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One question often asked about cactus soil is whether or not mixing cactus soil with regular potting soil is a good idea. The answer to that question can depend on what your final purpose is for that soil mixture; whether it’s for cacti and succulents or for other types of plants.
You can mix cactus soil with regular potting soil when making a soil mix for your cactus only if you amend it with some additional inorganic ingredients. You want the final soil mixture to be well-aerated and drain well. You can also mix those soils together for other types of plants in many cases.
With that in mind, I have addressed what you should do if you want to mix regular potting soil and cactus soil together to make a good cactus/succulent soil and also what you can do if you just want to mix those soils together for other types of plants. One thing to keep in mind is that the ratio of inorganic to organic ingredients is different for cacti and succulents compared to other types of houseplants.
Mixing Regular Potting Soil with Cactus Soil For Cacti and Succulents
There could be several situations where you would want to mix cactus soil with regular potting soil. It could be that you are making your own cactus/succulent soil mix for your plants and these were some of the ingredients you happened to have on hand; it could also be that you wanted to use up some partial bags of these soils that are taking up space in your garage, or that you didn’t want to make another trip to the store to buy additional materials for your repotting project.
Whatever the case may be, you can be assured that you can mix these together if you keep in mind the correct ratio of inorganic to organic materials needed for your plants.
This Mixture Can be Used to Plant Cacti or Succulents Once Amended
If you want to add regular potting soil into your cactus soil mix, just remember that regular potting soil is heavy in organic materials. These organic materials will hold onto moisture, so you would have to be careful to not add too much. Cacti and succulents don’t do well in soils that stay wet for too long.
You will have to amend the final mixture with additional inorganic ingredients so the soil won’t be too heavy. You want the soil to have good aeration and drain well.
You will know when you have the correct ratio of inorganic to organic ingredients when the soil doesn’t clump together when squeezed. It should fall apart!
A rule of thumb is that the final mixture should not clump together when squeezed but should fall apart. If it doesn’t fall apart, you need to add more inorganic materials.
Many recipes are available for those who want to make their own cactus soil mix from scratch, and some of these recipes also include regular potting soil as one of the ingredients. We have a recipe here, if you are interested.
Can This Mixture be Used For Other Types of Plants
You can mix regular potting soil with cactus soil and use it to plant other types of houseplants (other than cacti or succulents).
If you intend to plant other types of houseplants in the final soil mixture, you won’t need to amend it with more inorganic ingredients.
Other houseplants can easily handle the higher amount of organic materials that are found in regular potting soil and the extra amount of inorganic material from the cactus soil portion shouldn’t cause them any harm.
Can You Use Regular Potting Soil For Your Cactus or Succulent Plants?
Another question often asked is if you can plant your cactus or succulent plants in a regular potting soil mix. And while it has been done before, It isn’t recommended that you use regular potting soil for your cactus or succulent plants.
Regular potting soil mix has ingredients like peat moss and vermiculite; these ingredients make the soil hold onto moisture for longer periods of time and this is perfect for most indoor houseplants– but not for cactus and succulent plants! It can cause them to develop root rot and die off.
Cacti and succulents need moisture, but they also need a soil that quickly dries out between waterings, so you should not plant them in regular potting soil.
There is one exception and that is this:
You can use regular potting mix for your cacti and succulents if it is amended with enough inorganic materials to make the soil well-aerated and porous. Those other materials are added to allow the soil to drain quickly after being watered.
In fact, regular potting soil mix is often used as one of the ingredients in making a cactus soil mix; there are other ingredients(materials) added to it that make the final soil mixture more suitable for cacti and succulents.
While on the topic of cactus soil mixes, if you wish to learn more about what makes for a good cactus soil potting mix, we have another post here that talks about the different materials used, why they are used, and also the different kinds of soils needed for desert cacti or even tropical cacti.
We also have some other related articles – one is how to make your own cactus soil mix, and another is how to make a succulent soil mix.
This post was written for cactus-central.com and is not permitted to be used on other sites.