I don't know the ideal mix and I have been winging it for years with my corn plants. My oldest is 10 years old. I use a mix of 1/3 sand , 1/3 top soil, and 1/3 potting soil. The pots are very heavy but the corn plants do very well in this mix. I make sure the soil is dry before I water them, and when I do I drench the soil.

I know this sounds like a rather obvious thing, but are they in plastic pots perchance?

lucky123, I would advise against using a 'heavy' soil. Commercially grown corn plants have very few roots; and they're usually concentrated toward the base of the stalk(s). Corn plants, in a heavy soil is a disgusting disaster waiting to happen; no matter how carefully they are watered. You can use sturdy styrofoam pieces to brace the stalks below the soil surface; or use a volcanic-rock aggregate in a packed layer above the soil level.

Volcanic Rock or a similar stabilizer might work. I am going to use a heavier soil. More standard potting soil.

I used the 1/3 peat, 1/3 perlite, 1/3 commercial AV mix which I had on hand. African violets are in very light soil. Too light for Dracaenas, I think.

Thanks for all the answers. From what I gather the Dracaenas are not clay lovers. Heavier mulch type soils with sand or perlite for aeration seems to be the answer to the question I was asking.

I wasn't certain of the "base" sand, gravel or clay in native habitat.

You can grow a dracenena in plain old dirt. Since you probably have a "yucca" i would say just use regular potting soil with some peat or perlite added and a clay pot and it would be fine. Rocks in the bottom would help with weight too. Plenty of sun and not alot of moisture is the key.

I thought I was a bit daft after reading Dave's suggestion(Never use sand, never use garden soil) that my method was wrong for my year 10 year old corn plant. But it has been suggested "If you don't have houseplant potting mix on hand the Purdue Department of Horticulture suggests that you combine one part peat moss with one part garden soil and one part course sand." So maybe I am not perfect but not quite irresponsible. Either way, my oldest corn plant turns 11 in May and I will tell it how I have been wrong about it's soil all these years. :)

Just because your plant doesn't look like its dying, doesn't mean you couldn't be doing something better for it.

the heavy soil just doesn't drain fast and offers very little aeration for the roots. while your plants have lived 11 years, you'd be surprised how much better they could do with a fast draining mix.

read this if you truly care about your container plant: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/2842847/container-soils-water-movement-and-retention-xxii?n=419

I think the idea you CAN try to grow any particular plant in any particular soil you wish is certainly true, in the same vein that you can try to cross the ocean in any particular boat you wish, but you might not care for the eventualities that occur on the journey. If you're looking for your plants to be a little closer on the scale to 'thriving' instead of way back toward 'surviving', some consideration is due. Those suggesting soils with notable fractions of fine materials (peat, topsoil, 'garden' soil, coir, compost, composted forest products, sand ........) are suggesting soils that will assuredly compact and hold significant volumes of excess water, neither of which is conducive to a healthy root system, a prerequisite to a healthy plant ...... and it doesn't take a high % of fine ingredients to be a notable fraction. Even a 10% fraction of topsoil or 'garden' soil added to an off the shelf potting medium based primarily on peat is going to cause a large shift toward more compaction, excess water retention, and reductions in oxygen availability. Oxygen is as important as water in the root zone because it's needed for water and nutrient uptake. If you want to do something positive to a peat-based soil, you should be thinking about going in the opposite direction, by adding a LOT of coarse material - so much that there isn't enough of the fine material you started with to fill all the large air pores between the larger particles. Then, compaction isn't an issue, nor is excess water retention or lack of oxygen. Also, fertilizing suddenly becomes very easy to take and keep control of in media you can water correctly w/o fear of wrecking root function or health due to prolonged periods of soil saturation and anaerobic (airless) conditions in the root zone.

Al

Well for a dracena they have really huge roots that make their own way, like a worm no problems with aeration.... if its a yucca it just needs to be kept dry so root rot does not start, and that can be done easy in a sunny window. Every plant is unique in their soil PH so something peat is very acidic and not for every plant. Others like chinadoll can be grown in pure pet moss and pine bark.

All roots make their own way, but they only grow where conditions are favorable, so ALL have a problem with lack of aeration - none are immune. Using dracaena as an example - I've seen plants that are 10 years in the same pot with root systems so small they could fit in a quart container; this, due to compaction and excess water retention. 90% of the plants regularly discussed on this forum all want the same thing insofar as a home for roots is concerned. They want a medium that cam be thoroughly moistened w/o a significant fraction of the medium remaining soggy for a week or more. They want a medium that offers good aeration from the top of the soil to the bottom - not a rock hard mess that roots can't penetrate or have great difficulty doing so.

I'll stay focused on the OT and not expand it to pH issues, but that's a good topic for another day.

Al

Theres a lot of misinformation spread on these forums.

listen to Al and/or read up on water retentive soils.