I hope the plant is worth the trouble.

harry

I've had fine sand compact in bottom half of pot and retain waterlogged for days. Learned my lesson.
My "yard" soil is clay and does similar to what you have. Very heavy.
That's one heck of a clump on your new jade to break up.

Rina

I don't see any problems. Can you show an all plant?

Oksana

Oksana

I only have this photo, not too good & not showing whole plant. But you can see that there are hardly any leaves. This is when I unpotted it & could not get any soil off the roots:

So, what is a good mix using readily available materials? I've been ordering this:

but I believe it has been discontinued, and I'd rather get materials in the store and mix myself. I've been thinking about trying a 1:1:1 mix of miracle grow cactus and palm potting soil, perlite, and pavers sand, but now you've got me worrying about that....

Strange. Straight sand generally doesn't compact like that -- at least not if it is a quartz-based sand. Wonder if in their area if it is more calcine or limey? If so, perhaps some sort of weak chemical reaction took place akin to that which creates cement?

Paul

I considered that, since it is 'soil from yard'. I know the soil there, it is extremely sandy and fine. Beyond that, I can't tell.

Whatever pieces of bark and little perlite you see was added to the pot before they gave me plant - I was asked what 'soil' to use & gave them little 5.1.1.-like mix. They just topped the soil level. It was not mixed in at all & fell off/washed off immediately.

I know there are ppl that grow in sand and very successfully. This just illustrates very fine sand, and also idea of using 'garden dirt'. It may not always compact as much as this was - I was surprised at the hardness of that sandy soil/dirt.

Photo showing roots of another jade that was potted in a mix with some bark & perlite for about 1 year; lower photo is of above jade after washing all the sandy mess off - I think there is difference:

Amy, personally, I would be inclined to ditch the pavers sand altogether (and that also includes any type of sand) as it's only good for building castles on the beach IMHO!, and substitute it for horticultural grit or even aquarium gravel.

If it's a clay-based soil, it would feel like cement sand or no sand.

ez

Hey Gill, you got your handle back! I agree, skip the sand in that mix.

ez

Amy

There are as many mixes as there are ppl that grow plants :)

If one understands that succulents need good drainage and aeration, the better mix can be made. I have well over 200 suculents and not one of them is in a bagged soil. I use very little 'soil' ; most of them are in a mix of perlite+turface+grit. I don't use sand at all, while I believe that coarse sand (horticultural sand) is ok to use - but not fine. Pumice and perlite are great, but how much in the bagged mix? Probably very small %.

I hate repotting sandy/mucky/peaty/soil-ly pots inside. Need to ensure all the junk doesn't go down the drain. What a mess!

I'm off to check out a nursery that I didn't know about that's only about 25 minutes away, so I'll check out their potting medium ingredients while I'm there today.

Kevin, you are right! On top of it, I am on septic, so I filter it thru coffee filters & try to use as little water as possible...Can't wait for real spring!

I found the new-to-me nursery.

They didn't have any decent potting medium.

I managed to buy some things anyway....

Rina - Oh, that's a good idea with coffee filters! I'll try that next time or maybe sturdy paper towel. Hrm, thinking a large funnel would help a lot now.

I just line kitchen sieve (one of few I use for sifting) with coffee filter. They are really cheep in dollar store (I don't brew coffee :). They filter fine particles very well, better than paper towels.

Ez, yes, I had to close that account down and open a new one with my usual details, still have no idea what happened!