How do you grow succulents so they turn beautiful on their own? Read this and you'll get it

That Girl

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Olly Murs 

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BGM：that girl

Recently there's been a series of memes that voice exactly what everyone is feeling, and they look like this

After seeing them, all you want to say is:

So, can succulents actually learn to make themselves beautiful?

Actually, yes! By popular request, ahem, today we're going to talk about how to make succulents beautiful on their own, lesson one: soil mixing! (The soil mix for cactus can also be used for Crassulaceae succulents)

-- Article source: Marco from Xianzhenyuan

A link is attached at the end of the article

- The regional factor -

Why put region first? No doubt because region is the biggest factor affecting soil mixing; what ratio you use is inseparably tied to your local regional environment.

1) In southern regions, the air is humid most of the time, so you need to reduce the amount of water-retaining substrate;

2) In northern regions, winters are dry and summer air humidity fluctuates a lot, but compared with the south it is still not that humid, so you should increase the amount of water-retaining substrate;

The differences in regional environment bring differences in soil mixing. Blindly copying without considering regional factors often means going in the opposite direction and failing to reach the goal quickly. That's why it often happens that you see a fellow enthusiast on a forum growing cacti very well with their soil mix, but when you copy it yourself, you either dry the cactus to death or drown it.

- Cultivation site -

The influence of your cultivation site on soil mixing is mainly reflected in cost-effectiveness.

If you are running a greenhouse, then you definitely can't use granules like akadama; you mainly use river sand to keep costs down. The reason is simple: a few bags of akadama can be traded for a whole cartload of river sand, unless you're a big spender.

At the same time, different cultivation sites lead to differences in light intensity and environment, which also have a decisive effect on your soil mix.

With short light hours, you need soil with relatively more granules, otherwise the plant tends to stretch out leggy;whereas at a site with long light hours, you can appropriately increase the proportion of water-retaining substrate.

- Expectations for the ideal state of the cactus -

Why bring this issue up? The reason is simple: some enthusiasts pursue an extreme natural habitat look, with the cactus almost level with the soil surface, while others pursue a round shape.

There is no right or wrong here, it's just that everyone has different ideas, just like tissue culture versus seed-grown Haworthia, each has its own fans.

If you like the look of wild natural cacti, then without a doubt you can use pure granular soil to imitate the most natural growing environment;

if you like a plump, rounded shape, then you should appropriately increase the use of water-retaining materials to avoid the cactus becoming too shriveled.

- The influence of different stages of the cactus on soil -

This is the easiest to understand: is your cactus a small seedling or a flowering cactus?

If it's a small seedling,naturally you should increase the use of water-retaining materials;

if it's a flowering cactus,then you can consider a pure granular mix or an almost pure granular mix.(Analogous to a large flowering seedling)

After understanding these basic issues, we can move on to targeted soil mixing.

We can classify soil by its water-retention performance into water-storing base materials, water-absorbing granular base materials, and pure granular base materials.

The difference between water-absorbing granular base materials and pure granular base materials is: water-absorbing granular base materials will absorb part of the water when soaked, while pure granular base materials absorb almost no water.

Water-storing base materials mainly include: coconut coir, grass peat, peat moss, vermiculite, sphagnum moss, pine bark, etc.

Water-absorbing granular base materials mainly include: volcanic rock, akadama, maifan stone, Kiryu sand, etc.

Pure granular base materials mainly include: river sand, green zeolite, perlite, etc.

The above is experience summed up from personal use; fellow cactus growers are welcome to offer corrections.

As for introductions to the various base materials, there is plenty of related information online, so I won't go into detail here. Of course, you can't rely entirely on what's online either; you still need to keep exploring through practice.

No matter what base materials you use, the mixing ratio is actually very simple.

If you want the cactus to maintain a natural environment look, then you need granular base material : water-retaining base material = 9:1 or a pure granular base material mix;

if you want the cactus to grow quickly, you can use granular base material : water-retaining base material = 4:1 or granular base material : water-retaining base material = 7:3;

if you are preparing to sow small seedlings, you can use granular base material : water-retaining base material = 1:1.

Supplement~

For Haworthia succulents, home growing basically uses akadama and kanuma soil, not volcanic rock or green zeolite, as they have relatively high requirements for water permeability. The Aizoaceae family is a bottomless pit; it's similar to Crassulaceae but mature plants need a higher proportion of granules.

Actually, how a succulent turns out also has to do with the soil mix.

But more importantly, it's about us exploring and, together with watering and sunlight, growing more beautiful succulents.

·END·

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