Succulent Soil

What's the Best Soilless Mix
for Your Succulent Plants?

Garden soil on its own, even the very best vegetable garden soil with lots of additional organic matter, is not suitable for succulents; succulent soil should be a lean soil, with little to no organic matter or excess nutrients, and extremely sharp drainage.

This rules out garden soil, as for most gardens, you actually want moisture retention.

For succulents this will be the death of them as it will contribute to root rot. A soilless mix means you can tailor it to exactly what your succulent plants require.

Soilless Potting Mix Recipes for Succulents:

The ingredients and ratio - Equal parts by volume of:

• Uncomposted pine or fir bark in 5-10mm (1/8-1/4") size
  
• Screened Turface (may substitute calcined Diatomaceous Earth, such as NAPA floor dry)
  
• Gran-I-Grit (crushed granite in grower size or #2 cherrystone)
  
• gypsum (5ml/liter of soil)

For Sempervivum and other hardy succulents potted into containers use some type of commercial bagged potting mix such as Miracle Gro, Sunshine Mix #4, or comparable brand with equal parts Turface, fir bark and chicken grit.

Keep in mind that the Sunshine mixes contain water holding polymers, which hold a lot of moisture, so in most cases, your hardy succulents won't need much additional watering.

A word of caution with mixes that contain a water retaining polymer: this breaks down under freezing conditions, turning it into a sodden, slimy mess. Use these types of soil mixes outdoors with caution.

I suggest smaller pots for Sempervivum especially, and the addition of pumice or small sized lava rock for additional drainage.

After planting top dress with the chicken grit or other mulch like lava rock, crushed granite or pumice.

With Sempervivum as well as other hardy succulents such as Jovibarba, Orostachys and Rosularia avoid too much fertilizer as this can cause them to grow too fast.

They come from alpine areas, growing in gritty soil with little actual soil, in a warm dry climate through the summer growing season.

Here’s another succulent soil recipe based on the above, with a few differences:

• 1 part Miracle Gro Potting Mix
  
• 1 part Turface
  
• 1 part chicken grit
  
• 1 part fir bark (smaller particles)

The turface usually won’t need to be sieved unless it has a lot of fine dust which could clog up the pores in the soil when wet.

For a trial, pot some Sempervivum in:

• 1 part turface
  
• 1 part granite grit
  
• 1 part fir bark (smaller particles)

Plant others in:

• 5 parts fir bark
  
• 1 part peat moss
  
• 1 part perlite
  
• a little Dolomite lime

In a month or so of growing, compare the plants top growth and also the root structure and see which one does best in your growing conditions.

Some climates are quite wet in the fall and winter, which requires an extremely well drained soil mix.

Pumice or crushed lava rock mixed into a commercial type soilless mix will give you excellent drainage, and ‘tooth’ or something for the roots to grip.

As alpine plants, many hardy succulents have the ability to cling to any small particles to hold them in place – they’re well adapted to steep terrain and cliff faces.

It’s worth experimenting a bit to find which soil mix your succulents like best for your particular climate.

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Growing Guides

Succulent Plants

How to Grow Sempervivum