5. Particle Stability: Sulfate Soundness testing (ASTM C-88) and static degradation test not to exceed 4% loss over 20 years

Hi David, I searched garden centers for a couple of years looking for Turface without any success. I finally realized that it is not a gardening product, specifically. It is a sports product (Most Valuable Player) used for conditioning ball fields. When I researched that avenue I found three places locally where I can buy Turface mvp at $12.50US for a 50lb sack. The place I'm buying it is an irrigation supply house that caters to grounds keepers and landscapers

The Quick-dry is a finer product and is used to build the pitchers mound on a baseball field, so I was told when I asked about it. Like the fines in mvp it would be good for seed starting and cuttings, but I get enough of that from the mvp. Rick

I think LESCO was taken over by a John Deer name, but here in Brevard County, Florida they had Turface. Their biggest customers are golf courses.

Up here (western NY), the only place I've been able to find turface is at "John Deere Landscapes". Don't know how widely distributed they are, but there is a store locator on their website (https://www.johndeerelandscapes.com/)

I also get mine from an irrigation and landscape product supplier that operates in 21 States.

http://www.ewing1.com/

John Deere was the place I could find online, but it is like 2 hours from here in traffic and had business hours hard to make with my work schedule. Anyways I have a few bags now, which should last a while, although it wouldn't last nearly as long if I started to mix some into my grow bed garden. Maybe I'll go back and get a few more bags.

Don't forget Mule Mix if you can't find Turface. Same stuff, perhaps slightly larger grain size, used for the same things -- ball fields, etc.

http://www.mulemix.com/distributors.html

It comes in 50 lb bags, or for those with lots of trees, 2,000 pound Super Sacks. <g>

Fancy Plants, Get Turface MVP in Gaithersburg (Near Montgomery Air Park) at Newsome Seed. They have another location in Fulton MD I believe. Google it. Under $13 per bag all day long. I got some there this spring myself.

Edit--Newsome's hours are goofy too. I think they close at 4PM weekdays, and closed on Saturday and Sunday!! I have to go on my lunch hour. Luckily you got quite a bit. If it were me, I probably would save it rather than put it in the grow beds. Unless you have pure red clay, or the bed is in a hollow, it should drain OK with minimal amendments.

Hello all,

The local John Deere Landscapes Supply carries All Sport and MVP. I have used both with great success and do not see much of a difference other than the MVP has more of a uniform size. I have not seen the Turface Quick Dry that has been mentioned, is it similiar to All Sport and MVP?

Thanks,
Abe

Eastern Bonsai wrote:Hello all,

The local John Deere Landscapes Supply carries All Sport and MVP. I have used both with great success and do not see much of a difference other than the MVP has more of a uniform size. I have not seen the Turface Quick Dry that has been mentioned, is it similiar to All Sport and MVP?

Thanks,
Abe

In my experience the "Quick Dry" is very fine and suitable for potting soil. I got a bag once by mistake and just put it around the yard in the sand. (My home sits on 2.5 acres of old sand dune, did I mention sand.)