There are a ton of recipes online. Most people start with either standard potting soil or the soil mix sold in bags for succulent plants. If you decide to create your own blend, use ordinary potting soil free of additives. We’ll go over additional components to include when amending or creating your own succulent potting soil.
Succulent growth medium frequently gets the following additions:
Fine Sand
Improved soil drainage results from using coarse sand in amounts of 50 to 30 percent. Avoid using materials with fine textures, such as play sand. A higher sand content may be advantageous for cacti, but it must be coarse sand.
PerlitePerlite is frequently used in succulent-growing mixtures. This product improves drainage and promotes aeration, although it is light and frequently floats to the top when watered. Use between 1/3 and 50% when mixing with potting soil.
Turface
Turface is a calcine clay product and soil conditioner that delivers aeration, oxygen, and moisture monitoring to the soil. It has the consistency of pebbles and does not compact. Although it goes by the brand name Turface, the phrase “product” is also frequently used to describe it. used as a top dressing as well as an ingredient in succulent soil mixes.
PumicePumice is a volcanic substance that may store nutrients and moisture. Some people utilize significant amounts of pumice. Some growers report successful trials when using only pumice. But using this kind of material necessitates more regular watering. Depending on where you live, you might need to order this item.
Coconut CoirUnlike other goods that might not absorb water well after the initial soaking, coconut coir, which is made from the shredded husks of the coconut, offers drainage qualities and can be repeatedly wet. Coir, which is pronounced “core,” was never brought up before to the typical succulent grower. Coir is a component of at least one well-known distributor of succulents’ peculiar mix. I have healthy plants in my nursery and use a mixture of 1/3 normal potting soil (the inexpensive variety), 1/3 coarse sand, and 1/3 coir.
Can I plant in play sand?
You might have a lot of items to recycle or reuse as your kids get older and lose interest in outdoor toys like sandpits. Additionally, now is a fantastic time to begin adding more flowers and leaves to your garden because no curious children will be grasping at them.
There are several advantages to adding sand to plant soil, therefore you may be wondering, “Can I use play sand for plants?” if you have some remaining from the sandpit.
Unfortunately, because to its probable high salt content and potential impact on soil drainage, play sand is not recommended for use with plants. Nevertheless, it is quite simple to discard, and your garden can benefit from using a variety of various types of sand.
Therefore, if you’ve thrown away the play sand and are left wondering what to add to your soil, we have the solution.
What type of sand is ideal for succulents?
Does the succulent soil mix primarily consist of sand? Actually, no. Sand, clay, and slit make up the texture of potting soil for succulent plants. This mixture must be well-draining for a succulent plant to grow happily and healthily.
Sand that is gritty is used to make succulent soil. The grains range from 0.125 to 0.25 inches in diameter. Sand requirements for grounded and potted plants may differ. The amount of sand in the succulent mixture, however, is equivalent to the amount of gardening soil used.
Additionally, not all sand varieties will offer you good drainage. Excessive wetness, humidity, and standing water can injure and ultimately kill your magnificent succulent. As a result, you must be careful with the sand you use!
The Chemistry of Succulent Soil Mix
It’s important to understand how a succulent soil mix differs from a typical potting mix before we talk specifically about the sand. Succulents definitely require good drainage, but that doesn’t mean they can’t also retain water. Clay is necessary for this purpose and must be present:
- Sand (2 parts)
- potting soil (2 parts)
- Perlite/pumice (1 part)
Therefore, if you’re taking 4 cups of sand, you’ll also need 2 cups of pumice or perlite and 4 cups of gardening soil. Sand aids in facilitating smooth drainage, but utilizing perlite will double the rate of aeration.
The sand ratio must be just right. Mineral content should be around 40% in a succulent mix that drains properly. It may even reach 80%; the percentage mostly depends on the environment and the plant’s individual development. Minerals are naturally occurring, non-living organisms, whereas organics are currently existing, extinct species. More of these minerals will be retained by coarse sand than by finer grained sand.
What type of Sand Should I Use in Succulent Soil?
Sand with a grain size of 0.125 to 0.25 inches should be used in potted plants. Sand should make up 50 to 80 percent of the succulent soil mixture for outdoor plants planted in the ground.
Silica sand, which offers good drainage and seldom leaves any water standing, is one of the well-draining sand varieties. Due to silica’s rough surface, water can drain out fast. The grains of ground silica sand are too fine to allow for adequate drainage.
Are you going to take sand from the beach that’s close by? Not a smart move! Beach sand has a texture that is too fine to work with in a succulent soil mixture. Because beach sand can’t absorb moisture from the succulent soil mixture, the salt levels are likewise reduced.
Why Does Coarse Sand Work?
The diameter of the coarse sand grains keeps growing. By avoiding the gardening soil from getting overly damp or moist, coarse sand balances the entire succulent soil mixture. Additionally, it aids in the succulents soaking up the ideal amount of water. Not too much nor too little. reducing the risk of both underwatering and overwatering simultaneously.
What Types of Sand Should I Avoid in Succulent Soil Mix?
