One of the biggest problems in growing succulents I find starts from the soil mix.
So it's important to have a well draining mix.
I find that most of the commercial succulent potting mix I've used,
are either dries up quickly, or holds too much water that the succulents dies from root rot.
Apart from being cheaper, you can vary the mixture to suit a variety of different types of succulents;
as different succulents require different mixtures.
Some like being watered often, while others prefer to be watered less.
After four years of growing succulents, I still consider myself pretty much an amateur.
People who've seen my succulents in person, photos and also here in YouTube, has been asking me for my succulent soil mix.
I don't have a specific formula because there are so many different types of succulents and
they all have different soil requirements.
But in saying that, I do have a master soil mix.
So on this video, I would like to share with you how I make my succulent master soil mix.
This is the basic mix I use on all different types of succulents.
Each type of succulent will require different formulation or mixture,
or soil combination, which is a longer topic.
So I'll just stick to the Master Soil mix for now.
However, for future videos; I will be covering in detail different soil formulation or mixture,
for different types of succulents.
So keep an eye out for those videos.
My propagation mix.
This is my Intermediate soil mix.
All these plants are all in my Advanced soil mix.
So keep an eye out for those videos.
This is what I use for succulents growing in pots outdoors.
So let's begin.
Add some hot water.
This is now left overnight.
This is the consistency I'd like to have.
The decomposed granite.
So these are my soil mix.
Two parts potting mix.
One part compost.
One part coconut coir or coconut Peat.
One part decomposed granite or crushed granite.
And some fertilizer.
And this is mainly what I use for my succulent master mix.
It's basically composted seaweed, fish, manure and humic acid?
So without humic acid, your plants will be unhealthy and they were not going to grow.
Or propagate and make lots of babies.
This is the first step.
I'm going to take the two parts of potting mix.
And one part compost and I'm going to sieve it.
Or the sieve that I use is this is what we use for fossicking or looking for gemstones.
The hole is quarter inch hole.
If you can't get hold of these because they're quite expensive,
you can use some seedling tray like this which has got some holes as well.
I'm gonna take my two-part potting mix.
One part compost.
Can you tell which is the potting mix? Which is the compost?
So this is a compost.
And potting mix. Potting mix has got more bark or like woodchips.
Compared to compost. Compost is more solid. So this one will actually hold more water;
compared to potting mix.
Which is just very loose, free draining.
So now I'm gonna show you how to sieve it.
Well you must know how to sieve it. But anyway I'll show you.
So we'll sieve it.
There's even some rocks in it.
You can see what is left over. So you don't want to put this in your pot.
Because it's gonna dry up too quickly.
But I don't throw that away. This is where I use it.
I use it as a filler for my pot so it's the pot this is just a one dollar pot from my local hardware store.
So I normally put a cut out curtain. Lace-curtain. Old lace curtain or new it's up to you what you want.
So I put it on the base there and then I put my sieved stuff or whatever is left of it.
There you go. So that sort of covers the bottom of the pot and then I put my soil into this pot.
So I'm gonna take the one part coconut coir, put that in.
And my decomposed granite or crushed granite. What I like to do with this one is also sieve it.
So I'm just gonna quickly sieve this one. Okay.
And there you go.
And there you go. So you've got that bit.
Which is nice size perfect size.
Probably quarter of an inch. The biggest one.
And now the big ones.
So the big left over granite. Decompose granite.
I use as a base for my pot.
So this is for my pretty pots.
This is like ceramic pot.
There you go, so you've got a hole and we put that in there.
So there you go so now I'll just put this somewhere and we throw the granite in.
And for the piece de resistance, Or our fertilizer; for this amount,
I only like to use say about... a handful.
That's a handful. Don't put too much fertilizer.
And mix that all in.
And once that's all mixed up, you'll come up with the same Soil mix. So this is my Soil mix.
And this is now the stuff that we mixed up.
So it's basically the same except that one is much drier,
because it's been sitting in this container.
So after mixing up our soil now I'm ready to pot up.
and I am gonna show you how to repot this small plant.
This one has been sitting in this pot for about a month and look how dry.
so this is what I do this one.
With the use of water,
and so I'm gonna use seaweed soil wetter.
So every time I report or whatever I use soil wetter. so I'm just gonna put a little bit.
I'm gonna take my little poor plant. I don't know what it's called still.
So somehow could be a cuspidata or something.
But anyway so I'll just soak it in here, and that shake, shake, shake, shake .
Absorbs almost instantaneously. Look at that.
Okay. So now,
I'm gonna squeeze squeeze, shake shake shake.
Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, shake, shake, shake.
Shake.
Okay that dry leaves in the bottom as well, there's lots of dry leaves.
So I'm gonna remove them.
We're gonna leave the baby there. We're not gonna touch the baby.
but I did touch the baby but look at that. It's actually separated from there.
It's got its own roots .
Whoo-hoo! There you go. So that one's got its own roots.
So put you here.
So normally I would leave this for a couple of days,
before I pot it up, but because we're doing this video, I'm gonna pot it up straight away.
So I'm gonna use my pot, with hardly any hole.
So there's only little bit of force so I don't need to put some mesh on that one.
and I'll put the baby with it as well.
So put it there.
I like to just jiggle it all up there.
Hopefully you can see this you get the idea.
So normally, once you pop that up because he's got such shallow roots, is gonna be wonky so what I like to do...
is take some granite that I sieved as well earlier.
And I'll put it around the plant.
Do this closer and I'll just put a pot cover that plant.
This is very hard okay.
And I put my top dressing.
Take it off, squeeze that all in there.
And because the soil is still pretty moist, I don't normally water this for a few days,
even though she's a bit dirty I'm gonna get my puffer,
it's okay so all those dirty bits there, I just puff it up.
Squeeze to be squeezed blow blow blow.
And you get the idea.
So that's clean enough.
So now I'll just put that away now.
and water it in about a week's time.
So that's it guys. That's our Master soil mix done and dusted.
Have fun. Enjoy your soil mix.
And watch out for the next series of Propagation soil mix,
Intermediate soul mix and Advanced soil mix.
Thanks for watching. Bye...
So I got my newly potted plants.
I'll just pretend it's a weekly well so I'm now watering.