Would be great if one of those commercial brands would make a good product for cactus and succulents so we didn’t have to buy separate bags of amendments , thanks for sharing!!!
Wow you get the award for most useful information on the internet today! This is such a great analysis of the most important aspect of cactus soils, and it's great that you took it one step further by explaining how that the water retention stats would apply differently in different environments. For me finding or making the right soil is an endless frustration and I'm sure it is the same for others. I thought I was going crazy when bags of the same brand soil all appeared to have different ingredients. Now I know! I definitely try to avoid peat and I feel like a lot of brands overdo it with the bark/coco/peat proportions instead of grit. I seriously burst out laughing when you brought out that desert soil! When I first moved here I made the mistake of thinking desert soil must be perfect for growing cacti. Ha! I had so many pots full of cement. 🤣🤣🤣 Thanks for another great video. 🤗🌵💚
Great video. I'm from California and started using Miracle-Gro but realized I didn't like the peat moss addition. Switched over to Kelloggs, which I enjoyed a lot better. My batches have more sand and pumice. I do like to add additional pumice to the Kelloggs too.
Kelloggs is much better for sure. Miracle-Gro is cheapy cheap, apparently they use wood shavings as a filler, and it wicks water away from the roots of plants.
Always tough finding the right mix for and in the area you live... I just bought some cacti from the Huntington Library and I was so surprised to find very very little organic material... Almost all pumice or aggregate... The water flows straight through. The plants love it and they were al very well rooted but I have to water and fertilize too frequently with their mix. I guess finding the right mix for your garden is all part of the process and fun...
Well said! I buy cacti from California and they are mostly perlite and very little organic. They grow perfectly fine in California but once I bring them home in the desert, the plant shrivels up in a few weeks. They were not holding enough moisture in the soil. It is great once you strike the perfect balance! 😃
May great points that affect myself also!! I try to avoid all that peat. And most commercial mixes here are mainly peat. So I have to make my own from many ingredients. Some local natural sources like dolomite limestone. I order small bags of pumice mix to add in for small special plants. Use " beyond peat mix" which is just a pine coir & compost. Have to add perlite, crushed lava rock, coconut coir maybe crushed terracotta pots. Yeah way too expensive to have all the best ingredients shipped in. Especially for a large collection. Yeah I remember that kind of soil in Tucson!! Very hard ground!! Have to pick it!!! Great video Ana!!! From Morris park in the oz, out to Las Vegas. Have a great week ahead!!! Peace,Love,Plants!!!✌💖🌵🌺🍀🌷🌿💐🌳🌻😃👍
Ana, this is a great video. Last year when I got started, I remember that we exchanged several e-mails about mixes. I have watched posts from Daz, and his approach is very different. Both of you are taking the right paths for the situation where you live. Very interesting tests. Thanks for the time that you spent on this. I owe you a cup of coffee!
A much needed video! Thank you so much for this information. Struggling with my soil mix right now....which was working fine for a relatively drier summer in Florida but is causing issues with additional rain right before the start of fall. I'm learning that trouble-shooting is such a central part of this hobby so I really appreciate your scientific approach testing these mixes! :)
Very informative. I live in a humid environment, and I want to be sure I don’t get the incorrect soil or get ripped off buying something inferior. I’ll keep all your tips in mind when it’s time to move my cacti babies to a bigger pot. 🌵❤️
This is a really BRILLIANT in depth video on the different Cactus & Succulents soils Ana :-D and so fantastic you tested out the different brands, the cactus and succulent soils in the U.S look so much better quality than here in Ireland and UK, most of the commercial cactus soils sold here are awful LOL! I remember opening up a bag of cactus soil from the Brand 'Westland' and it was full of fungus flies and moldy peat and bits of plastic, Thanks so much for this awesome and very informative video Ana, and Hans and I are sending you lots of love and happiness and CAFFEINE and PLANT POWER to Las Vegas for a fantastic Tuesday XXXX
Wow! That was definitely one of the most amazing videos I have watched to learn about soil composition for succulents and cactus. My succulents have done ok with a 50/50 perlite and potting mix soil but now that I am doing cactus they are not so happy living indoors in Maine. Great job! I learned so much!
I live in a humid climate, but it is also cold. In the winter with the heat on constantly, humidity levels can go below 15%. An air conditioned room can also get quite dry. This is to say that if you are growing plants indoors your conditions change throughout the year, so whichever soil you use, you may need to compensate depending on the season, watering more or less, moving outside or to a different room.
Excellent video- you really put a lot of thought and effort into planning and carrying out this experiment. I so love your channel, I have learned so much. A million thanks--because of you I am learning how to care for my cacti here in Virginia.
I agree with you that soil quality is key to successfully grow succulents 👌. Very useful and informative video. And 😲, the bonus was so cool 😁, enjoyed a lot the footage about desert 😎💯!
Wonderful mud pie soil! Caliche is a part of me because I’ve lived in the Sonoran Desert area most of my life. Thanks for this wonderful video. I think the pieces of the drainage puzzle are finally being placed correctly in my mind.
Awesome in-depth video, Ana. Choosing the right type of soil mix for your plants is key, as well as taking into consideration all the other things you mentioned, such as your environment, types of pots you use, overhead/bottom watering etc. Unfortunately most of the pre-made cactus and succulent soils here are, quite frankly, trash! Luckily though materials like pumice, lava rock, zeolite, akadama and kyodama are relatively easy to obtain here and not too heavy on the wallet! Shipping costs are reasonable, too. Thank you for sharing with us as always, Ana. Really enjoyed this one. Have a wonderful day and new week from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜☕️
🤣... Yes I agree Daz, the pre-made big brand soil mixes in the UK, especially ones aimed for use with cactus plants, are trash!! So heavy and dense and contaminated with bugs etc. A false economy and not suitable for cactus, but thankfully we can get all those other substrates quite easily in the UK. That Miracle gro was so going to be the worst...and it was 🤭😄
@@CactusCove yeah the ones I bought in the beginning ended up in the bin. Found bits of shredded plastic, glass and diced garden hose in a bag once! Was pretty much impossible to hydrate as well and just pooled on the surface for ages, and when it eventually did go through the pot it left loads of dry voids inside. I think the stuff they put in those bags is the sweepings from when they clean the composting machine out 😂🌵☀️🌸🌺🌼🏜
I truly appreciate these type of videos with experiment so that growers and collectors can make informed decisions. 🥰 Hopefully, these companies consider inputs from their consumers as well. Well done, Ana! ❤️🌸🌼🌺🌵💚
Gee Daz, your commercial soil mix has some unique inorganic materials in it. Lol! 🤣 Ours is not that bad. It is just the annoying big pieces of sticks that I have to remove. But I throw them in my backyard to decompose so they don’t really go into waste. 😉
Excellent video, Ana! I love that you included your native soil to the test. I’ve always wondered about the native soil here in Phoenix and how in the world the native plants live in it, but they do! And they do it amazingly well. Thank you so much for the video!
