How To Make A Succulent Advance Soil Mix

What is a succulent advanced soil mix? A succulent advanced soil mix is a succulent soil mix I've come up with to use for potted succulents. Hello there, my name is Liz, a self-confessed succulent addict. Welcome to my channel, Growing Succulents. These are succulents that I've grown in my succulent advanced soil mix. It is basically a free draining mix that even the most divas of succulents, such as the Romeo over here, and also this is a Van Keppel. This is a very, very temperamental, easily root-rotted Van Keppel. And I had one mother plant and I separated it. And maybe it's got something to do with that. But ever since it's been really, really hard to keep alive. Well, it's still alive. The mother died, but the three babies are still alive. And these are grown in my advanced soil mix. So I have two types of advanced soil mix, one for the divas and one. So these are Romeos. These are also Romeo hybrids now. That's a Romeo and that's a Romeo. But these ones at the back are Black Prince or otherwise known as a variety of Black Prince, which is actually called Ichok. Now this one is a Cheveria Apis. And the reason why I've got those three there, because I love three heads. Three is my favorite number. And this one as well, the Apis. This is just so beautiful and it's just so gorgeous. So there's three heads. So that side is more greener than the other side, but they're just beautiful. Okay. Let's put you here and don't fall off. Don't fall off. Okay. The reason why I'm showing you this one, this is also three heads is because this one is just sitting here. I recently bought this one and I've already removed the pit moss that's covering the soil. So, and you can see that the plant is actually, look, it's really dry. It's starting to wrinkle up, showing signs of it needs water. So I'm going to use this. So I'm using this plant here, which has got three heads. Look at that. Isn't that beautiful? So I'm using this one to show you how to part it up. So this is a Diva mix. So those ones who are prone to root rotting and dramas are the ones I'm going to use on this one. And this one here, I'm going to take off this other Diva here, which doesn't really belong to, I just put it there because on this part, I want to put the hardy one. So this is, it's really Agar Boy, this Red Edge or Lipstick. So I'm not too sure whether this is the Multifeeder one I've got, but it looks like a Multifeeder or I have a Red Edge that's just so beautiful. So I called it a Multifeeder because there is a Multifeeder. So maybe that's a Multifeeder anyway. So this one is going to go into this pot. There you go. And then that one is an Amestro. Amestro is also very hardy plant. So this one will actually get deformed if it will reduce in size. So this is quite a big plant now. So what I want to do with this Amestro, Echeverria Agar Boy, this Amestro, is to reduce it, make it a bit smaller and more compact. So right now it is grown in my Master Succulent Soil Mix, which is really looking really, really healthy and plump. And this is just all out in the open. I don't put this under cover. It's all grown. All these plants are all grown outside. So this one is Nun Diva and a Diva. So the Divas are Van Keppels and the Romeos. So Romeos, there's also a couple that's Divas, but it's not here. Pudgy, Sedivaria Pudgy is also quite a Diva. But I haven't got a Pudgy right now that I can put in a pretty pot or in my Advanced Soil Mix. So I'm just going to show you the Romeos and also the Gangshu. So this is Gangshu. The Gangshu is actually a very hardy plant. So this is Pachycedum Gangshu. And it's just so beautiful. Look at the color. See, so now this is a Gangshu that I've actually grown from a leaf. And look how big they've grown. So this is my first one that I've grown from a leaf, now has become a mother. And then I took some leaves off that. And also a friend of mine gave me a couple of leaves as well. So now I've got all this baby Gangshu now. Look, they grow really fast and they love water. But to color them up, I find that you have to put them in the Advanced Soil Mix as well. So I think that's enough intro. Six minutes intro is enough. And so I'm going to show you now how I make my Succulent Advanced Soil Mix, Diva version and the non-Diva version. So the very first thing we have to do is to make a Master Succulent Soil Mix. If you don't know what a Master Succulent Soil Mix is or how I make my Master Succulent Soil Mix, there is a video on how to make a Master Succulent Soil Mix. So check below the video in the description box or click the i on your upper right hand corner of your screen. So there's a drop down menu there and then that will show the Master Succulent Soil Mix. So this