I'm not aware of any adequate commercial mixes that are easily attainable for a reasonable price. A fair compromise would be to add 50-70% coarse perlite to one of the bagged mixes you can get at HD or Lowe's.

If you're prepared to ante up ($20 for a gallon!), do an eBay search for "Bonsai soil" and you will find pre-made bags that have great ingredients like turface, pumice, pine bark fines, akadama clay, etc.

x

Bonsai soil will work well for my succulents also? There is a great bonsai shop locally.

*Some* bonsai soils will work well....
Caveat, I have purchased bonsai mix that still contained too much fine peat moss.
Look for a mix with bark and grit, as described above.

Josh

I not getting into this, any well draining mix will work well with out the peat if you when and how to water correctly.

Hiya Norma,

Well it's not always that simple, sometime the newcomers may not know what will be fast draining, I imagine I didn't at first. Also, I've noticed bags of commercial mix don't always list ingredients, which personally drives me nuts. I try not to buy unlabed stuff, but it's common in the stores.

So one may not know there's peat content in it & newcomers may not know the problems of peat as we do.

But I do appreciate X's suggestion & hope to pass it on.

There's a newcomer to GW here (Justin) who has EMed me privately to ask about fast draining mix I'd he'd seen mentioned in posts of mine. Asking me since we're both in NYC & he doesn't have a car, neither do I.

My situation was different as I'd explained to him, because I still have a nice amount of pumice left from a Calif. plantsman friend, so I use lots of pumice & frankly feel spoiled by it.

He's asking about bark, granite, neither of which I use (well a bit of bark maybe for my Hoyas but I'm newish to bark use). While I wish I had better answers for him, I feel OK about X's suggestion. When I've had nothing else around, that's been fine.

Many Bonsai have the same needs as typical succulents - well-drained, long-lasting mixes whereby the grower can safely water their plants on a daily basis without fear of rot.

Those same properties hold true for succulents, with the exception being that succulents may not need to be watered as frequently as bonsai. There are also some species that seem to do better in a denser mix - but for general purpose, a good bonsai formula will make a good succulent formula.

pirate-girl, it's not easy getting some of the more "exotic" ingredients in NYC. I have encountered lava rock in Home Depot, and fine gravel can be found at a pet shop. Pumice is pretty much impossible. A shop that sells hydroponics should have a selection of high-fired clays. You can always get perlite, which works very well.

x

I'm a beginner and new to this Board, even though I've been reading old posts for a while now. I've never owned a succulent; however, I've sort of jumped into succulents because I thought succulent wreaths were so gorgeous that I'd start now to make some for Christmas presents. Went to the nurseries, told them what I needed, came home, made my wreaths, then realized all the problems I've created. Bought some books, helped some, but not enough.

I have two immediate problems. It seems I have some succulents that need less water than others, but are all in the same wreath. They did manage to get rooted into all spagnum moss wreaths. Well, there were two casualties. At this point, I lift the wreaths to see how heavy they are. If they are feeling light, everyone gets water. So much for the cuttings. But the mother plants are still in their pots with different soils.

From reading these posts, it appears that most succulents could do well on a single mix of soil. Is there a brand name soil that works well? I went to the nurseries and all the "catus/succulent" soils had peat and/or were very fine mixes with little perlite. Had to poke a little hole in some of the bags to take a peak. Or will any soil be ok as long as I add a ton of perlite or builders' sand to it? I guess I need a formula or ratio of ingredients.

The second problem is that I have no clue what the growing habit of the plants are or even the names of these little guys taking up space. They looked so cute in their little pots. Not so cute having a tree growing out of a wreath. I love having the photos on this site to help me identify what plants I actually have as few are labeled. Is there a site online that is a photo library of succulents? Seems like it would be a nice project for an university, but so far I this is the best site for identification of plants.

Are geraniums really succulents?

desert-tropicals.com

has lots of plant photos which are IDed, succulents & otherwise. The nice thing is that there one can look up plants both by common or botanical names & then compare one's plants w/ the pix.

The topic of wreaths is a pretty different, separate discussion, I'd have made it a separate thread, tho' I see the soil part is related. Sorry, I don't know about wreaths, hopefully someone else will.

I came across a ratio of one part potting soil and two parts perlite for succulents in pots. I whipped up a batch yesterday and plopped some plants out of their nursery containers into their new home. Will keep a watch on them.

Thanks for the site! I'll post photos in a separate thread for help in ID.

I have a book that has been useful, The Garden Succulents Primer, and one on order, The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents. But it is still hard to tell one from another.

The plants rooted well into the wreaths. Some seem to need more water than others. That's why I need to know more about their culture...so I can know who is going to get big and who will stay small, who likes water in summer etc. All the info I have on wreaths say that they will do well just in spaghnum moss.

Penny,

That will do for most succulent plants, I should think.

Who is/are the author(s) of the Illustrated Encyclopedia of Succulents?

Yes, it is at the beginning, but you soon start noticing differences and declaring, with a certainty, that that plant's pure Whitesloanea crassa.

Here is a link that might be useful: {{gwi:600300}}

The author is Gordon Rowley. I found the book when I was reading though old posts...which I should have read before I bought plants. Oh well. It hasn't come yet, but I think I've been able to figure out the name of one plant by reading through what I already have. I'll do an ID post to make sure.

I'm new to succulents and I wanted to know what's the minimal depth of soil for these types and well as what's the smallest diameter needed for sustained growth?

Penny,

I was hoping you would be saying that. Mr. Rowley's books are fantastic, that particular volume of his is also one that I have, and I cannot recommend it highly enough. Any books by him are well worth getting, but I used to check this book out regularly from the SDCSS's (San Diego C&S Society) library until I was lucky enough to get a copy given to me. It's a great reference book for the beginner, and I daresay I can still use some study of it.

Skaku,

That all depends on what it is, where you're growing to grow it, where you are, how do you want it to grow. 'These types' could be anything, but in some places in the U.S. they'll grow in sidewalk spillings, if you want the minimum, but, depending on the plant's size, some soil around the roots is a good thing. Look at caudex's postings on what a minimum is, but most of us grow in a little more depth.

Cactusmcharris,

I don't have any particular plant or variety. I'm trying to create a line of jewelry that have LIVE succulents in place of stones or other materials. I want to know if I can grow something that is at the smallest 25x18 mm. I want to grow a garden of interchangeable succulents that snap in and out of place with a ring, pendent, bracelet, etc. Can the base be porous like pumice or similar to give something for the plant to cling onto. Then when the buyer is done they can soak the stone in water to give the plant nutrients. Hope this explains my purpose. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

A number of plants would grow in that size because they're naturally small, and others would grow at a smaller rate since they've got reduced circumstances, as it were. I think you'd find a number of the Crassulaceae (Crassula, Kalanchoe, Graptopetalum, Pachyphytum, et.al.) that would grow in that size.

Thank you for the Crassulaceae info. So what would be a good base to have them grow on? Could any ridged porous surface work? How much water would they need in the environment stated above?

Hi. Have a look at this:

Here is a link that might be useful: Gordon Rowley

In mm not cm? Really, isn't that kind of TINY? I don't know skaku, I think they'd barely need any water, certainly not anything that would be soaked in.