Hi Ethan.

1. What part of the planet is this raised bed going to be?

2. How high is this raised bed going to be?

3. What succulents are you planning to plant?

Given your heavy clay soil, what you are planning is essentially a big outdoor plant container. Exciting project!

Pagan

Hi Pagan,

I'm in zone 9b, Sunset zone 17 (East Bay, California). I was hoping that I wouldn't have to make raised bed too high since many succulents have shallow root systems, but if the soil that I'm going to put in is easy to acquire/make, then I'd like to make it deeper so that I can have things like agave. For the most part, though, I think I want sempervivum and aeonium. Thanks for the input!

If this was my project, and if it will suit the general aesthetics of the location, I would make it at least a foot deep, just to make it more flexible going forward. If it is a sunny location and given your zone (not to mention California's water issues), I will just keep the substrate simple and use regular garden soil but amended heavily with pumice (maybe up to half and half), especially for aeoniums which actually need a lot more water while in growth compared with, say, haworthias.

I'm having an incredibly difficult time finding pumice around here, even in the form of dry stall. Would decomposed granite be an acceptable substitute?

DG is not an acceptable substitute for pumice. It is much too fine. It is basically sand so you would need it to be about 70-80% of the mix to improve drainage.

Look around for a landscape supply, aggregate supply, or rock yard. You can use pumice or small 3/8" lava rock. Either one should be very easy to find in CA.

Also, if I can find pumice, what size do I want? 1/8"? 3/16"? Fines?

I get my pumice from California, though. Supposedly it's the second biggest source of pumice in the US after Oregon. I buy mine from General Pumice (located in California). I just prefer it because it's sufficiently porous, sold in different grades (I use 1/8 or bigger) and most of all, does not float like perlite.

Whoa, Veda. Those look delectable.

Are there still OSH stores in the bay area? They usually have pumice.

I found a place that carries it, though I'll be buying it in bulk (1 cubic yard). But, that's probably just as well as I'd like to create succulent raised beds along the perimeter of my house. So, what kind of mixture should I create using the pumice? Just 50:50 regular potting soil to pumice? More pumice? Thanks!

By the way, OSH does have pumice, but it's sold in several-quart bags, which is too small for my purposes. Good to know about, though!

FakeChuchi thanks for the shout out! You rock! (heh heh get it? Because we sell pumice heh heh) Ok, I'm sorry for the lameness. But in reality, yes! We do sell super clean, high quality pumice here in Southern CA. We ship anywhere in the U.S. for free, and if you are local we can also sell/deliver to you in bulk (40lb. bags or truckloads)

For more info or to place an order you can go to our website www.GeneralPumiceProducts.com

So any thoughts on what ratio of pumice to soil to use? Recommendations for type of soil?

We generally recommend a 50/50 blend of pumice to soil for most types of succulents, and a higher percentage of pumice for cacti planting or extremely water-sensitive succulents/plants (70/30 blend). As far as soil, we recommend any plain organic soil really (try to stay away from soils with peat moss in them because they tend to rot or host fungi more than other soils), but if you want a specific one for succulents & cacti, I typically use Kellogg's cactus, palm soil (because it already has a percentage of our pumice in it so you do not need to add as high an amount.

Just picked up a bag of Dry Stall and potting mix. If I do a 50/50 mix, do I need to screen or rinse the Dry Stall first?

Ethan,

I'm not exactly sure how "clean" the Dry Stall product is but it should be fine to use directly out of the bag. And yes, we recommend 50/50 for most succulents and 70pumice/30soil for cacti and very water-sensitive succulents

Just finding this chain..
Ethan, how did your raised beds turn out?
We're building many raised beds in our exterior courtyard & I'll be needing lots of soil/pumice to fill them in.

Just an update for anyone following this thread who has purchased or wants to purchase General Pumice's product we have changed their website domain! It is now www.GeneralPumice.com ! Hope that's helpful!