is my Master Succulent Soil Mix now that I made up. So I'll just show you that one. There you go and this is a combination of compost and potting mix, cocoa peat and also granite. So there's also sea mungus which is the fertilizer I use. Succulents don't need much fertilizer so I advise that you take it easy on the fertilizer because if your succulent is given a lot of fertilizer, they will have too much nitrogen and they will be prone to root rot. So also this one is a cocoa peat. So this is just a coconut coir that you sort of soak up in water and it makes, it's a big block and then it expands to what it is now. And also this is a five millimeter size of sieved granite. So this doesn't have any fine powdery stuff on it. So this is the fine grit. Okay so we're not using this. So we're using the medium size and this is the large. So this is around the 10-15 millimeter size. And so after I sieve it from the big sieve and then I ended up with the smaller sieve or smaller sieve granite. So that's what we're using. So that's it. So we got our granite, our cocoa peat, our master succulent soil mix. So this one we'll put that away. We don't need that. So now it's pretty basic. It's pretty simple. So for general plants, so these are the tough plants, the non-diva plants. I mainly just use one part of granite and one part of my master succulent soil mix. Okay we'll mix that all up. So we're going to pretend we mix this all up. We're not going to pretend. I am actually showing you that I'm mixing it all up. There you go. So what you're going to come up with is this delicious mix like this. So that's what it should look like. So this is the basic general advanced succulent soil mix. So also these are some plants that I'm going to put in our basic advanced soil mix or the non-diva one. So I use the elegance, blue minima. So these are blue minima or these are blue minima. This one is an unknown. I don't know what these ones are. And also this is a Doris Taylor. So these ones I will put in the non-diva. So the basic 50-50 mix. So 50% master succulent soil mix and 50% granite. So now these ones now. This one is also a non-diva. This is a longissima. And also this agavoid, this water lily. This is a non-diva. But when it comes to these ones, this is, I'm not sure whether this is actually a derulu or munro. If it's a munro, I would put it in the basic non-diva advanced succulent soil mix. But since I don't know what it is, I'm not too sure about what it is, what variety it is, then I'm going to play it safe and put this or pot this up in a diva soil mix. Also the amythorum, they can be really fuzzy as well. So they're slow growing. And so these ones, I am going to put this as well in a diva soil mix. So this is getting confusing. So the diva and the non-diva. So right now, there's plants, there's certain plants that will require the diva advanced soil mix. So longissima, dislongissima loves water. So it doesn't actually mind if you give it a lot of water, except if you put it in a soil mix that's sort of for diva, then it will slow its growth. So the longissima is best and also the water lily is best putting in or planted in a non-diva mix. So now, so this one goes with that. So now the fuzzy ones, the Romeo and what's the other one, the Van Keppel, we put that into a diva mix. And now I'll show you the diva mix. So we have our basic mix. The diva mix is just taking another half of this granite. So take half of the granite. Okay. A bit more. There you go. And that's about half and we'll add it on. So this is now what I use for the diva ones, which is the Romeo and the fuzzy ones, the Sedeveria, Pudgy, what else? Anything that can sort of easily rot, then I use that. But then if I need to put some non-fuzzy ones, okay, the non-fuzzy ones is basically just 50-50. If you know that the plant is prone to root rot, then you use the diva mix, which is one and a half granite and one part master succulent soil mix. For the non-diva, we use 50-50, one part granite and one part master succulent soil mix. We'll pot up our three-headed Romeo. It's all dry and everything, but before I actually pot that up, because there's hardly any roots in there. So even if I just pull that out, then new roots will still develop. So if you can see, you see those little red dots there. So those are tiny roots that are about to pop out. So these old roots are just going to die. So there's really no point trying to revive this root, but some of the main root or the tap root will still absorb water, but the small roots, that's just going to die. So what I like to do first up is actually just give it a little bit of a drink because I'm not going to be watering this for a while, because the soil mix I'm using is already moist. So if you