Battle of the soils - Organic Vs. Mineral potting soil for cacti & succulents.
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- Опубликовано: 10 сен 2020
- Cactus & Succulent Mineral soil mixes for sale here: www.etsy.com/shop/EastCoastCa...
On this visit to Fairchild Botanical Garden, we go over soil structure and the reasoning behind my mostly-mineral soil recommendation for hydrophobic (sensitive to excess moisture) cacti and succulents like Ariocarpus, Copiapoa, Lophophora, Aztekium, Strombocactus, and many others. 
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Usually I'm very sceptical when people are talking about soils, but I can see that overall you've brought good conclusions.
High organic soils are not optimal for cacti and usually more difficult to grow good looking plants, comparing to high mineral soils. Completely mineral substrates work fine, but small addition of ogranic matter helps to prevent limiting growth by lacking of nitrogen and allow plants to tolerate enviromental stress (like harsh sunlight) much better.
One thing is that many organic mixes and soilless mixes are usually completely lacking in nutrients. The nutrients are derived purely from fertilizers. What it causes, that plants need to get fertilized frequently. Plants absorb huge amount of water and nutrients directly from water-fertilizer solutions and get pumped up really fast, rather than from water-soil solution, where nutrients are bound to the soil surface by adsorption and harder to extract. It's an excellent solution to grow some seedling and seasonal plants, but not optimal for perennial plants in long term, unless you grow stuff like dragonfruit for its fruits.
Currently I'm using a mix of crushed quartz, granite, basalt, zeolite and small amount of clay. For mexican plants most of the quartz is substituted with any rock high in CaCO3 and natural gypsum. I'm adding 10% of vermicompost to most of my adult plants, 20% to seedling, Opuntias and cacti from Brazil. More organic is viable for rootstocks and epiphytes, to accelerate their growth.
One thing I do completely different than most of people who recommend high mineral substrates is using different fractions. Most of the ingredients I use are crushed rocks, continuous granulation 0-5 mm (actually most of it is 0-2 mm). The reason for that is, that almost anything coarser than 2 mm is negligible from nutrient standpoint and works more or less as a filler and only affects the structure. My current soils are very similar to sandy loam in texture and cacti grow very natural and healthy in it.
I've spent years experimenting on soil mixes and individual ingredients and recently I dive deep into soil science. The topic is so complex, that if you want to write a cultivation tips book for cacti growers, volume 1 would touch upon soils and volume 2 everything else together.
Probably most of the problems with soils come from totally lack of the fundamental knowledge of soils in general. We also have very limited amount of studies on cacti, as they are not that much viable from economic view point. First we need to understand that not only nutrients are important, but also granulometric composition, soil structure, pH, salanity, water retention and many other factors are important to keep the plants in a good health.
And the most funny part is, that despite how complex the topic is, most of the success in growing cacti come from correct watering, adequate sunlight and temperature, as cacti have very low needs in nutrition and can grow pretty much in anything that is not lethal and can provide sufficient aeration to the roots.
Thank you! That’s exactly right, it’s a juggling act between many factors rather than a single input being responsible for a plants health. Welcome to the channel!
I think a lot of people want to use organic soil mixes for everything because that’s the only thing they’re familiar with , and never seen cacti growing in their natural habitat . After I saw your videos of various cacti growing and thriving in pure rock , I was just amazed . Seeing is Believing.
I was reluctant too , but I’m switching to inorganic mix for my new collection . I bought two bags of your North American and South American cactus soil by the way… can’t wait to use it👍🏻👍🏻
Thanks so much, Albert! I agree that we’re all used to using organic soils probably since most plants love it. I was also very surprised to see these plants in habitat and finally confirm WHY my mixes have worked all these years. I had read about the geology in books, but it’s incredible to see it as you said. Thanks for your support!
I mix them.
Around 30% peat moss. Then I put in sand, Pumice, perlite and a little bit of Biochar.
Love how you teach!! Please keep on creating videos! 💕❤️
Thanks so much for watching! Just waiting for spring to make more videos 🤓
As always, great video bro. I tend to use 1/3 organic and 2/3 inorganic but I don’t really know the differences between the benefits of each inorganic material.
For inorganic, I have:
-pumice
-lava rock/cinder/fines or whatever people wanna call it
-decomposed granite
-turface (calcined clay)
-cement sand
I wish I had a local source for akadama because I do want to start implementing some of that into my mix but it’s expensive for shipping.
I also have tree bark but I’ve never experimented with including that in my cactus soil.
Wow! what a neat botanical garden. That melocactus is fantastic and I really love stapelias.I use akadama, kanuma, river sand, and a small percentage of potting medium. It works in my situation👌
It’s a beautiful place 😍
I basically use inorganic, and a lot of cacti love full inorganic but some stress a bit too much so I add about 2 parts in 30 or 40 of coir and 2 parts peat moss .. not enough to make the mix hydrophobic. If anything requires more organic such as some larger columnars i just mix in some commercial succulent mix, never more than about 1/3.
