Viewing post #1696557 by mcvansoest

You are viewing a single post made by mcvansoest in the thread called Cactus and succulents chat.
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Apr 30, 2018 10:26 AM CST
Name: Thijs van Soest
Tempe, AZ (Zone 9b)
Region: Arizona Enjoys or suffers hot summers Cactus and Succulents Xeriscape Adeniums Hybridizer
Plant Identifier Plant and/or Seed Trader Cat Lover Dog Lover Lover of wildlife (Black bear badge) Lover of wildlife (Raccoon badge)
I have used virtually everything in terms of potting soil that I can get my hands on, I buy the cheapest of the cheapest mostly because I end up buying soil so often. As long as I mix in 25-50% pumice/perlite/lava rock things tend to work OK. However, I live in a hot dry climate, for me if the peat in the soil stays wet for a few extra days compared to a peat free mix is probably a boon rather than a negative, thing is that in my climate fast draining soil dries out really fast, I do not want it to dry out so fast that I have to water the plant more frequently than I am willing or able to do. I like the cocofiber too, but it is something that you really should not let dry out for too long if you are a one pass waterer like I am so I have moved away from it.

In different climates having too much peat can definitely be a problem. In Corpus Christi, you probably have quite a bit more humidity than I experience but there will also be plenty of heat. If these are offsets from Agaves that grow there without any problems, I am betting that as long as the soil is pretty fast draining the amount of peat or not may not be that big of a deal. Yeah many of the palm/citrus/palm mixes contain plenty of peat, but they are made to be relatively fast draining, if you are mixing in a good amount of perlite/pumice/lava rock you should be fine, but you could also just get some potting soil and mix the pumice/perlite/lava rock with that.

One thing to keep track of is how fast the soil disappears out of the pot in terms of getting used up. With my mix with pumice with the cheap soil I use, in about 1-2 years if I do not repot, I end up with a significantly diminished soil level mostly because the remaining 'soil' in the pot is like 90% pumice plus some hard to digest components from the original potting soil, the rest has been used up either by the plant or just got slowly washed out of the pot during watering (the latter happens more easily with pumice and perlite as that tends to float up forcing other soil components down, lava rock does not do it, but for me getting good lava rock that is small enough easily mix into the soil is pretty hard). In my climate pots with just pumice essentially have to be watered every day in summer time, which is something I am unwilling to do.
It is what it is!

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