can see that it's already moist still, so it's going to stay moist for a long time, especially if I'm putting it in a ceramic pot. So what I'm going to do is take some soil wetter, so Sisal Super Soil Wetter. So I don't know if this is available in other countries, but here in Australia, it's readily available in our hardware store. So I'm just going to take a tiny bit. See, look, hardly any. Oops, that's plenty. It's actually probably too much, but it doesn't matter. The plant loves it and it stinks, so it smells a bit. So, okay, and then I'll put some water. Okay, ooh, that looks like nice vino. Okay, so we'll put that aside. Hang on. And normally I would just soak this for a couple of hours, but I'm just going to dip it in here. There you go. Oopsie. There you go. So normally I would just leave that there to absorb, but I only have one three-headed Romeo Hybrid, so that is good enough. So I'm just going to actually, we'll just put it in the cup there. That's already been soaked. So that's a 10 millimeter hole for this small pot. It's a sugar bowl, but anyway. So you can use one of these three guard as well, just cut up into pieces. They come in a pack of three. There you go, a pack of three, and it's a mesh like this. So just cut up the little bits, and that's what you use for plants, for protecting the plant. Allows plant to breathe. Ideal for tube stock. Install easily with stakes. Prevent moisture buildup. Okay, there you go. So three tubes. So if I'm feeling a little bit fancy, then I use that one, or otherwise I use a curtain. So it's a small hole, so I use cut up curtains, lace curtains. Put just in the base, just a little, a handful. Okay, just to hold, to keep the curtain, the little lace curtain inside. There you go. Now we are ready to put up. So I'm going to take a little bit of soil, put some in the bottom, and there you go. Now this one here, remove that soil there, see our roots is nice and refreshed. So which, do you have a good side and a bad side? So we'll put it the good side. Okay, so we'll put it there, and look there's plenty of space there, and I just tap, tap, tap. Or if you prefer, I also use a tweezer to just settle them in. So this is a nice big culinary long tweezer that you get it from the cooking shop, so any culinary shops. So there you go. So little bits of dirt like that, I normally let it dry up first before I puffed it away using a puffer. So some of them might actually come off, there you go, if you want it to look pretty. So now we got one down, and watering wise, I'm not going to water it for a while. So what I do is I leave that there, so that's why I need to soak it in that sea salt, salt water solution, so that I can leave it for a while before I water it. So all I do is pick up the pot, if the pot's already light for its weight, so right now I can feel that it's heavy because the soil is pretty moist, see. So the plant will just draw moisture through the soil with our soil and also our granite. And that one is done. Okay, so if you water that, that will have a high chance of rotting. So let the plant settle on its own, it will settle and it will absorb moisture, so you don't need to spoon feed it basically. So if you give it water, you're just basically spoon feeding it. And this one, I've done this one a couple of days ago. Okay, and I haven't watered it yet. So and the leaves as well was the same as the other one. But now I can feel that it's actually perking up a little bit. So it's this one as well here. Let's compare the two. So this one is the same thing. So I can feel some softness on the leaves. But this one seems to be more alive. The one on the right is more alive than this one on the left, also the color, that's more colored up, because I already exposing it to a lot of light. This one is still in the shade. So that's why it's going green. There you go. So don't water for even two weeks, put it that way. So in a week's time, check it. And if they're already light, then I water it. But how I water it is I get the solution like this with soil wetter, or any other soil wetter will do. And then you just dunk it there, leave it there. I normally leave it overnight if they're really, really dry, and come back the next day and drain it and put it away and don't water it again for the next three or four months. Okay, so that's now out of the way. Now let's move on to our next advanced soil mix. So we have the basic advanced soil mix, which is 50 50. So I'm going to repeat this again. So sauce to avoid confusion, I'd rather have this video long, because it will it is a bit confusing. So for me, I don't know from since I started making my soil mix, okay, I'm just gonna, since I started, we can actually chit chat away while I'm working. So this