Thanks for that informative post Stan. In SA it works differently. At least from a price point. I can get a cubic metre of potting soil for R260. The average bag of peat costs about R35. I guess it would take roughly 20 bags of peat to fill a cubic metre. R700 vs R260, but as both you and Scarab have mentioned, you just don't know what you are getting for that R260.

I guess I'll just stick to the tried and tested stuff.

Scarab, how much substrate do you get from one of those bricks, and what do they retail for?

Thanks guys!

@ Shane Visser

those bricks are R35 from a garden world or nursery

and about R15-20 from builders they make aprox 9litres of peat

try and compare it to a 10litre bucket filled with peat, quite alot

That is quite alot. I'll take a drive to Builders this weekend then.

hi there i went and bought myself a large brick of palm peat and i only used 1/3 of it and i had two twenty liter buckets full......i paid R 55 for the brick. The spiders seem to not even notice the new peat...so al seems good and allot cheaper than the bags of peat....

Shane Visser wrote: Thanks for that informative post Stan. In SA it works differently. At least from a price point. I can get a cubic metre of potting soil for R260. The average bag of peat costs about R35. I guess it would take roughly 20 bags of peat to fill a cubic metre. R700 vs R260, but as both you and Scarab have mentioned, you just don't know what you are getting for that R260.

I guess I'll just stick to the tried and tested stuff.

Scarab, how much substrate do you get from one of those bricks, and what do they retail for?

Thanks guys!

1kg palm brick makes up to 8liters of palm peat, R12
5kg palm brick makes up to 60liters of palm peat, R55
This method is far cheaper and you save heaps of cash.

Shane Visser wrote: Thanks for that informative post Stan. In SA it works differently. At least from a price point. I can get a cubic metre of potting soil for R260. The average bag of peat costs about R35. I guess it would take roughly 20 bags of peat to fill a cubic metre. R700 vs R260, but as both you and Scarab have mentioned, you just don't know what you are getting for that R260. ...

Something's seriously wrong then. Probably the manufacturer is using something other than peat as the base for the potting soil, and that immediately begs the questions of "What is it? and "How is it going to kill my tarantulas?"

Be afraid. Be very afraid...

Read the labels. Best of luck.