Any feed stores in your area? They will have poultry or chicken grit available. Bulk soil suppliers should also carry coarse grade sand, usually referred to as builder's sand.....but stay away from playground or aquarium sand as that will be too small. Rock yards that carry a wide selection of crushed rock and gravel will also have 1/4" minus paving base...........that will work equally as well. Or you can locate Turface or other calcined clay products......often sold at auto parts supply stores as Thrifty-Sorb or Stay-Dry or similar labels. Used for absorbing spills, etc. Just make sure it is montmorillonite clay.

And never put "drainage rocks" - a real misnomer - at the base of a container. They do not help with drainage. Quite the opposite.......they actually slow drainage.

Whoops! Sorry. I haven't been on in a while. Thanks so much for your response! greenclaws UKzone8a
Yes, I'm from the US.

I currently have a soil and I have perlite. I had builders sand because that's what my dad had but I know that that is too fine.

So instead of sand I could use aquarium gravel, chicken grit or turface? Which one do you think is better?

Also, I thought I saw somewhere that pumice is like a substitute for perlite??

I've read around literally everywhere so I honestly have no idea what's accurate and what's not. :c

Also, should I be adding any kind of bark? I keep seeing that bonsaijack stuff and I keep seeing stuff about bark.

Sorry for so many questions! Like I said, I don't know much.

c:

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9) Thanks for your response!

I'm not seeing any of those kinds of stores in my area.

We have Home Depot and Lowe's and stuff like that for the more basic supplies. And I could probably just get the chicken grit or turface online or something. Is there anything specific about those things?

c:

Who told you to use sand?? It is pretty hard to get correct for a newby - and I found it difficult to find, even in sandy Florida! LOL

I don't use any soil because it holds too much water for rainy Florida. I use granite chicken grit, perlite (because pumice is not available in my area), and Turface. Turface holds water, so I would not add that in place of grit.

If you have cactus and succulent soil and perlite, mix them half and half. That was you'll get good drainage. You can even add more perlite than that. It should look like this -

Sorry - I had a premature submit. LOL

Crenda 10A SW FL I mean if you search succulent soil mix almost every single one mentions sand.

& Haha it's okay! I did mix the two together. I just thought it needed more than those two. Mostly everyone else uses a lot more than just the two so do you think that I should just use chicken grit or something?

I swear I'm not dumb I've just been searching for direct answers for like four hours (time flies) lol I'm sick of doing research.

Checking your profile, I see you are in NJ.......there are feed stores in NJ, but you might have to do a bit of driving to get to one as they tend to be in more rural locations. And there are rock yards and bulk soil suppliers all over everywhere otherwise no one would be doing any landscaping!! There are also auto parts stores in every city I've ever visited.

These products are not necessarily going to fall into your hands. You may have to expend some effort researching what is available in your area and driving to where it is obtainable. But these are not uncommon products and millions use them for creating soil mixes.

Probably one of th best soil mixes you can use for succs and cacti is a gritty mix, which is one part composted bark fines, one part Turface (or other calcined clay product ) and one part grit (granite grit, poultry grit cherry stone grit). No sand.

gardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)

Lol I said "in my area" not "my entire state" so I can understand having to drive to get to them. I was just mentioning that there aren't many around.

Nothing is falling into my hands I've been researching for hours. All I need to fall into my hands is exactly which products are best to use. That is all.

Thanks for your time! ♡

Every single one of those who recommended adding sand is wrong. If you're not averse to ordering stuff online, just get a 25-pound bag of pumice. I keep being told there are feed stores in NJ but I've never seen one. If I have to look for it and drive 30 minutes to one, I'm happy to get my keyboard and do that instead.

Pumice comes in different sizes, I recommend getting 1/8 inch. Depending on what plants you have, you probably won't even need soil or perlite. Perlite is easy to get but pumice does not float and comes in different, sifted sizes.

Samantha, I'm in Massachusetts and I have not found any grit or pumice. In the mean time, until I can find some, I've been using aquarium gravel and it seems to be doing just fine in my mixes :)

You can get "sand" that's about the size of grower grit at Home Depot if you're willing to sift it - paver base. Garden centers and landscape suppliers usually have crushed granite. If you want to keep it a larger size, its a lot of work.

If it's just a few pots and they are grown indoors, I say go for the pumice (ordered online from General Pumice Products in California). Quite affordable and shipping within the US is very cheap.

LOL!! I'm sure someone in New Jersey has a horse or a goat, maybe even a cow.......and they gotta get the feed somewhere :-) Not sure where you are located or how far you might have to drive but check out this link to see if any are reasonably close.

Do not your local garden centers/nurseries carry pumice? It is right there alongside the perlite and orchid bark and horticultural charcoal in any nursery here. I can't imagine needing to mail order a container soil ingredient.................

Listen to Pagan. Order a bag of pumice from General Pumice Products, 1/8" size. It's not really cheap -- but you can mix it with soil (I often do 50/50, but you can do 40 pumice/60 soil, depending on the size of your plants). I live in FL and have about 100 succulents -- and I am the biggest fan of pumice. You CAN buy perlite for a lot less, but it breaks down and turns to dust quickly, and will suffocate your plants. DON'T use sand unless it is really coarse and large. Jenna is right; aquarium gravel may work. It's a bit large, but it will work.

Look up Tractor Supply and see if you have one in your area. Usually, they carry Manna Pro Poultry Grit (NOT Chick Grit....POULTY grit). It's wonderful. You can use it right out of the bag after washing it. Many of my plants are in 1/3 cactus soil, 1/3 manna pro, 1/3 pumice and doing well. Good luck!

I just ordered turface and pumice online at Eastern Leaf. They had a coupon code for 10% off. I haven't seen anyone on here buying it, I am guessing others found more cost effective ways of buying it. Will receive it next week, so I'll find out of the pieces are the appropriate size next week. I also chose to buy online because it seemed that if I found turface MVP around here I'd have to get a 50lb bag which would be difficult for me to carry up to my third floor apartment and also don't have much space to store a big bag. I'm also just starting to move to a grittier mix and only have about 40 small plants. If this works out, I'll put more effort into locating it locally. Same goes for chicken grit. I just ordered a five pound bag off of amazon. The feed stores here are about 30+ min away and traffic here sucks!

Personally, I'd forget the sand altogether, I've never used any in over 20 yrs., Don't know why one needs to.

Been growing C&S & Houseplants in Cactus & Succulent mix w/ Perlite or Pumice (50/50 ratio). Tropicals too, just adding some bark.

For those finding it so difficult to find all these components, you'd be fine w/ the basics above.

You haven't said which particular succulents you'll be growing; anything especially difficult?

I've bought pumice on-line from general pumice, chicken grit locally from Tractor supply, lava, and a mix containing lava, pumice and turface from an Ebay seller (scenichillfarm). Been happy with all.

GPP sells 15 pounds for about $25.00, shipping included. Beautiful product and easier than having to drive all over the place. I live in Manhattan, and have NEVER seen pumice being sold anywhere

http://www.generalpumiceproducts.com/order-here/

Pumice is my go to. Perlite floats and seems to eventually work its way to the top of the mix. Samantha it's true what you say about sand, if you google search succulent soil mix the first thing that comes up is to add half potting soil and half sand.

I use potting soil and pumice, a staple for succulents for years. It can vary, potting soil and perlite, just so long as its a 50%-50% mix.