PhiloFox
fave soil mixture for people who like to overwater their succulents? can I use topsoil, perlite, and quikcrete play sand? trying to use what I have on hand right now, on a tight budget
Tillbaka till The Cactus & Succulent Circle 🇺🇸
fave soil mixture for people who like to overwater their succulents?… | The Cactus & Succulent Circle 🇺🇸 | Planta-community
15 kommentarer
Hens and chicksTerracotta pots and lots of perlite!
3 gillningar- KodiakCat19
I’m a big overwaterer and use a 2:1 inorganic to organic mix for my succulents. You can use even more inorganic but the less organic matter you have the more you’ll have to also fertilize. I’m currently trying out 2 parts perlite and sand to one part coco chips. You can use quikcrete but it has to be washed and rinsed extensively due to containing hard minerals which can burn your plants.
2 gillningar 
Wolfen 🐺That should make a decent gritty mix to get you by
2 gillningar- Wolfen 🐺
Mines usually fox farm ocean/perlite/Akadama/sand/kiwi bark.. I'll often use my aroid mix and just ammend it further so that also has Mycorrhizal/charcoal/gypsum
1 gilla - PhiloFox
you are talking so much nonsense to me rn lol I'm just learning about soils! idk what any of that is! kiwi bark?? does that make a big difference to orchid or coco bark? what kind of sand are we talking when I'm later looking to buy sand for my succulents?
1 gilla - Wolfen 🐺
Lol fair, that's fair. Kiwi bark is a brand of Orchid bark made in New Zealand. (both kiwi and orchid bark are a pine bark). the other big brand being Orchiata, the big difference being Orchiata goes through a composting process. I use kiwi bark/orchid bark over coconut chips as coconut chips are chalked full of salt, and you really need to buffer them before use. Roots also stick to them more than the bark I've noticed. And sand that's inert and doesn't have additives. I usually use a sand used for reptile enclosures because I know it's clean and no additions ( do NOT use Calci-sand or Calcium sand, horrid product for reptiles) I've even used un dyed decorative sand in a pinch from Michael's. Ideally you want a large particle sand, smaller or finer sand particles can compact in your soil. However if you're adding other things like gravel, akadama, perlite, etc it shouldn't be that bad.
1 gilla - Wolfen 🐺
Akadama is a type of clay rock used in bonsai. I use it as the "gravel" portion of my mix.
1 gilla
- Wolfen 🐺
Gypsum is also an additive to increase drainage, but also give Calcium
2 gillningar
- 4 fler svar i appen
Whit_YDo not use play sand!! What do you mean by top soil? From another plant? If you can get a bag of cactus/ succulent soil and some perlite that’s all you’ll need.
1 gilla- PhiloFox
top soil idk from Lowe's it's timberline topsoil I believe?
0 gillningar - Whit_Y
Ok gotcha! I don’t know if I would use topsoil for the potting mix, it’s not intended for potting plants and it will compact easily and hinder drainage. I also use pumice and orchid bark to make the soil chunky and drain well
0 gillningar