I love this, you give us a view of the difference between products for our cacti, the plus and minus of each, and that we can experiment making our own from materials available to us...you should do a video on the different qualities of rocks available and their pros and cons... amazing video as always my friend 🌵🌵🌵🌵
Interesting video as always. Thanks Ana. Here in Italy you can find everywhere (in any shopping center, brico center or Chinese shop) mixes for cacti, lapillus, expanded clay and sometimes perlite. More difficult to find pumice. I order it from a nursery that sends it to me, I never found it in the shop. PS: but why 4 inches down? Mystery... 🤷♂️
Hi Anna you are so right about these soil mixes I have experience the problem with the quality I bought black gold cactus mixture and the first time it was good but after buying it a few times I realized the quality has changed significantly with lots of sticks and barks the same for the esperma brands. Unfortunately we dont get the other brands like you do
Great video ana🙂.The miracle grow garden soil has worked best for me here in Florida,I've tried other brands but just prefer the garden soil miracle grow.
Appreciate your effort in doing this experiment. I Iove when the house plant hobby gets sciencey! I currently use Dr. Qs Cactus soil for all my plants and just started using the worm casting offered at Star Nursery; so basically what you use and for the same reason of not having to water too often. The only complaint is that I'm currently battling a fungus gnat infestation that got really bad after using the worm casting. Not sure if I can completely say they came from it, but it definitely elevated the situation.
Oh no! Those gnats are so hard to eradicate once infestation starts. It is a battle with several generations of fungus gnats in different developmental stages. Try sprinkling some Mosquito Bits on your soil. Works great for larvae.
@@CactusCaffeine I have Mosquito Donuts, which I think are supposed to work the same as the Bits, soaking in my watering cans. I'm also going to do neem sprays weekly if I'm not lazy lol.
Hi Dr. Ana... what a great video. This will greatly help beginners like me to choose the right soil mix brand depending on which area you live. With warer retention test, this will help me figure out how much watering i should give my succulent plants. I live in California so we get a lot of sun and may get very hot and humid sometimes. I use Miracle gro, so with 50% water retention, i can schedule my next watering and maybe it might alsohelp.me save on water bills...🥰
I only use soil from rice hulls because cactus soil mix is not available in my location. I don't even add pumice, perlite or anything else that helps the soil media dry easily. Although I can still buy online, it's quite costly. But my cacti are thriving just using ordinary soil, I'll just make sure my cacti are not getting rained and I only water them 15 days to make sure they dry before I water them again.
Dr. Ana you did some great experiments, really helpful and I agree, it's far easier to buy the pre-mixes and amend them. I also wish they included some anti-parasite ingredients but we have to remember this is a huge business concern that needs our money. Sometimes I think that buying new plants is cheaper than treating the old ones with ailments!
Hi Ana. I’ve just been debating about soil. I’ve used Bonsai Jack since I started growing succulents 2 years ago. I had good luck with it until this summer. It was a longer hotter very much more humid summer. I noticed about a month ago that one of my cute little 2” cactus with 2 babies looked weird. When I took it where I could observe it I saw that the insides had totality rotted. A little bit later I saw that my 3 inch cactus was leaning. After checking it, I found it was rotting also. Cactus have a way of hiding their problems until it’s too late. Those 2 were 2 of my first and favorite plants. I tried growing ice plants and they always rotted and died. I was new to this and I didn’t consider the humidity when I thought I wasn’t overwatering. I’ve found most of my oldest succulents are sitting in wet almost mush. I always wait for the soil to be totally dry and didn’t feel like I was overwatering. I had to take about 20 of them out of their pots the past 2 weeks and repot them. I saw that the Jack had about 1/4” square almost paper thin bark bits all through. I swear they multiplied because I separated those from the stones and there were over 50% of them compared to the rest of the soil than l remembered during potting. What was worse was in many of those pots, the bits had decomposed or something and formed a smelly black wet soil. I did read some information about those pine bark chips and they said they hold water and also tend to drift into layers which is that black dirt. I’ve tried a few other soils but only the Miracle Gro of the ones you tested. I’ve mixed in perlite which I don’t like or pumice but they were either too much stone or like you said peat. I live in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The name is because of all the low lying swampy land. So this area is very wet. Overnight there is so much moisture on plants and everything including cars that it looks like it rained. I don’t have any nurseries or big box stores near me so I usually order from Amazon. I learned a lot from your video. I saw that you did email with one member about her soil situation and I’m going to try to find your email address and I hope that you can give me more advice with my wet environment. The exact opposite of yours! I love cacti and chubby leaf succulents. Again what is with these thin leaved plants? I love your channel and watch you as much as I can. I love seeing how the different cacti flowers look. They’re all so beautiful! I’ve only had a few of mine flower but I got them in the wrong seasons and our weather didn’t cooperate the 2 summers since I started and they were u 11:04 under grow lights after I learned about those. Our weather is drier and not as hot right now, in the 70s instead of 100s! I’ve gradually been moving the plants outside in a plant cart and on my tables and chests or the biggest ones on the deck where I can move them out of the afternoon sun. I put my patio table umbrella up after noon and it shades the ones on the patio and the cart. Thanks for sharing all your experience and advice!
Brilliant video and well executed, this was fantastic like science experiments! Love this kind of thing 😄 I know you get many queries,questions,concerns etc regarding soil mixes, so this is definitely THE VIDEO that must be watched... its always a debate with soils,substrates,amendments etc and this just gives viewers all the info they need, great video Ana 👍👌🌵😊🌵🏜
Thanks Claire. You are correct on viewers asking about my soil mix. But our environment are all different. What works for me will not work for most of my viewers. I know you like to make a chunky mix and it works well for your plants. Hopefully this video will help viewers gain some understanding on what to look for in soil mixes.
Great video sis very informative. Detalyado tlga. Mas gusto ko sna ready mix kc tamad ako magmix mix at wala akong iisang mix, iba iba pagmix ko depende sa kung anong meron ako. Kaso nga lng e ung mga nabibili kasi n ready mix dto e pangit tlga kaya no choice, buti nlng madali nmn bumili ng compost, grit at cat litter dto at un lng din nmn gamit ko. Grabe pala ang desert soil. Kala ko perfect un s lahat ng cactus haha
I see your Allegiant Stadium Mug. Let’s go Vegas! I love the Cactus Palm mix by Kellogg’s. I do add a little regular potting soil to the mix to retain moisture because I’m growing fruit trees. Loquats and blood orange trees. Black and gold Ive tried in the past and didn’t do too good for my aloes. I haven’t tried the others
Very interesting Ana 🙂 Peat will be banned in the U.K. from 2024, not that I use it though. We just got a tonne bag of fine composted bark which works great for cuttings as it's very open and well drained 🙂
Pumice is readily available for cheap as "Dry Stall" in SoCal. It's used for application to horse stalls to absorb the urine and feces left behind by horses and can easily be shoveled out for disposal. A 40 lb of pumice costs about $19 in San Diego. I buy the pumice at a local feed store.
