Succulent soil top dressing is not just about looks: it has 7 major benefits

Actually, many friends made up their minds to grow succulents not only because of the cute appearance of the fleshy plants, but also because they were won over by the wonderful scenery inside the pots. Unlike the dirty soil in ordinary plant pots, in a succulent pot, besides the cute fleshy plants, there is also clean and tidy top dressing, and even more elaborate ones have little houses, stone paths, small blue lakes, and characters from comics... These elements form wonderful fairy-tale worlds.

However, after truly starting to grow succulents, the experts often warn us: do not stick anything into the pot, and for top dressing only use kanuma soil and akadama soil, otherwise poor air permeability and poor ventilation will cause black rot. So, is that really the case?

Actually, if you are unsure whether the material used for top dressing is breathable enough, you can completely run an experiment yourself. Use 2 black square pots of the same size filled with soil, one with top dressing and one without, then compare. Then change the potting soil and compare again. After testing, you will find that top dressing actually has very little effect on the air permeability of the potting soil; the air permeability of the potting soil mostly still depends on how much granular soil there is. To put it this way: a pot of granular soil with a gravel top dressing will still dry out much faster than a pot of peat soil without top dressing.

So, since we now know that top dressing is not as bad as imagined, let us look at what benefits succulent pot top dressing has besides being clean and attractive.

1. The potting soil we use to grow succulents is mostly made of relatively light growing media combinations, and they themselves are quite light. Also, because of good drainage and air permeability, generally by the third day after watering the surface soil is already dry. Then here comes the problem: when the wind blows hard, the potting soil is immediately blown everywhere. Top dressing effectively prevents this problem.

2. When watering, the granules of the top dressing can effectively reduce the surface tension of the potting soil and help the potting soil absorb water quickly. Put this way, it may sound obscure and hard to understand, so let us say it differently: if there is no top dressing, when you water, some places may be washed into a big hollow pit by the water, while in other places, because the potting soil is too light, it will float on the water surface, and even after watering is finished, this part of the potting soil may still not be wet. With top dressing, there is no such problem.

3. It effectively separates the lower leaves of the succulent from the moist potting soil, avoids direct contact between the leaves and the potting soil, and reduces the chance of bacterial infection and rot.

4. Some old stems of Echeveria, after too many leaves have been removed, may develop a stem that is neither long nor short. When potting, exposing it above the soil looks too ugly, but burying it in the soil will affect the stem producing small offsets. At this time, you can use relatively light and breathable top dressing to cover the stem from the roots to the lowest leaves, which is both attractive and will not affect the stem producing small offsets.

5. There are also small old stems that are top-heavy and shallow-rooted, and after potting they are hard to stand on their own before the root system is well established. In this case, you can use relatively heavy material for top dressing to press down the potting soil below and hold the succulent's root system in place.

6. Also, Lithops grown at home are very prone to etiolation, and after etiolation they look very ugly, so they can only be buried deep. But deep burial will cause rot. At this time, you can also apply top dressing to the Lithops, which both covers the elongated stem and does not affect ventilation and air permeability.

7. There is also an unexpected effect: preventing the urge to meddle. Some novice grower friends like to pull the succulents out from time to time to take a look, and top dressing can, to a certain extent, prevent this kind of meddling.

So what should be noted about top dressing stones?

1. For the type of top dressing stone, real stones are most recommended. That is, use non-water-absorbing, non-dyed natural stones like various crushed gemstones and watercolor sand for top dressing. In environments with large temperature differences, they can effectively adsorb condensed water to help replenish moisture in the potting soil.

2. For the top dressing granules, try to choose ones slightly larger than the granules of the potting soil. In this way, even when repotting and changing soil, the top dressing stones can be picked out very well. However, if the top dressing material used is maifan stone, natural colored sand, zeolite, or akadama soil and the like, then there is no need to pick them out.

3. Top dressing with small granules of akadama soil and kanuma soil is very helpful for newborn succulent seedlings. The stems of newborn seedlings are very tender, and some are even etiolated. At this time, using kanuma soil for top dressing will better help the seedlings stand upright.

4. Some friends say that using kanuma soil or akadama soil for top dressing can directly detect the dryness and moisture of the potting soil. Personally, I feel this method is unreliable. Because this method can only detect the dryness and moisture of the surface layer of the potting soil, and there is no way to know the deeper potting soil. However, this method can let you know that that pot of succulents has been forgotten and not watered: -)

The above was organized and published by Little Exquisite Life, and I hope it is helpful to you.