do you use "your own personnel blend potting mix" that keeps your Sans alive on your Cactus?

Thanks Nil. I think that that lava rock must be what I bought at the local C&S show. Looks like little pieces of rust colored rock. It was in baggies and I just picked it up on a whim. My attention got shifted so I forgot to ask what it was-lol........Sans: My Sans blend is an offshoot of my daylily potting mix. Daylilies in pots require very good drainage (a fact learned the hard way) or they will rot. My blend for the daylilies is a combination of compost, sand, perlite, pine bark fines and acquarium gravel (not the rounded pebble type, but the rougher more angular kind that comes in various colors). My Sans like this just as it is without further adjustments. For my Cactus and succulents I've just added more perlite, but even that seems not to be well enough drained for some of the more water sensitive plants over winter (lost a Pleiospilos (Living Rock Plant), a Grafted cactus, and a Hawathia Magnifica this last winter). Reading up on various Cactus and Succulent soil mixes I ran across one that said not to use bark mulch in the mix. Oops. But as I said my Sans thrive on my daylily mix, so I figure I may need to do something else for other Cactus and Succulents. I do love my Sans btw.........So again, does anyone know if there is a good commercial C&S mix available, which even if I have to amend it a bit, is a good starting point for some of these picky picky plants?........Maryl

Maryl, there are no good ones, IME, but there are ones with less peat products in them which you can amend with perlite / pumice / Turface / granite chips. One decent starting point is to get a bag of premixed and filter out the large pieces of forest products. Then cut the remainder with at least 50% pumice. Don't water for a few days after repotting.

actually I've grown Sansevieria in Miracle Grow with extra Perlite added in for years. Pot to plant ratio is important or they stay wet too long. I can't keep split rock alive more than 8 months then gone. I've been looking into "gritty Mixes" too. My cactus I have in small terra cotta pots in Miracle Grow cactus mix. Last year I added sand, but that did not work as well
as I had hoped. cactusmcharris's suggestion sounds good.

Sans are a bit of a special case as they are usually tropical in nature - those plants mentioned, not so much.

San: I also lost a "split rock" (aka Pleiospilos). I had previously read an article about how exacting they can be to grow and they were right. I had mine all last spring, summer and fall and when winter approached I brought it into the house and put it under the grow light. The article said do not water it at all over winter. After 2 1/2 months of no water I thought to myself, "how do I know how long the authors winter is? Maybe they live in Florida? Surely a drop or two of water after 2 1/2 months won't kill it." All I can say is WRONG, WRONG, WRONG! One day it was a plump little cutie, the next it was a sunken rotted mess. Lesson learned. No water means no water..........I just read another little piece that said adding 1/3 perlite or pumice (2 different products that basically do the same thing-perlite being more common in the U.S.) makes overwatering impossible. Hummmmm.....Thanks Cactusmcharris. I appreciate your input. I've "up potted" a smallish Cactus and I may go back and add even more drainage material. Maybe add some more Aquarium gravel or lava rock. I love my little non prickly Cactus (Fuzzy Navel is variety name) and would absolutely hate to loose it, which is why I started this thread to begin with..........Maryl

yep, late spring I thought give it a tad bit more water and sure enough a soft spot developed than it was gone 2 days later.

By comparison Sans are so much easier to please then C&S aren't they? Still variety is the spice of life............Maryl

I do love may Sansevieria! I also Love all my other plants too though Sans
are my favorite!
Fred

EB Stone is a pretty good commercial mix to start with and then add a bunch more grit.