I got my pumice bag from So. Cal, too when I went on vacation. Here in Vegas, pumice is sold in small bags for a very steep price. You are lucky to be so close to the source. 👍🏼
Thanks for doing this, it must have been a lot of work. One note: the volcanic rock with many holes (vesicles) is called "scoria", which is different than pumice. (Pumice has finer holes, thus more air and less dense than scoria, and crumbles easily in the hands.) Some potting mixes may indeed contain pumice, but it looks like for your mixes scoria is more common. Scoria is readily available around the western half of the US because of the great amount of vulcanism. However, as you note, if you have to have it shipped to you it will be expensive to ship. You might try landscaping companies for sources of scoria as they use it often.
Thanks for explaining the difference. I see bags labeled volcanic rock sold here but they are all big chunks used for landscaping. I tried to smash them to make them smaller - haha. I broke the tiles and not the rock. 😂 I appreciate the additional info. Big help.
Thanks for explaining the difference. I see bags labeled volcanic rock sold here but they are all big chunks used for landscaping. I tried to smash them to make them smaller - haha. I broke the tiles and not the rock. 😂 I appreciate the additional info. Big help.
Regional variation is due to sourcing issues, to reduce costs most companies will use what ever they can get fairly close by states wise. Doesn't make a ton of sense to ship a truck load of pumice cross country when it could be substituted for something else closer, like wise some distribution plants might have cheaper/closer access to fine wood mulch. Ultimately its just a cost savings thing to source ingredients more close by to that specific center. I personally really like red western cedar mulch, it was very cheap when I lived on the other side of the country, however where I am now its 5x's the cost per bag due to transportation costs.
Have you ever tried to use the Nevada desert soil for any of your plants? It looks very promising. Maybe not on its own, because of its physical properties, but if you use it as an about 20% conditioner for the soil, it will help you to keep the moisture and you will probably never need to use feritisers anymore. Of course it would be a good idea to do a pH test and a vinegar test just to make sure it's not too carbonate rich, which might be good for Ariocarpus and Coryphantha, but not necessarily for Rebutia and Discocactus. Almost all commercial soils for cacti are crazy high in organic matter or even almost purely organic. From my personal experience, 10% of organic matter already do the job for vast majority of cacti. Using up to 25% would be beneficial for fast growing species or to help retain more moisture in soil. Of course this would be enough assuming that the mineral ingredients used in the soil are fine enough and provide nutrients, rather that quartz sand/grit which is not nutritious at all. That's why Nevada soil looks very promising. With that Nevada soil, depending on climate I would use 10-20% of it and add 10-20% of vermicompost or 5-10% of worm castings (or double those amounts for very fast growing species) and the rest of soil would be a mix of non-carbonate sand and grit, preferably including some porous materials like pumice/scoria/perlite/vermiculite/zeolite.
Yes, I use it but sparingly. It’s a lot of work because I have to sift it to get the big rocks out. But I use it in place of sand sometimes. The clay soil helps distribute water in the soil and also helps retain some moisture in my soil.
I know you tried to make this helpful but I go away even more at a loss what to do. I don’t know the names of all of my plants. I’m just starting out. I don’t even know what else to say I’m so confused. Thank you for your efforts
I just mixed up a batch of cactus soil today. Those big bags of succulent soil are not available here in Ohio. If you find cactus soil here , it usually comes in bags of one or two quarts and cost a lot more than ordering the ingredients and mixing my own. I agree about Peat as an ingredient. There are some good soils available made with peat, but, if you check the ingredients they use a chemical "wetting agent". Beware of "reed peat" or sedge peat. This used to be sold as Michigan peat. It contains no sphagnum and is basically a fine powder with a few sticks mixed in. It decomposes in less than a year and is worthless in potting soil. I use coir bricks mixed with worm castings for humus, since I live on the sixth floor of a high rise and composting is not possible. My basic mix is as follows: One brick of coir two scoops of coarse vermiculite (my scoop is the one sold at Walmart for measuring out pet food. It holds about a quart.) 3/4 scoop worm castings (pass through a 1/4 inch screen to break up clods. The bag I bought has some live worms in it. I put those back in the bin with a little food) one level tablespoon of greensand (source of trace minerals and potassium) one level of gypsum (PH neutral source of calcium) This is my basic general house plant mixture. I use it for begonias, gesneriads, and most house plants. For succulents, I add: two scoops coarse sand (to make coarse sand, run a bag of ordinary, or, better yet, pool filter sand, through a 1/32" (.5 mm) mesh screen. discard the part that passes through the screen.) You can buy coarse sand online from Bonsai supply stores, but you will pay through the nose for it one scoop pumice one scoop scoria (lava rock) This is what I use for most cacti and succulents. Some plants need better drainage, so I add coarse sand or pumice. Some plants need more moisture, so I mix in some of my general house plant soil. An excellent alternative would be to simply buy a good basic house potting mix and add coarse sand, scoria and pumice to it as needed. You could also add perlite, since it is cheaper, but your mix should never contain more than 25%perlite.
Thanks for sharing your method and your experience with soil mixtures. I like hearing and learning how others do theirs as well. 👍🏼 Your worm castings have live worms in it?! Wow. 🪱 🪱
@@CactusCaffeine Apparently, when the castings are sifted to remove the worms, some of the youngest worms pass through the sieve. The castings are not sterilized, so they contain living micro-organisms. I bought a thirty pound bag, which filled one and a half five gallon buckets. I then drilled a ring of holes (50# twist drill) around the outside edge of the lids so that air could enter the bucket, even when stacked, but most of the moisture was retained. This way the micro-organisms in the castings remain alive. Sadly that includes fungus gnats, but, since my pots are already infested, it makes little difference. When I can afford it, I plan to purchase predatory mites.
I used kellogs too but I need to add a little bit of pumice/perlite, cocopeat and peat moss to it, pag straight kellogs lang payat mga plants ko hindi tulad pag may halo matataba sila. I heard that Miracle Gro is great too when you put additional pumice/perlite on it. I tried Miracle Gro before nung nagstart palang ako mag collect ng succulents but most of my plant na nakatanim sa MG as nalusaw nung rainy season, so far di ko pa siya na try ulet. But i will try it again soon to see kung anu ang difference niya
Napansin ko sa Miracle Grow, ok yung plant the first year. Pero long term, hindi ko gusto kasi kapag natuyo, the water doesn’t penetrate to the bottom of the pot. So after a few months, all the roots just grow on the upper part of the pot. Shallow roots form instead of deep roots. But my climate also plays a role why that happens. Good luck and thanks for sharing your experience. ☺️
You should just use desert soil😌🤲💖That would be best. Is it illegal to do that in Vegas? I too don't ever use bark, moss, peat, or any product like that. I think using crushed quartz, river sand, Top soil would be a much better option to cacti growers.