Same here! I only add more organic to some trichos 🌵
Great info! Your inorganic mix is gonna help me create a healthy environment for my turbinicarpus, lw and others. I'm looking forward to receiving it and watching more of your content here and insta.
The tour of the garden was fantastic with the mix of knowledge. Being in central cal, it's great to see gardens that I can't easily visit.
Thanks so much! I hope you like it :)
How do you switch a plant from the garden centre in 90% organic to more gritty mix? Can you make a video talking about the climate and substrate the cacti are growing in naturally
You can just switch it and they slowly acclimate. Please check out my other videos, I’ve shown 4 deserts here on my channel 🤓
Gran trabajo, necesitamos más divulgación del cultivo de cactus desde una perspectiva científica y avanzada.
Muchas gracias! Saludos
I had four Lophs growing in straight up store bought cacti mix for 13 years, peat with maybe 10% sand. They all survived just fine, however, 12 months ago I did some reading and switched to a alkaline mineral mix with 10% organic, In that time they've produced five pups and lots of new growth. They also flowered a ton, but, I put that down to a winter with no water. So I think, as you said, they'll survive in a variety of conditions, They do seem to flourish in a more inorganic mix though. My go-to blend is currently Loam (1 part), molar clay (1 part) and grit (1 part). Mainly Copiapoa, Ariocarpus and Melocactus. Look up low dust cat litter for cheap molar clay.
Thanks for watching and for your input! So interesting to hear how many soil recipes exist and work perfectly out there! I’ll look into it, I believe I’ve heard of it since it’s well draining and porous and also inert.
How about for rooting cactus pups ? Inorganic or organic mix soil ?
greetings from philippines ! bro need help i do live in 38-160in of rain per year and the ralative humidity during july and the rest of rainy months here is 70-85% do you recomment using 80-90% of inorganic mix?
Hey there! Yes I do, but your plants need to be covered from rain no matter what soil you use because it’s too much moisture for them
I feel like the organic media camp is just inexperienced growers who use peat based potting mixes that are widley available at the local big box store. I see almost all experienced growers moving to inorganic. More support, better nutrient profile, better drainage. yadayada.
You should experiment with Akadama, its an inorganic material with lots of air spaces, but it also holds water well. Kinda an all in one balanced mix from a single ingredient. Also costs ~$50 for a kilo or two.
Overall great video with good explanation! I think more succulent growers should know about this.
I think you may be onto something! I am definitely on the “mostly-inorganic” camp after talking to many old timers and killing a few plants myself lol. Thanks for watching!
Form being someone also in the southeast where is a great place to find mineral or inorganic soils?
Hey there thank you for watching! You can find the best inorganic soil in my shop www.etsy.com/shop/EastCoastCamanchaca
Hi Manuel, I
Hi Irene, you definitely can. I would just use about 40% organic content to account for the extra cold and not water during the cold months.
Hi is it ok to water my cactus from top?
Hey there thank you for watching! It is totally ok, but some cacti like lophophora benefit from bottom watering since it lowers the chances of fungal infection of the skin of the plant. Don’t forget to subscribe 😉
@@RareCactus Interesting point. I guess having wet epidermis could promote pathogens, though I usually think it's unlikley that a virulent pathogen will land on your cactus (not all fungi can attack plants, plant pathogens are usually highly evolved for a host). Its still good cultural practice to let your plants dry out.
@@jumpingspider7105 I’m honestly not 100% sure on the why, but for some reason plants who’s epidermis is always protected from moisture (as much as possible) usually don’t develop orange rust on their skin. I’ve heard the infections start due to a combination of moisture and micro-cracks on the skin due to rapid growth. Not sure but interesting hypothesis 🤓
Do you add 10% by volume or weight?
Whatever is adder to the soil should be measured by volume. Weight can change drastically depending on the moisture, while volume usually is constant.
@@SimaShangde thank you 🙏🏽 exactly!
I agree with inorganic since its impossible to replicate open soil vs in pots. Pots dont dry the same way as earth
I'm in the organic just add water camp 😂 I see where your coming from but even down in Peru they have a decently thick rich organic layer their pachanoi live in. I run 1 part peat 1 part coco 2 parts pumice then I add in my amendments. This year some of my trichs hit over 3 feet in 1 season most easily hit 2 feet. I see a bunch of people in the inorganic camp and easily to get 1 foot but considered them selves lucky to get 2 feet. Just sayin I think it mainly falls on the grower if the cacti rot or not.
Hey there! Thank you for your comment because I don’t think I mentioned this in the video but Trichocereus is the single exception to the rule when it comes to soil. They do love nitrogen and act more like a grass than a cactus if you ask me... this video is truly more targeted towards potting of very sensitive genera like Ariocarpus, Copiapoa and lophophora. Trichocereus definitely can use more organic content in their mix in order to grow rapidly. With that said, there is also nothing wrong with growing them slow in order to achieve more compact growth and thicker spines. It’s really a matter of personal preference 🤓 Thanks for watching, SUBSCRIBE!