Hello. Ok, let’s see....The mix needs at least 50% sieved perlite, there is sone but no where near enough for good drainage. Don’t add layers of anything, no rocks in the base, everything needs mixing throughout. They need more mix in the pot too. Can you add your location after your name, helps us to help you? You are best to start a new thread line you have done when asking a new question. This is the cactus and succulent forum, so it is the place to post about anything to do with plants in either category....all cacti are succs, but not all succs are cacti!

You've realised you made the mistake of letting them sit in water! They may also be adjusting to new conditions both soil wise, plus light and heat wise according to where they were grown previously. Let them dry out completely between waterings.

Gill

Thank you so much! I've always been told to put rocks at the bottom of the pot to help drain. Is this unnecessary? Is it ever necessary with any plant? I will start over and add more perlite to the mix. Also, when I've added a lot of perlite in the past it seems to collect at the top. Is that ok? Thanks again for your help! I'll add my location.

After you've repotted them, dont water them for at least 2 days, longer if its humid/wet where you live.

The mix should be so heavily perlite that it doesn't really float because it is basically perlite with your potting soils filling in the gaps like grout between tiles (not the same proportions but the point is the perlite is what gives the soil structure and everything else goes in around it.)

Thank you. I'll wait a while to water. I'm afraid I still don't have enough perlite :(

I thought about buying Bonsai Jack soil but instead I used MiracleGro cactus and succulent soil.

Deborah, that should be fine. Just water very slowly. If you have a spray nozzle on your sink, use that on a trickle to slowly wet it and just wet it a little and let it soak in. Wet it a little (wet the whole top layer, not the plant itself) and let it soak in, keep doing this until water flows out the bottom.

You just won't have to water as often and will need to be extra sure you use the skewer method to determine if the plant needs to be watered again. I'm not sure if this has been addressed in this thread.

Ok great! Thank you so much everyone!

Deborah

I will go even further, and am not trying to confuse anything. You got very good advice from everyone above already.

I have few questions:

Did you clean rootballs off old soil when repotting plants into this community bowl?

Did you check the roots - were they in good shape? Anything damaged (rotted or broken or dry) should be cut off.

Were the roots very wet when repotting?

At this point, plants are spaced ok. As they grow, they may need to be divided. That could take a while - depending on conditions of plants.

Since you are using lots of soil, do not have enough of perlite or other amendment (pumice, lava rock, grit, turface and others) helping drainage and the container is quite large (large container = lots of soil; if it is water retaining, it will take long time to dry up), I would recommend checking soil deep inside to make sure it is almost completely dry before next watering. Plants should not be watered on schedule, but when they need it. That could change from week to week, depending on temperatures and how much sunlight there is. You should check it even now, just to see how dry or wet it is. I wonder how well your present mix will dry since it seems to contain lots of soil.

You asked about why no rocks in the bottom....they serve no purpose at all apart from placing maybe a broken crock or two over a large drainage hole, a layer will only act as a reservoir where water pools then it wicks back up into the soil and can rot everything. So as I said, no layers, of anything, for any plant!

Gill-thank you, now I understand. I will be repotting a few plants to remove the rocks at the bottom.

Rina-I tried to untangle the roots and they seemed ok but I didn't do a very good job of untangling them because I didn't want to damage them. Should I run them under water to untangle them more? The first time I planted them they were very dry and compact because of the tiny plastic pots they were in when I bought them. I rinsed them under water to spread the roots out. The second time they were wet but not soaking wet. I will repot and add more perlite. Is there something else I should add to the MiracleGro cactus and succulent soil/perlite mixture for more drainage or should I just add more perlite? Or...

Robin-I tried your trick of using a colander to get the peat out of the mix for the leaves I'm propagating. I think I will do this for this large pot and also add more perlite.

Laticauda-I almost bought a moisture sensor until I read the reviews and lots of people complained of them not working. The skewer idea is great and I will definitely be doing that instead.

Thanks everyone.

It is not so much untangling the roots (but it helps if they are) but trying to get off peat/peaty mix off the roots. If old mix is a problem (worse if it is hydrophobic) and is left on the roots, new mix may not help as much. Ppl are often worrying about damaging roots, but if they are left encased in hydrophobic peat, they will wither away anyway. If plant looses some or even all of the roots, it will grow new ones if given proper conditions. I often prune roots when repotting.

If repotting any plants and roots are wet, plant could be set on paper towels, newspaper or even cloth that will absorb extra moisture. If doing that, it should be left out of sunlight and somewhere with good air circulation. Few hours is usually enough. You don't need to redo it now, unless you know that roots were in poor condition.

If you add minimum 50% sifted or rinsed perlite (it could be more), you don't need to add anything else. Substrates I mentioned are all good to use, but some could be more difficult to source. They can be used in many combinations. I use combination of grit, coarse perlite and some turface only. I would use lava rock or pumice if it was easily available. There is similar mix (inorganic) available - LechuzaPon. I don't use it and am not sure of price, but shipping could be expensive too. So there is no point of 'going crazy' to try to find them. But it would probably make sense to buy different ingredients ad make your own mix if you had lots of succulents - buying anything in bulk is less expensive in the long run. I would definitely advice you to get more perlite. As you know from your own experience, it takes much longer for mix that contains mostly soil to dry up in case of rain. So creating best drainage you can is big help. Do as Robin suggested. I always recommend skewer test that was suggested by laticauda already.

Oh ok I see. Thank you everyone for the great advice.

"I've always been told to put rocks at the bottom of the pot to help drain."

As Gill mentioned, a rock drainage layer serves no useful purpose. It is one of those "old wives' tales" or garden/urban legends that just refuses to die. ;-)

It makes perfect sense now. Of course it would cause water to sit at the bottom. I have a lot of repotting to do!

Are my succulents etiolated? I think there's too much space between leaves. I think I need to repot with better soil.

Is it in full sun? jellybean sedum? Yes it looks etiolated.. a lot more sun if you can.