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Repotting cacti and succulents

Cacti Are Not PointlessCacti Are Not Pointless Posts: 1
in Plants
Hello,

I have a variety of desert cacti, a Christmas cactus, and a couple of succulents. Most of them could do with being repotted. However, I don't have any cactus soil, and can't buy any. I do however have general purpose compost, driveway-sealing sand, play sand (contaminated with a bit of compost) and basalt. The basalt contains powder, small rocks and larger rocks.

Would it be alright to repot my plants with a mixture of these materials? If so, what sort of ratio should be used for the different types of cacti and succulents? Would basalt be an alright drainage material?

Thank you. As you can tell, I am relatively new to plant keeping, so appreciate any help you can give.

Posts

  • wild edgeswild edges Posts: 10,497
    Is there a reason you can't buy proper soil? Would that include not being able to buy a john innes type soil as well? Ideally if you can't get the proper stuff you can make a mix of John Innes No2 with at least 30% added grit. For the really water sensitive plants a 50:50 mix is better. The multi-purpose you have is likely to stay too damp after watering.

    Steer clear of using random sand as you don't know if it contains lime or anything that might harm the plants.

    The chirstmas cactus again would prefer proper cactus soil with added leafmould or john innes No2 with leafmould and grit. They generally don't mind being a bit pot bound though.

    If you can't get the sil as above then as long as the plants are happy and healthy I'd be tempted to leave them in the pots they're in as they'll be better off like that than in a less than ideal soil.
    If you can keep your head, while those around you are losing theirs, you may not have grasped the seriousness of the situation.
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