Succulent Soil Mixing Mini-Class: Teaching You to Make a Loose, Airy, Nutrient-Rich Mix

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According to statistics, there are more than 10,000 species of succulents in the world, all originally living in arid places or places with high salt content. However, with the development of high-tech techniques, succulents that could not be grown because of climate and geographical environment can now be found everywhere. No matter the variety, whether it is the stem, the leaf or the root, it always has one part that is plump, thick and fleshy. The succulents commonly seen on the market also all have nice-sounding names, such as Haworthia cooperi, Mingyue, White Peony, Lithops, Rainbow Jade, Triangle Glass Lotus and so on.

So how should succulents be grown? Below is an introduction to the most basic methods.

Basic soil requirements for succulents

Loose and airy, with good drainage and water retention, containing a certain amount of humus, with moderate particle size, no overly fine dust, and weakly acidic or neutral (a few species can be slightly alkaline).

[Soil mixing] Coal cinder is a commonly used ingredient, but almost all furnace slag contains sulfur. Succulents are not sensitive to sulfur, and sulfur has sterilizing and pest-killing effects. From years of growing comparisons, plants grown with coal cinder are more resistant than those without it, and are less prone to root rot and root mealybugs. The coal cinder used should preferably be fully burned granular raw coal cinder (whether it contains incompletely burned coal does not matter), with honeycomb coal cinder being second best. Honeycomb coal cinder contains a lot of soil, so if it is to be used it should be crushed and sieved. Before use, coal cinder should be rinsed with water to remove dust and alkalinity. Use eggshells, with eggshells making up 1/4 of the mix; the effect is very good. Eggshells are an excellent airy, water-permeable planting material and are very useful for increasing soil airiness, and of course they can also increase calcium content. Eggshells should be crushed to 2-3mm. In planting material, garden soil generally makes up about 1/4 and sand about 1/3. But garden soil and sand both contain fine dust, and brick granules, vermiculite, perlite, orchid stone and furnace slag must all have the fine dust sieved out and be repeatedly washed before use. The ingredients of the planting material do not have to be exactly those listed by experts, nor does it have to be a single ingredient; rather, the more and more varied the ingredients, the better. If you have brick granules, vermiculite, perlite, orchid stone and furnace slag on hand, then use each of them, keeping the total amount at around 1/3. For another example, if you also have calcium-containing things such as eggshells, clam shells, bone meal, old lime and carbonized rice husk, then use a little of each, keeping the total amount at around 10-20%. Different planting materials have different physical functions and different nutrients, and using a more varied mix is definitely better than a single ingredient. No matter which ingredient it is, before use it should at the very least be sun-dried for several days.

These are the organic planting materials:

Leaf mold: You can choose the Clivia soil sold on the market, or you can collect bald cypress or zelkova leaves yourself and compost and ferment them, then disinfect them before use.

Peat: A marsh plant buried underground for thousands of years; at present the kind produced in Jilin and Heilongjiang is better. High-quality peat is brown, with high organic matter content, good fiber, a loose texture, a non-sticky feel, strong adsorption, and a slightly acidic pH.

Sawdust: Strong water permeability and water retention, but because it itself has high carbon content and low nitrogen content, it is generally not used alone; it can be mixed with some nitrogen-containing compounds such as soybean cake and composted and fermented.

Rice hull ash: Rich in potassium fertilizer, with a slightly alkaline pH. Choose the dark black kind, not the whitish kind, and it should have a uniform structure and not be too fine.

Tree fern fiber: The treated stem of a kind of fern (Alsophila). Hard in texture and brown in color, it does not rot easily. It drains well and has a certain fertility, and is a popular growing medium in recent years.

Mountain soil: Huangshan soil: low organic matter content, average drainage; red mountain soil: high organic matter content, the soil becomes sticky and heavy after watering, and easily compacts after drying; black mountain soil: high organic matter content, good drainage, and not easy to compact after watering. Generally black mountain soil is used.

Xiantu: A commonly used orchid growing medium. But practice has proven that it is also quite good for succulents. Its characteristics are: complete nutrients, good drainage, no pollution, no weed seeds. After one year in a pot, the granular structure is still very good.

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