Welcome, TSB!

The more water your choice of soil retains between soil particles, the less likely it is you'll be able to coax the best from your plants. Adding perlite doesn't improve drainage or aeration until the perlite reaches a volume large enough that there aren't enough fine particles of peat to fill up the spaces between the perlite particles. If the perlite isn't very coarse, that might be never.

Ideally, you would start with a very large fraction of chunky material, like pine bark, and add a little peat and perlite. The perlite works well with the large and flat bark pieces by wedging itself between bark pieces and creating large air pores, which it can't do when surrounded by fine particles. The more water held inside of soil particles and the less water held between particles, the better your chances are at being able to consistently bring along healthy plant material.

There are three ways to approach your concerns. A) Some will tell you to use the soil you have, it's ok to live with the limitations imposed by a water-retentive soil; that by watering carefully, the limitations won't be so bad. B) You can use some tricks that help you deal with and reduce the impact of the limitations of a water-retentive soil. This link will offer lots of help in that effort. C) You can learn how to entirely avoid the limitations imposed by water-retentive soils by learning how build soils that eliminate not only the problem of excess water retention, but the several problems that come with it as well.

If you look at growing well as an uphill climb (when you're basically depending on luck), the grade is steep. If you learn to deal reasonably well with poor soil issues, it reduces the angle of the grade, but you're still on the uphill side. Learning to make a soil that works FOR you instead of against you is when you make it over the hump.

There's no right or wrong path, but there's little doubt we can all be found traveling one of them. The only help anyone can offer if you choose path A is to point you to path B, which I already did. If you want to sidestep the limitations entirely, let me know. That's what I'm most interested in helping growers achieve because that's where you start to get the most from the growing experience.

Al

Thank you for responding in such detail, Al!

Would you be willing to give me some insight as to how you repot your new plants? What soil mixture works best?

I live in a really dry climate and although it is monsoon season right now... it's pretty much hot and dry throughout the entire year. My plants stay inside and are scattered amongst my home. Some residing in the kitchen window, some on the island counter, and a few on the top of furniture.

When I first brought them home in their grow pots, the soil would dry relatively quickly between watering. I've been wondering what type of soil the nurseries typically use...

Now that I have repotted them in the soil mixture I mentioned in my previous post, they soil stays too wet and almost turns into a brick unless I loosen it up with my fingers.

Should I repot them again in a different soil mixture?

What would you do?

Thank you again for taking the time to read and respond to my questions.

Have a lovely evening!

I usually repot plants into an appropriate soil as soon as it's prudent. If I bought a plant in August, I probably wouldn't repot it until the following June. Plant's aren't people, but you can still have harmonious or antagonistic relationships with them. If you learn their rhythms learn when they're at their strongest and weakest and plan your maintenance chores when they're sure to recover fastest, you'll actually be able to feel the harmony. I'm, not going all touchy feely on you, just saying you'll get more from the nurturing experience when you know what you're doing reflects the fact you're keeping the plant's best interest in mind.

There are good soils and bad soils. What soils are made of isn't too important, as long as they're not toxic, they retain their structure between repots, and hold favorable volumes of both air and water. Surprisingly, when you consider the products available to those who make their soils, those few requirements really reduce the list of ingredients you can appropriately use for soils. These two soils are what I grow everything in. All my houseplants are in the one that looks gritty - like it's mostly gravel. It's a remarkably easy soil to grow in, and offers the grower a MUCH wider margin for error when it comes to two of the most significant problem areas - over-watering and and nutritional issues.

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Whether or not you should repot is subjective. I wouldn't try to nurse plants through a winter in a soil I consider iffy, but I have a lot of plants & I don't want to be nursing a plant with special care for 6-9 months, so I'd repot. That's fine for me to SAY, because I have the soil on hand and it's a 10-20 minute job for me in most cases.

Even if you don't repot now, I'd like to leave you with the understanding that your soil choice has a lot to do with how easy or difficult it is to consistently bring along healthy plant material. As long as I'm able to make my own soils, I'll never grow in something commercially prepared. There just isn't anything out there that performs as well as the soils I make for myself.

Here's a link you can read about soil/water/air relationships. Click me. There is a lot of info there that should make a difference in how you look at growing, starting at when you gain an understanding of it.

The best advice I can give you is, knowledge, not experience, is the fastest way to turn your thumb green. Experience is most valuable when it's learned to validate something you have already learned, so keep on learning.

Al