Succulents do not do well on sand with finer grains. The drainage and aeration systems of plants are altered by fine quality sand.
Play sand: It does not drain properly, and you might see that the sand and water are both draining from the pot’s bottom hole.
Sand that can be used for all purposes is sold in markets, but not all plants can use it. It is advisable to acquire a complete soil mix made for succulents rather than sand if you would want to buy a ready-made mix.
Beach sand: Does not work well in succulent soil because it leaves water standing at the base. Being more water sensitive than their older counterparts, offshoots and pups are considerably more inconvenienced by this, making it irrelevant for adult succulents.
You wish to conduct your sand experiments. One type of sand should be placed in each of the numerous containers. Pour some water from the top after that. It’s not a good idea to use it for your succulent soil mix if there is still water sitting at the bottom of the sand because it won’t give adequate drainage.
What kind of sand are you planting with?
As roots look for nutrients in the soil, coarse sand, sometimes referred to as yellow sand or builder’s sand, causes water to collect in pockets. Additionally, the coarse sand develops pockets of oxygen that revive drained roots that have recently been transplanted or roots that have just emerged from well-tended seeds.
Can Play Sand retain water?
In Our Private Members Area, this query is asked at least once every week. Let’s try to simplify the difficult topic of which sand to use for rooting cuttings.
I mention the coarse sand that I use for rooting cuttings in almost every article I write and in every video we produce. But because I’ve never actually seen sand marketed under the product name, this is a rather perplexing topic “rough sand. The term “what you’re looking for” can also be used to describe concrete sand or sharp sand.
Sand is frequently the ideal rooting medium to use if you want to use the Automated Plant Propagation System, which you should because it makes rooted cuttings ridiculously easy.
However, because sand is specific to each region, it differs greatly from place to place. Due to its weight, it is often mined locally and sold wherever there is a gravel pit rather than being transported across long distances by truck.
On to silica sand next! As you can see, the silica sand contains little pebbles that provide excellent drainage.
Today, I’ll try my best to demonstrate how to locate sand that is appropriate for rooting cuttings in your region. We produced a video on pebbly sand “obviously with the donkeys. They are my colleagues in making videos.
We are lucky to be in this area since there is a large silica quarry approximately 30 or 40 miles down the road that has been mining silica stone for at least 50 years. There is a significant amount of coarse silica sand produced as a byproduct of the screening and washing of the stone.
Because it drains efficiently, we utilize coarse silica sand. Our plant propagation system provides water as needed to the cuttings we are rooting, but it’s crucial that any extra water drain away quickly to prevent the cuttings’ stems from rotting.
You can see that play sand is extremely fine and is free of rocks. It’s wonderful for little children and very gentle on the knees, hands, and elbows. However, because it holds too much water and remains too wet, it is not really excellent for germination of cuttings.
This is the play sand that I bought from a nearby big box retailer. It is more necessary to assess the sand to discover the one that will work for rooting cuttings than it is to care about the brand because sand differs from local to local. This blog post should assist you in achieving that.
About those Drain Holes in Nursery Containers.
Play sand simply ran out the bottom of this nursery container when we attempted to fill it with it. But because it was so dry in the bag, we managed to maintain it in the pot by adding some water.
What You Really Need to Know about that . . .
To prevent potting soil from evaporating, some people would advise you to put paper coffee filters in the nursery containers’ bottoms. You don’t have to carry that out! The nursery container’s bottom perforations prevent good potting soil from escaping. I’ve never done it and I’ve never needed to, and I’ve never seen a commercial grower in the industry do it.
If you are losing potting soil out the bottom of your containers,
The all-purpose sand that is sold in large box retailers comes next. I’m not sure what people use it for—perhaps underpaying brick—but for that, crushed, ultra-fine limestone would be preferable because it packs firmly and will never seep through a crack hourglass-style as sand can. It is superior to play sand because it does contain some small stones. But . . .
Once more, this is what one of our neighborhood big box retailers carries. Try not to look for brand names.
Now let’s add some water . . .
The silica sand looked to be fully free of extra water in less than a minute after we added water to both of these containers. In this image, there is still some water on top of the beach sand. Not promising.
The play sand was still very wet and, as you can see, part of it washed out the bottom of the container after we added water simultaneously to all of the containers in the same period of time. You can see that the container on the right has water standing on top of the all-purpose sand. That surprised me because I though the all-purpose sand would drain better with the visible stones, but there may be something in there preventing drainage.
The Results?
The Silica Sand was the clear winner because it drained far better than the other three.
Third place went to the All Purpose Sand. It kept far too much water for plant growth and didn’t drain well.
Play sand was the big loser. As you can see in the photo, it rinsed out the holes in the bottom container and retained all types of water, but even minutes after our test, it was still soggy and stirrable like a milk shake. You can test it as I have done here to see if the play sand sold in your region is different. However, following this experiment, I would never use it for rooting cuttings.
Please note that I am only testing these brand-name goods for plant propagation purposes; this is not their intended use. Poor outcomes therefore do not imply inferior products. They are probably excellent items, but not for cuttings that need to stick.