Our desert soil here in Vegas is the worst as I showed in this video. Very few and only the toughest cacti will thrive. The small delicate ones will drown. 🙂
I live in ohio. I am having a hard time trying to figure out what soil is best for my succulents. I use bonsai jack for my cacti and they seem to be doing well but I bought an aloe sidewinder and the soil it was bought in doesn't look good. It may have a bit of mold in the bottom.
Thanks for making this video. I want to make sure I understand this... since your experiment showed that Miracle Gro cactus and succulent soil mix retains water the most, it's not good for succulents, correct?
Ana , thanks soooo much for this information. I live in Cincinnati Ohio so which one of these is best for me ? I usually by miracle grow potting mix and have to add stuff .
Hi DC, I am not familiar with your climate. it is good that you try to amend the bagged soil to suit your needs. But keep in mind that climate is only one of the many factors to consider when choosing your soil. 😉
wala po dito sa pilipinas nyan po,,, malimit po gamet ko pumice n may halong vermicast,,, carbonized ricehull po mas lamang po pumice... ok lng po ba un...
No, I am more confused than ever about what to use for my cactus and succulents. I don’t have a ton of them but I will say over a dozen and growing. As they grow and as I propagate them I am often in need of more soil. What makes matters worse is that I live in an area that has few soil amendments available. The local Lowes only sells Miracle Grow and I can’t count how many succulents I killed with that when I was first starting out with them. We have to travel at least 30 miles or more to reach an area that has a decent garden center. I don’t like the idea of paying for a soil “succulent mixture”that really is not what I need. Do you know of a fairly simple mixture we can put together ourselves starting out with just a common potting soil or garden soil?
I’m surprised that your Lowe’s only sell Miracle Gro. Almost all of the brands I showed here are from Lowes. You can also mix regular potting soil with lava rocks, sharp sand and perlite. Lowes should have them all. The ratio just depends on your climate and on what you are growing. Good luck!
@Cactus Caffeine We live in a fairly rural area. With all of the shortages we have been having, for over a year now, I guess that we are at the end of the delivery line. I saw that another vlogger uses plain top soil and adds her own amendments. Of course she has turface and other amendments available locally. That would be so wonderful! When I looked I saw that even bagged top soil often has peat added to it. 🙄 Our Lowes has been using the overhead announcement speaker to thank people for stopping by despite the shortages. I know that the big box stores in more populated areas do not have the kind of shortages we have because we have had to drive quite a distance to get certain things occasionally. Our Lowes did not even have terracotta planters for months. They did recently get some in but they are almost all gone now. I read that there has been a terracotta shortage in some areas. Many of the big box stores have been buying their terracotta from China and that is the source of many shortages. I had to buy a different kind of perlite last week because the usual was not available. It was almost all powder. It gets frustrating. Amazon also does not have several items that I usually buy there. I don’t know when or if this situation is going to get better. I have not yet found a cactus/succulent soil that does not have peat but I am still searching! Thank you for your helpful videos.
May I have a question since I’m a new grower here ☺️❤️.. I do have a cactus that’s growing indoor..they’re all growing healthy so far..since I’m growing them indoor and of cause they new lights to grow..the problem here is the direction of light that doesn’t through into my growing section.. Any suggestion or tips? Should I sun bathing them outside for how many hours?
If you grow cactus indoors, they have to be in an area where they get sunlight especially during their growing season. You can put them by a window. But if this is not an option for you, then bringing them outside for a few hours is second best. For how long depends on the type of cactus that you are growing. But do it gradually as they might burn if you don’t acclimate them first. An alternative is to have growlights. Good luck!
Iam recently new to succulents and cactus I had to purchase soil from Amazon and pumice and lava rocks I live in Ohio very hard to find at a local store so I have to purchase it from Amazon
Oh, you may need to mix your own cactus soil then. That is another reason why I don’t bother making my own mix. I can buy good quality cactus soil here. Just minimal adjustment to suit what I’m planting.
I haven’t found a mainstream succulent soil that is any good at all. They just amend regular potting soil and call it good. No thought goes into the needs of succulents. Unless you are able to buy the small name specialty brands out there just make your own.
shocking to see how much wood chunks are added to all soils. This will rot and house all kinds of fungus and bugs. For most Succulents I use a mix of 50-80% Bims (pumice) and Lava (1-3 mm) and 20-50% fine peat based soil mixed with some coarse sand. I used Perlite in the past but it tends to float.
Hahaha. And now I understand why the slightest rain causes flooding in Las Vegas! I always say, “That’s just a drizzle! How can it cause floods?!” Now I know why! 😁
Would be great if one of those commercial brands would make a good product for cactus and succulents so we didn’t have to buy separate bags of amendments , thanks for sharing!!!
Thank you for the video. It is very informative helpful.
Excellent, eye-opening video. Rewatching in 2024.
Wow you get the award for most useful information on the internet today! This is such a great analysis of the most important aspect of cactus soils, and it's great that you took it one step further by explaining how that the water retention stats would apply differently in different environments. For me finding or making the right soil is an endless frustration and I'm sure it is the same for others. I thought I was going crazy when bags of the same brand soil all appeared to have different ingredients. Now I know! I definitely try to avoid peat and I feel like a lot of brands overdo it with the bark/coco/peat proportions instead of grit.
I seriously burst out laughing when you brought out that desert soil! When I first moved here I made the mistake of thinking desert soil must be perfect for growing cacti. Ha! I had so many pots full of cement. 🤣🤣🤣
Thanks for another great video. 🤗🌵💚
Very well explained and tests carried out scientically with a sweet voice
Thank you for watching! 😊
Great video. I'm from California and started using Miracle-Gro but realized I didn't like the peat moss addition. Switched over to Kelloggs, which I enjoyed a lot better. My batches have more sand and pumice. I do like to add additional pumice to the Kelloggs too.
Yes, peat moss is a headache in the long run. 😉 Thank you for watching and sharing your experience.
Kelloggs is much better for sure. Miracle-Gro is cheapy cheap, apparently they use wood shavings as a filler, and it wicks water away from the roots of plants.
I’m new to working with succulents and I really appreciate this video. It was very helpful!
Glad it was helpful!
Great educational video on soil thank you so much
Glad it was helpful!
I buy miracle gro orchid mix and Black Gold cactus mix.. I add perlite..works for me!
Always tough finding the right mix for and in the area you live... I just bought some cacti from the Huntington Library and I was so surprised to find very very little organic material... Almost all pumice or aggregate... The water flows straight through. The plants love it and they were al very well rooted but I have to water and fertilize too frequently with their mix. I guess finding the right mix for your garden is all part of the process and fun...
