Hi, the mix looks wrong to me, sorry, just trying to help! It's dark and heavy, a sign of peat based mixes, and palms and citrus don't grow in the same type of soil as c/succs either. Just because other succs are growing in the same formula it doesn't necessarily follow that a Port afra will. It honestly doesn't take that much longer to open two or three bags of the correct ingredients to get the optimum media for a plant to grow to its full potential. Are your others 'thriving' or are they merely alive? I don't mean to be harsh : )

I have a Port afra, the lower stems do go brown and woody after a while but mine is larger than yours. As for the wrinkly leaves, I'm not certain, they go for months with no rain in S Africa, and in very thin soil. Did the roots appear healthy? White or light brown and firm, not dark, mushy or even smelly.

Please come back to us with some more info?

Gill UK

The thing with getting more ingredients, is that I don't have a big selection of gardening stores and my home depot doesn't carry sand very often so I would have to order it online. I can't do that because I'm moving to Tuscon tomorrow so I have to get the right stuff today.

No sand! Try perlite and simply mix 1:1 with cacti soil. That should do.

cathy

Forget the sand - unless it is really gritty - that would mean taking the kitchen sieve or piece of window screen and sifting the sand thru it. If anything stays inside, it's ok to use. Whatever falls thru is too small and sooner or later will compact and clog up the drainage.

Both poster suggested perlite; it is inexpensive and you could buy it in stores like Lowe's, Home Depot, Wallmart and/or any garden center. If you add only perlite, add quite a bit - 50% of total volume is often recommended. Maybe you could get away with slightly less perlite since you are in very hot climate, but believe us if we suggest better draining medium.If you can get some small grit (or coarse particles of sand as I suggested), add that and perlite, both about 25-35% of total volume and the drainage will improve.

Can you get the 'stuff' once you move to Tuscon? The plant will probably survive one more day...

Color is best if plants receive adequate amount of sun - are they in shade? part shade? indoors? outdoors?

Very bottom of the stems looks ok (as much as I can tell from photos attached), it is probably age. The short stem with drying top will probably dry up and fall off. As long as the roots are healthy as Gill asked about and the stems are firm (not soft or mushy and limpy), the plant should be fine. They need little time after re-potting to recuperate, and it is best to keep them out of strongest sunlight for just a while during that time.

I just got sand and perlite- I guess I'll return the sand since its not as coarse as you guys mentioned. I followed the 1:1 suggestion with the soil and perlite and placed them back where they were (indoors next to our window) it doesn't get direct sunlight, but its still a sunny place for a good part of the day (4-5 hours in the afternoon).

The roots looked healthy, the stem is firm, not squishy- I think it could've been either shocked or thirsty, I'll just have to give them a bit of time to settle in.

Thank you for all the advice everyone! I just didn't know how to go about the soil.