SCREWED UP! New Coarse DE Poll / Thread Please Comment!

[Arlithrien]

Just got off the phone with Rich. He said he could look into getting me a sample of the Coarse axis DE but typically they are sold by the pallet (~80 bags). He also said he was working with American Bonsai to stock it.

If the Coarse particle size turned out to be ideal and the price was right I wouldn't be averse to buying a pallet as a lifetime supply. But obviously it's a big commitment to make on something that might be too large for most plants.

I dont know if I would buy from American Bonsai. Theirs is $11 per gallon, where akadama (and the axis coarse sold in this thread) is closer to $8.85 per gallon.

 

[Arlithrien]

Alright so final update on AXIS Coarse. They only sell them by pallet in a single 1000lb sack. I was quoted a sack costs $495, with $356 in shipping fees to me in Florida. 1,000lbs is equivalent to 40 25lb bags, at $21.5 per "bag".

Now let's crunch some numbers. a 24qt (6 gallon) of NAPA 8822 costs ~$10. Assuming the NAPA bags weigh 25lbs (will touch on this later), it would mean that 40 bags of AXIS coarse would cost roughly $21 per bag, basically twice as much as NAPA. However, also consider that up to half a bag of 8822 could be fines, making the cost more comparable. I would like to imagine there are little to no fines in the Axis coarse, because of the way it's sifted for larger size but cannot confirm.

On the topic of 8822's weight, I have not found the weight listed for 8822 but I have found a 25lb bag of "floor-dry" listed as containing 11.4 gallons. I have ordered floor-dry before, the DE is virtually identical to 8822 but the bag is a bit larger than the NAPA bags. So I am skeptical that 8822 actually weighs 25lbs. If a 25lb bag of DE is 11.4 gallons, then 8822 is more like a 13lb bag and that makes the AXIS even more competitive.

So what we've learned is that bulk buying is cheap. With that said, we do not know if the AXIS coarse particle size is actually worth buying a lifetime supply. I personally am not willing to make such a bulk purchase on something until I have more evidence that it's actually the bees knees. My main worry being that the particle size might just be a little too large.