Well said! I buy cacti from California and they are mostly perlite and very little organic. They grow perfectly fine in California but once I bring them home in the desert, the plant shrivels up in a few weeks. They were not holding enough moisture in the soil. It is great once you strike the perfect balance! 😃
May great points that affect myself also!! I try to avoid all that peat. And most commercial mixes here are mainly peat. So I have to make my own from many ingredients. Some local natural sources like dolomite limestone. I order small bags of pumice mix to add in for small special plants. Use " beyond peat mix" which is just a pine coir & compost. Have to add perlite, crushed lava rock, coconut coir maybe crushed terracotta pots. Yeah way too expensive to have all the best ingredients shipped in. Especially for a large collection. Yeah I remember that kind of soil in Tucson!! Very hard ground!! Have to pick it!!! Great video Ana!!! From Morris park in the oz, out to Las Vegas. Have a great week ahead!!! Peace,Love,Plants!!!✌💖🌵🌺🍀🌷🌿💐🌳🌻😃👍
Ana, this is a great video. Last year when I got started, I remember that we exchanged several e-mails about mixes. I have watched posts from Daz, and his approach is very different. Both of you are taking the right paths for the situation where you live. Very interesting tests. Thanks for the time that you spent on this. I owe you a cup of coffee!
A much needed video! Thank you so much for this information. Struggling with my soil mix right now....which was working fine for a relatively drier summer in Florida but is causing issues with additional rain right before the start of fall. I'm learning that trouble-shooting is such a central part of this hobby so I really appreciate your scientific approach testing these mixes! :)
Very useful and enjoyable experiment! Thank you also for showing your native soil. It was awesome!
Very informative. I live in a humid environment, and I want to be sure I don’t get the incorrect soil or get ripped off buying something inferior. I’ll keep all your tips in mind when it’s time to move my cacti babies to a bigger pot. 🌵❤️
This is a really BRILLIANT in depth video on the different Cactus & Succulents soils Ana :-D and so fantastic you tested out the different brands, the cactus and succulent soils in the U.S look so much better quality than here in Ireland and UK, most of the commercial cactus soils sold here are awful LOL! I remember opening up a bag of cactus soil from the Brand 'Westland' and it was full of fungus flies and moldy peat and bits of plastic, Thanks so much for this awesome and very informative video Ana, and Hans and I are sending you lots of love and happiness and CAFFEINE and PLANT POWER to Las Vegas for a fantastic Tuesday XXXX
Wow! That was definitely one of the most amazing videos I have watched to learn about soil composition for succulents and cactus. My succulents have done ok with a 50/50 perlite and potting mix soil but now that I am doing cactus they are not so happy living indoors in Maine. Great job! I learned so much!
I live in a humid climate, but it is also cold. In the winter with the heat on constantly, humidity levels can go below 15%. An air conditioned room can also get quite dry. This is to say that if you are growing plants indoors your conditions change throughout the year, so whichever soil you use, you may need to compensate depending on the season, watering more or less, moving outside or to a different room.
Thank you..
Excellent video- you really put a lot of thought and effort into planning and carrying out this experiment. I so love your channel, I have learned so much. A million thanks--because of you I am learning how to care for my cacti here in Virginia.
Very useful and informative video dear 🤗🤗
Thank you. Cheers! 🌵☕️🙂
I agree with you that soil quality is key to successfully grow succulents 👌. Very useful and informative video. And 😲, the bonus was so cool 😁, enjoyed a lot the footage about desert 😎💯!
This is such an amazingly helpful video I had to comment and say, Thank You!,
Glad it was helpful!
Wonderful mud pie soil! Caliche is a part of me because I’ve lived in the Sonoran Desert area most of my life. Thanks for this wonderful video. I think the pieces of the drainage puzzle are finally being placed correctly in my mind.
Great video!!
Awesome in-depth video, Ana. Choosing the right type of soil mix for your plants is key, as well as taking into consideration all the other things you mentioned, such as your environment, types of pots you use, overhead/bottom watering etc. Unfortunately most of the pre-made cactus and succulent soils here are, quite frankly, trash! Luckily though materials like pumice, lava rock, zeolite, akadama and kyodama are relatively easy to obtain here and not too heavy on the wallet! Shipping costs are reasonable, too. Thank you for sharing with us as always, Ana. Really enjoyed this one. Have a wonderful day and new week from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜☕️
🤣... Yes I agree Daz, the pre-made big brand soil mixes in the UK, especially ones aimed for use with cactus plants, are trash!! So heavy and dense and contaminated with bugs etc. A false economy and not suitable for cactus, but thankfully we can get all those other substrates quite easily in the UK. That Miracle gro was so going to be the worst...and it was 🤭😄
@@CactusCove yeah the ones I bought in the beginning ended up in the bin. Found bits of shredded plastic, glass and diced garden hose in a bag once! Was pretty much impossible to hydrate as well and just pooled on the surface for ages, and when it eventually did go through the pot it left loads of dry voids inside. I think the stuff they put in those bags is the sweepings from when they clean the composting machine out 😂🌵☀️🌸🌺🌼🏜
@@Cactimania 🤣
I truly appreciate these type of videos with experiment so that growers and collectors can make informed decisions. 🥰 Hopefully, these companies consider inputs from their consumers as well. Well done, Ana! ❤️🌸🌼🌺🌵💚
Gee Daz, your commercial soil mix has some unique inorganic materials in it. Lol! 🤣 Ours is not that bad. It is just the annoying big pieces of sticks that I have to remove. But I throw them in my backyard to decompose so they don’t really go into waste. 😉
Great video, Ana.
Very true … good soil is the key … I love Kellogg’s but I need to add more pumice and a little bit of black cow fertilizer 👍😊
me too.
Excellent video, Ana! I love that you included your native soil to the test. I’ve always wondered about the native soil here in Phoenix and how in the world the native plants live in it, but they do! And they do it amazingly well. Thank you so much for the video!
Thank you soo much for this video!!! What a cool experiment and thank you for including that special soil!
I love this, you give us a view of the difference between products for our cacti, the plus and minus of each, and that we can experiment making our own from materials available to us...you should do a video on the different qualities of rocks available and their pros and cons... amazing video as always my friend 🌵🌵🌵🌵
Interesting video as always. Thanks Ana. Here in Italy you can find everywhere (in any shopping center, brico center or Chinese shop) mixes for cacti, lapillus, expanded clay and sometimes perlite. More difficult to find pumice. I order it from a nursery that sends it to me, I never found it in the shop.
PS: but why 4 inches down? Mystery... 🤷♂️
Nice scientific approach to subject matter: succulent soil. Thank you!
So nice of you. Thanks 😀☕️
Hi Anna you are so right about these soil mixes I have experience the problem with the quality I bought black gold cactus mixture and the first time it was good but after buying it a few times I realized the quality has changed significantly with lots of sticks and barks the same for the esperma brands. Unfortunately we dont get the other brands like you do
SUCH a great video! This is so helpful. Thank you so much!!
Your welcome and I’m glad you find it useful. 🙂
I add perlite to my soil and it helps. The Black Gold brand is awesome. I use it for my houseplants too.
Great video ana🙂.The miracle grow garden soil has worked best for me here in Florida,I've tried other brands but just prefer the garden soil miracle grow.
I really appreciate videos like this that qualitatively evaluate and quantitatively compare properties. Thx for your time.