one now, I want this one to have a special soil mix, I could just put this in my ordinary non diva advanced soil mix. So this one, I've actually grown this plant, I've grown it from a cutting. So this is already my plant. And this is grown in my this is just master succulent soil mix. So I'm going to take this out now. Okay. And look at all the roots. Can you see all the roots there? Look at that. Look how beautiful and healthy and so that is one good looking soil. There you go. If I say so myself. So now I'm gonna remove this. And what I do hang on, because I'm going to put it in this blue pot here. I'm just going to squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze and remove the soil. So just remember now this is a master succulent soil mix. Okay. And I like to use a little chopstick, my little chopstick. There you go. I should really break off the flower. Okay, there you go. Take that off because that just encourages aphids to attack them because this one, I don't really want this to do anything else cross pollinate or anything like that or show me how pretty the flower is. I just want it to grow pretty and colorful. Okay, so I'm just removing all the dead leaves and everything that's underneath as well. Beautiful, clean. Okay, so I'm just gonna put that there while we chit chat. Now this one is, I don't know if you've seen my other video where in I have the Multifida, I call it Multifida LK version or LK variety, but that plant is just hits you in your face. The color, it's just so gorgeous. Even though it's planted in my master succulent soil mix. So this one now is the master succulent soil mix still. See this mix here. And then now what I'm gonna do with that is just add on the same amount of granite. Okay, so that's roughly the same amount. Square it all up. There you go. Nice and even. There you go. And this is the piece of stones. Okay, since I want it to color up, the secret is coconut coir. I am giving you all my secrets now. Okay, so I got them and we'll put equal amounts of coconut coir and no fertilizers, no nothing, no whatever, because you already have a little bit from the master succulent soil mix. But since we're reusing the master succulent soil mix, I will throw in a little bit of sea mungus. So for this amount, I am putting about a tablespoon really, like you can even count it. Someone commented saying, you literally put 20 bits or eight bits, actually eight bits of sea mungus. Okay, so I'm just gonna throw that in the mix, which is hardly anything. And it's gonna take probably another couple of years before I fertilize it, before I put any sea mungus on my pots. So now what I come up with is this mix now. Okay, look at that. Yummy. Okay, here's what I prepared earlier. So this is my coloring up advanced soil mix. But this one, I can't use this on my Romeo because the Romeo will just rot. But I use this for my multi feeder now that we're gonna be using. And the multi feeder, I don't need it to dip it into the water because it's still pretty moist. This is a 25 mil hole. So I'm gonna put a sturdier piece there. And I'm gonna put again, the big pieces of granite, hang on. So I put rocks in the bottom just so to keep the mesh from getting loose and falling off and your soil falling through. Okay, so now I'm gonna put one, three, and push that around. Just do the sides. So I'm pushing it around because of the shape of the pot. Okay, so now I'm gonna put my beautiful roots. So make sure you put the front. There you go like that. Okay, isn't that gorgeous? Oh, beautiful. So now this will color up nicely in time. So in a year's time, I'm gonna show you the gorgeousness of this plant. But you're gonna get to see it anywhere in my daily vlog or one of my videos, I'm sure. Don't have to wait that long. So I'm just carving the roots. And anything that's on top, that's gonna have contact with the soil, I am going to put some granite or I'm gonna dress it up. Okay, I'm making a bit of a mess here. So I'm gonna use, okay, we'll use this one instead. There you go. So all done, all done. And we puff it up again. There you go, folks. So now I potted up my beautiful Echeveria gaboides Multifida LK version. That's it. So that concludes our video for our Advanced Soil Mix. Thank you very much. And I hope you enjoyed that video. And happy potting because I'm gonna continue potting up my babies. This is Sedum paddy peat grown in my Advanced Soil Mix in a bigger pot. And Sedum paddy peat grown in my Advanced Soil Mix in a small pot. I'm just gonna have to pick this up. Ah, to compare, compare. Oh, the color. Oh my goodness. So the smaller pot is much prettier than the big pot. There you go. Oh, gorgeous. This is grown in my Advanced Soil Mix. And that's also an Advanced Soil Mix.