After my previous post, about not watering this guy in a year, I'm working on repotting it: removing most of the sand and using more larger stone for most of the mix.
When I took it out of the pot, it looks like maybe I did a poor job removing the very organic soil from when we got it from the store. I gently swirled it in water to remove that soil before potting.
I could also see that my estimation of 75% sand and 25% cactus soil was also not good (second picture).
I've repotted with a small scoop (~1/4c) of the sand/cactus soil mix and the rest being two different sizes of rocks. My local store didn't have a lot of selection, short of getting some very large bags of vermiticulite, pumice, or decomposed granite. If this isn't successful, I'll probably order in some soil specifically for lithops, but I'm hoping this is at least better.
How did I do? Any improvement?
by sobo-hobo
3 Comments
You could possibly be overthinking this. A famous dude named Steven Hammer claims the perfect mix is 1/3 Miracle-Gro moisture control mix with 1/3 sand and 1/3 pumice. As long as it’s mostly sand and some pumice, I’m good to go.
https://preview.redd.it/5a9yzirh3gmf1.png?width=640&format=png&auto=webp&s=fdb2b329b281212b6eafbc52adfeb9e7b563b3dc
Personally don’t think there’s a “perfect soil” that will fit any/all growing environment. Depending on the temperature, humidity, light intensity, pot size, number of plants in a pot, the growing medium may or may not work for you. Get a general idea of what medium people on this sub use and see what works for you.
I just use jack’s gritty soil mix and my kiddos have been doing great
https://preview.redd.it/0i7sa57zrgmf1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5377ec6ab47a5b5d8cd1470cc2dddc744c6878c5