Glad you appreciate it. Cheers! ☕️
Appreciate your effort in doing this experiment. I Iove when the house plant hobby gets sciencey! I currently use Dr. Qs Cactus soil for all my plants and just started using the worm casting offered at Star Nursery; so basically what you use and for the same reason of not having to water too often. The only complaint is that I'm currently battling a fungus gnat infestation that got really bad after using the worm casting. Not sure if I can completely say they came from it, but it definitely elevated the situation.
Oh no! Those gnats are so hard to eradicate once infestation starts. It is a battle with several generations of fungus gnats in different developmental stages. Try sprinkling some Mosquito Bits on your soil. Works great for larvae.
@@CactusCaffeine I have Mosquito Donuts, which I think are supposed to work the same as the Bits, soaking in my watering cans. I'm also going to do neem sprays weekly if I'm not lazy lol.
Amazing video!
Thanks Anna❗ That was a good eye opener for us, very informative👍😊😍
Hi ate Hermie! Kamusta po?
Black Gold Cactus works well for me! Sometimes I had some perlite. Thanks for the information
Thank you so much for such great information!❤
this is awesome.. what an in-depth information on soil.. this is so good.. Yes, super agree that commercial bags are very inconsistent..
Hi Dr. Ana... what a great video. This will greatly help beginners like me to choose the right soil mix brand depending on which area you live. With warer retention test, this will help me figure out how much watering i should give my succulent plants. I live in California so we get a lot of sun and may get very hot and humid sometimes. I use Miracle gro, so with 50% water retention, i can schedule my next watering and maybe it might alsohelp.me save on water bills...🥰
Very thorough investigation. I appreciate you sharing the results of your hard work.
Thank you 😊
Wow, quite eye opening! Guess I'll be doing the same, buying the commercial brands and using my soil amendments. Thanks Ana.
I only use soil from rice hulls because cactus soil mix is not available in my location. I don't even add pumice, perlite or anything else that helps the soil media dry easily. Although I can still buy online, it's quite costly.
But my cacti are thriving just using ordinary soil, I'll just make sure my cacti are not getting rained and I only water them 15 days to make sure they dry before I water them again.
What a great video, Ana!
Great and thorough video, just what I needed. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing, i am new to cactus plant finger crossed i don’t kill it
Good luck and enjoy. Losing some is part of the experience. 😉
Dr. Ana you did some great experiments, really helpful and I agree, it's far easier to buy the pre-mixes and amend them. I also wish they included some anti-parasite ingredients but we have to remember this is a huge business concern that needs our money. Sometimes I think that buying new plants is cheaper than treating the old ones with ailments!
Hi Ana. I’ve just been debating about soil. I’ve used Bonsai Jack since I started growing succulents 2 years ago. I had good luck with it until this summer. It was a longer hotter very much more humid summer. I noticed about a month ago that one of my cute little 2” cactus with 2 babies looked weird. When I took it where I could observe it I saw that the insides had totality rotted. A little bit later I saw that my 3 inch cactus was leaning. After checking it, I found it was rotting also. Cactus have a way of hiding their problems until it’s too late. Those 2 were 2 of my first and favorite plants. I tried growing ice plants and they always rotted and died. I was new to this and I didn’t consider the humidity when I thought I wasn’t overwatering. I’ve found most of my oldest succulents are sitting in wet almost mush. I always wait for the soil to be totally dry and didn’t feel like I was overwatering. I had to take about 20 of them out of their pots the past 2 weeks and repot them. I saw that the Jack had about 1/4” square almost paper thin bark bits all through. I swear they multiplied because I separated those from the stones and there were over 50% of them compared to the rest of the soil than l remembered during potting. What was worse was in many of those pots, the bits had decomposed or something and formed a smelly black wet soil. I did read some information about those pine bark chips and they said they hold water and also tend to drift into layers which is that black dirt. I’ve tried a few other soils but only the Miracle Gro of the ones you tested. I’ve mixed in perlite which I don’t like or pumice but they were either too much stone or like you said peat. I live in the Lowcountry of South Carolina. The name is because of all the low lying swampy land. So this area is very wet. Overnight there is so much moisture on plants and everything including cars that it looks like it rained. I don’t have any nurseries or big box stores near me so I usually order from Amazon. I learned a lot from your video. I saw that you did email with one member about her soil situation and I’m going to try to find your email address and I hope that you can give me more advice with my wet environment. The exact opposite of yours! I love cacti and chubby leaf succulents. Again what is with these thin leaved plants? I love your channel and watch you as much as I can. I love seeing how the different cacti flowers look. They’re all so beautiful! I’ve only had a few of mine flower but I got them in the wrong seasons and our weather didn’t cooperate the 2 summers since I started and they were u 11:04 under grow lights after I learned about those. Our weather is drier and not as hot right now, in the 70s instead of 100s! I’ve gradually been moving the plants outside in a plant cart and on my tables and chests or the biggest ones on the deck where I can move them out of the afternoon sun. I put my patio table umbrella up after noon and it shades the ones on the patio and the cart. Thanks for sharing all your experience and advice!
Ana, great job on this video! Very informative.
Thank you, very helpful for newbie me.
Brilliant video and well executed, this was fantastic like science experiments! Love this kind of thing 😄 I know you get many queries,questions,concerns etc regarding soil mixes, so this is definitely THE VIDEO that must be watched... its always a debate with soils,substrates,amendments etc and this just gives viewers all the info they need, great video Ana 👍👌🌵😊🌵🏜
Thanks Claire. You are correct on viewers asking about my soil mix. But our environment are all different. What works for me will not work for most of my viewers. I know you like to make a chunky mix and it works well for your plants. Hopefully this video will help viewers gain some understanding on what to look for in soil mixes.
Thank you very informative!
Great video sis very informative. Detalyado tlga. Mas gusto ko sna ready mix kc tamad ako magmix mix at wala akong iisang mix, iba iba pagmix ko depende sa kung anong meron ako. Kaso nga lng e ung mga nabibili kasi n ready mix dto e pangit tlga kaya no choice, buti nlng madali nmn bumili ng compost, grit at cat litter dto at un lng din nmn gamit ko. Grabe pala ang desert soil. Kala ko perfect un s lahat ng cactus haha
спасибо сестрёнка очень хороший тест почвы......спасибо за видео)
Thanks for watching!
@@CactusCaffeine thank you too)
This was so helpful. Thank you for sharing
Thanks for the info !! 🌵💕🌵
You are so welcome! Thanks for watching. 😊
Great information’
I use the cactus soil in the green and white bag for my ports. I just add more pumice and sift out the dust
I see your Allegiant Stadium Mug. Let’s go Vegas! I love the Cactus Palm mix by Kellogg’s. I do add a little regular potting soil to the mix to retain moisture because I’m growing fruit trees. Loquats and blood orange trees. Black and gold Ive tried in the past and didn’t do too good for my aloes. I haven’t tried the others
Exelente información, práctica gracias
Very great video I always sus the miracle gro as a killer succulent. I just repot my succulent and now plan to change the soil
I would prefer mixing my own
Or anything chunky and light
Excelent~!
Very interesting Ana 🙂 Peat will be banned in the U.K. from 2024, not that I use it though. We just got a tonne bag of fine composted bark which works great for cuttings as it's very open and well drained 🙂
Pumice is readily available for cheap as "Dry Stall" in SoCal. It's used for application to horse stalls to absorb the urine and feces left behind by horses and can easily be shoveled out for disposal. A 40 lb of pumice costs about $19 in San Diego. I buy the pumice at a local feed store.
I got my pumice bag from So. Cal, too when I went on vacation. Here in Vegas, pumice is sold in small bags for a very steep price. You are lucky to be so close to the source. 👍🏼
I’m in Maine, they have it no where, no Dry Stall either (I’ve searched lol) have to order offline and it’s ridiculously expensive
Thanks for doing this, it must have been a lot of work. One note: the volcanic rock with many holes (vesicles) is called "scoria", which is different than pumice. (Pumice has finer holes, thus more air and less dense than scoria, and crumbles easily in the hands.) Some potting mixes may indeed contain pumice, but it looks like for your mixes scoria is more common. Scoria is readily available around the western half of the US because of the great amount of vulcanism. However, as you note, if you have to have it shipped to you it will be expensive to ship. You might try landscaping companies for sources of scoria as they use it often.
Thanks for explaining the difference. I see bags labeled volcanic rock sold here but they are all big chunks used for landscaping. I tried to smash them to make them smaller - haha. I broke the tiles and not the rock. 😂 I appreciate the additional info. Big help.
Thanks for explaining the difference. I see bags labeled volcanic rock sold here but they are all big chunks used for landscaping. I tried to smash them to make them smaller - haha. I broke the tiles and not the rock. 😂 I appreciate the additional info. Big help.
I just use orchid mix cactus mix together..works for me!! My plants are indoors.. I used terra cotta pots for most of my plants..
I bought the black gold cactus mix... gonna try it.
I like this Black Gold soil🥰🥰🥰🥰
Very informative...thank yoy very much. May i ask what do the spidermites eggs looks like in bag soils? Thanks again.
Regional variation is due to sourcing issues, to reduce costs most companies will use what ever they can get fairly close by states wise.
Doesn't make a ton of sense to ship a truck load of pumice cross country when it could be substituted for something else closer, like wise some distribution plants might have cheaper/closer access to fine wood mulch.
Ultimately its just a cost savings thing to source ingredients more close by to that specific center. I personally really like red western cedar mulch, it was very cheap when I lived on the other side of the country, however where I am now its 5x's the cost per bag due to transportation costs.
Have you ever tried to use the Nevada desert soil for any of your plants? It looks very promising. Maybe not on its own, because of its physical properties, but if you use it as an about 20% conditioner for the soil, it will help you to keep the moisture and you will probably never need to use feritisers anymore.
Of course it would be a good idea to do a pH test and a vinegar test just to make sure it's not too carbonate rich, which might be good for Ariocarpus and Coryphantha, but not necessarily for Rebutia and Discocactus.
Almost all commercial soils for cacti are crazy high in organic matter or even almost purely organic. From my personal experience, 10% of organic matter already do the job for vast majority of cacti. Using up to 25% would be beneficial for fast growing species or to help retain more moisture in soil. Of course this would be enough assuming that the mineral ingredients used in the soil are fine enough and provide nutrients, rather that quartz sand/grit which is not nutritious at all. That's why Nevada soil looks very promising.
With that Nevada soil, depending on climate I would use 10-20% of it and add 10-20% of vermicompost or 5-10% of worm castings (or double those amounts for very fast growing species) and the rest of soil would be a mix of non-carbonate sand and grit, preferably including some porous materials like pumice/scoria/perlite/vermiculite/zeolite.
Yes, I use it but sparingly. It’s a lot of work because I have to sift it to get the big rocks out. But I use it in place of sand sometimes. The clay soil helps distribute water in the soil and also helps retain some moisture in my soil.
I know you tried to make this helpful but I go away even more at a loss what to do. I don’t know the names of all of my plants. I’m just starting out. I don’t even know what else to say I’m so confused. Thank you for your efforts
😍😍
I highly recommend people try 90 to 100% inorganic mix in a plastic pot. (Overpot them)
❤
Yes match the soil to the 🌵 cactus origins.
Hello please could you give me the link where you show how to do the soils , I am new in this hobby. Thanks have a wonderful day
I just mixed up a batch of cactus soil today. Those big bags of succulent soil are not available here in Ohio. If you find cactus soil here , it usually comes in bags of one or two quarts and cost a lot more than ordering the ingredients and mixing my own.
I agree about Peat as an ingredient. There are some good soils available made with peat, but, if you check the ingredients they use a chemical "wetting agent". Beware of "reed peat" or sedge peat. This used to be sold as Michigan peat. It contains no sphagnum and is basically a fine powder with a few sticks mixed in. It decomposes in less than a year and is worthless in potting soil. I use coir bricks mixed with worm castings for humus, since I live on the sixth floor of a high rise and composting is not possible.
My basic mix is as follows:
One brick of coir
two scoops of coarse vermiculite
(my scoop is the one sold at Walmart for measuring out pet food. It holds about a quart.)
3/4 scoop worm castings (pass through a 1/4 inch screen to break up clods. The bag I bought has some live worms in it. I put those back in the bin with a little food)
one level tablespoon of greensand (source of trace minerals and potassium)
one level of gypsum (PH neutral source of calcium)
This is my basic general house plant mixture. I use it for begonias, gesneriads, and most house plants. For succulents, I add:
two scoops coarse sand
(to make coarse sand, run a bag of ordinary, or, better yet, pool filter sand, through a 1/32" (.5 mm) mesh screen. discard the part that passes through the screen.) You can buy coarse sand online from Bonsai supply stores, but you will pay through the nose for it
one scoop pumice
one scoop scoria (lava rock)
This is what I use for most cacti and succulents. Some plants need better drainage, so I add coarse sand or pumice. Some plants need more moisture, so I mix in some of my general house plant soil.
An excellent alternative would be to simply buy a good basic house potting mix and add coarse sand, scoria and pumice to it as needed. You could also add perlite, since it is cheaper, but your mix should never contain more than 25%perlite.
Thanks for sharing your method and your experience with soil mixtures. I like hearing and learning how others do theirs as well. 👍🏼 Your worm castings have live worms in it?! Wow. 🪱 🪱
@@CactusCaffeine Apparently, when the castings are sifted to remove the worms, some of the youngest worms pass through the sieve. The castings are not sterilized, so they contain living micro-organisms. I bought a thirty pound bag, which filled one and a half five gallon buckets. I then drilled a ring of holes (50# twist drill) around the outside edge of the lids so that air could enter the bucket, even when stacked, but most of the moisture was retained. This way the micro-organisms in the castings remain alive. Sadly that includes fungus gnats, but, since my pots are already infested, it makes little difference. When I can afford it, I plan to purchase predatory mites.
I used kellogs too but I need to add a little bit of pumice/perlite, cocopeat and peat moss to it, pag straight kellogs lang payat mga plants ko hindi tulad pag may halo matataba sila. I heard that Miracle Gro is great too when you put additional pumice/perlite on it. I tried Miracle Gro before nung nagstart palang ako mag collect ng succulents but most of my plant na nakatanim sa MG as nalusaw nung rainy season, so far di ko pa siya na try ulet. But i will try it again soon to see kung anu ang difference niya
Napansin ko sa Miracle Grow, ok yung plant the first year. Pero long term, hindi ko gusto kasi kapag natuyo, the water doesn’t penetrate to the bottom of the pot. So after a few months, all the roots just grow on the upper part of the pot. Shallow roots form instead of deep roots. But my climate also plays a role why that happens. Good luck and thanks for sharing your experience. ☺️
@@CactusCaffeine ganun ba? Thanks for sharing din , I’m still learning☺️
Can you give us an update on your aloe hybrids that you crossed and started from seeds?
Yes thank you for asking. I will show them in my next video. 🙂
You should just use desert soil😌🤲💖That would be best. Is it illegal to do that in Vegas? I too don't ever use bark, moss, peat, or any product like that. I think using crushed quartz, river sand, Top soil would be a much better option to cacti growers.
Our desert soil here in Vegas is the worst as I showed in this video. Very few and only the toughest cacti will thrive. The small delicate ones will drown. 🙂
I live in ohio. I am having a hard time trying to figure out what soil is best for my succulents. I use bonsai jack for my cacti and they seem to be doing well but I bought an aloe sidewinder and the soil it was bought in doesn't look good. It may have a bit of mold in the bottom.
Does perlite have to be sifted before mixing to soil. What can be done with the fine perlite residue? Thank you.
Thanks for making this video. I want to make sure I understand this... since your experiment showed that Miracle Gro cactus and succulent soil mix retains water the most, it's not good for succulents, correct?
Ana , thanks soooo much for this information. I live in Cincinnati Ohio so which one of these is best for me ? I usually by miracle grow potting mix and have to add stuff .
Hi DC, I am not familiar with your climate. it is good that you try to amend the bagged soil to suit your needs. But keep in mind that climate is only one of the many factors to consider when choosing your soil. 😉
i feel like soil mixes like this wont work that well in places like canada. it would just take far too long to dry.
wala po dito sa pilipinas nyan po,,, malimit po gamet ko pumice n may halong vermicast,,, carbonized ricehull po mas lamang po pumice... ok lng po ba un...
Im amazed that any plannts suvive in desert soil.
Some cacti are really tougher than we give them credit for. 🌵☕️
Do you have any videos about espoma cactus mix?
Oh sorry, I have not tried that one yet.
@@CactusCaffeine That's ok! Great video!
No, I am more confused than ever about what to use for my cactus and succulents. I don’t have a ton of them but I will say over a dozen and growing. As they grow and as I propagate them I am often in need of more soil. What makes matters worse is that I live in an area that has few soil amendments available. The local Lowes only sells Miracle Grow and I can’t count how many succulents I killed with that when I was first starting out with them.
We have to travel at least 30 miles or more to reach an area that has a decent garden center. I don’t like the idea of paying for a soil “succulent mixture”that really is not what I need.
Do you know of a fairly simple mixture we can put together ourselves starting out with just a common potting soil or garden soil?
I’m surprised that your Lowe’s only sell Miracle Gro. Almost all of the brands I showed here are from Lowes. You can also mix regular potting soil with lava rocks, sharp sand and perlite. Lowes should have them all. The ratio just depends on your climate and on what you are growing. Good luck!
@Cactus Caffeine We live in a fairly rural area. With all of the shortages we have been having, for over a year now, I guess that we are at the end of the delivery line. I saw that another vlogger uses plain top soil and adds her own amendments. Of course she has turface and other amendments available locally. That would be so wonderful! When I looked I saw that even bagged top soil often has peat added to it. 🙄 Our Lowes has been using the overhead announcement speaker to thank people for stopping by despite the shortages. I know that the big box stores in more populated areas do not have the kind of shortages we have because we have had to drive quite a distance to get certain things occasionally.
Our Lowes did not even have terracotta planters for months. They did recently get some in but they are almost all gone now. I read that there has been a terracotta shortage in some areas. Many of the big box stores have been buying their terracotta from China and that is the source of many shortages.
I had to buy a different kind of perlite last week because the usual was not available. It was almost all powder. It gets frustrating. Amazon also does not have several items that I usually buy there. I don’t know when or if this situation is going to get better.
I have not yet found a cactus/succulent soil that does not have peat but I am still searching! Thank you for your helpful videos.
May I have a question since I’m a new grower here ☺️❤️..
I do have a cactus that’s growing indoor..they’re all growing healthy so far..since I’m growing them indoor and of cause they new lights to grow..the problem here is the direction of light that doesn’t through into my growing section..
Any suggestion or tips? Should I sun bathing them outside for how many hours?
If you grow cactus indoors, they have to be in an area where they get sunlight especially during their growing season. You can put them by a window. But if this is not an option for you, then bringing them outside for a few hours is second best. For how long depends on the type of cactus that you are growing. But do it gradually as they might burn if you don’t acclimate them first. An alternative is to have growlights. Good luck!
@@CactusCaffeine thank you so much..it’s really helpful for me as a beginner
Iam recently new to succulents and cactus I had to purchase soil from Amazon and pumice and lava rocks I live in Ohio very hard to find at a local store so I have to purchase it from Amazon
Look at Bonsai soil. Usually it has a lot of Pumice and Lava in the mix.
@@fta2011 thank you 😊
@@christinamartin2006 Your Welcome
When i look at the cactussoil that is sold here in the Netherlands it looks like normal pottingplants soil and not like the soil you have been testing
Oh, you may need to mix your own cactus soil then. That is another reason why I don’t bother making my own mix. I can buy good quality cactus soil here. Just minimal adjustment to suit what I’m planting.
Hi Ana, what is your potting mix in sowing cacti seeds? thanks
It’s the ratio that I showed in my Cactus fro Seed video 🙂
ruclips.net/video/XdRprJos3G4/видео.html
Cheers
I haven’t found a mainstream succulent soil that is any good at all. They just amend regular potting soil and call it good. No thought goes into the needs of succulents. Unless you are able to buy the small name specialty brands out there just make your own.
shocking to see how much wood chunks are added to all soils. This will rot and house all kinds of fungus and bugs. For most Succulents I use a mix of 50-80% Bims (pumice) and Lava (1-3 mm) and 20-50% fine peat based soil mixed with some coarse sand. I used Perlite in the past but it tends to float.
It’s the layer of silt you put back on top. Lol. So much silt and clay in the dry desert soil
Hahaha. And now I understand why the slightest rain causes flooding in Las Vegas! I always say, “That’s just a drizzle! How can it cause floods?!” Now I know why! 😁