The Best Dirt to Use for Succulents in Containers (It’s Not What You Think!)
As you may have noticed, succulents are growing in popularity. They’re a great plant to grow indoors or out, and they provide a wide variety of colors and textures that will help spruce up your space.
One potential problem with succulents is that they need soil that drains well so the roots don’t rot or get waterlogged.
There’s nothing sadder than checking on your little succulent friends and finding yellow, limp leaves! It’s a classic sign of too much water sitting on their roots, and the culprit is often incorrect soil.
Let’s take a look at the best dirt for succulents, specifically indoor succulents in pots.
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What is the Best Soil for Succulents?
Indoor succulents thrive in a well draining soil mix.
Contrary to popular belief, they actually want to be watered deeply once their soil is totally dry, but they want the excess to drain off ASAP. Succulents can’t handle sitting in soggy soil!
You want to avoid regular potting mix that you’d use for your other plants. That kind of soil usually contains too much peat moss and holds way too much water and your succulents will eventually succumb to root rot.
One important thing to remember is you’ll also want to make sure your containers have plenty of drainage holes. Good drainage is CRUCIAL for healthy succulents.
Honestly, you don’t want to use “dirt” for your succulents. Regular old dirt, like the garden soil you’d find out in your flowerbed, is way too dense. It holds far too much excess water and won’t work for your succulents.
Succulents need specific, well draining substrate. They love a gritty soil mix, or at least one that doesn’t hold much water.
So, the top things to keep in mind are:
- You need the right soil that promotes good drainage (like the options below)
- You need to plant your succulent plants in pots with plenty of drainage holes
OK, now that we’ve covered that important info, let’s take a look at the best dirt for succulents in containers!
Best Pre-Made Potting Soil for Indoor Succulents
The easiest way to go is with a pre-mixed potting soil made specifically for succulents. Here are the brands I recommend and use for my indoor succulent garden.
Bonsai Jack Gritty Mix
Bonsai Jack’s gritty succulent soil mix is my absolute favorite and a perfect succulent soil for your indoor plants! The large particle size means it’s very fast draining and will prevent root rot in your succulent plant with no guesswork.
The main ingredients in Bonsai Jack mix are:
- Pine Coir
- Calcined clay
- Monto Clay
All of those components create an ultra fast draining soil and make it almost impossible to over water.
It’s a little more expensive than other options, but it will last you for years rather than months and is totally worth the investment!
If you’re new to taking care of succulents, it can feel a little weird putting this gritty mix in your pots because it just looks like a bunch of rocks and bark, but trust me, it works wonders!
I have this potting soil mix in most of my indoor succulent containers. I highly recommend trying it if you haven’t already.
You’ll still want to use this soil mix in containers that have drainage holes. Drainage holes are your friend!
You can grab it straight from the company here or you can also buy it on Amazon.
Black Gold Natural & Organic Succulent and Cactus Potting Mix
Black Gold Cactus Mix for succulents is different than the gritty mix we just looked at. It looks more like a traditional potting mix, but much lighter.
The ingredients for this succulents soil include:
- Canadian Sphagnum Peat Moss
- Bark
- Earthworm Castings
- Horticultural Grade Perlite
- Pumice
- Cinders
I’ve been using this with some of my baby succulents that are still getting their roots established and they seem to really like it.
It’s got good drainage (not as much as the Bonsai Jack mix, but still good). So far I’ve had great luck with this soil and it should keep your succulents happy!
Miracle Gro Cactus Palm and Citrus
Miracle Gro is a popular brand for regular potting soil and they also have a decent and affordable succulent soil recipe. This cactus soil mix will provide plenty of nutrients and organic materials for your plants.
Sometimes people with succulent container gardens have had issues with this Miracle Gro cactus mix not draining as well as it should.
If you’re concerned your plants are getting too much moisture, you can add extra perlite or pumice to the mix at a ratio of 2:1 potting mix to perlite.
Bonus points: you can usually find it at your local garden center or online and it’s cheaper than the other options, so that’s always a plus!
The Next Gardener Professional Grower Mix
The Next Gardener Professional Grower Mix is a lightweight, fast draining soil that is great for indoor succulents. It’s imported from Denmark and made with sphagnum peat, organic fertilizer, ground coconut fibers and barks.
The recipe of Next Gardener succulent soil has all the nutrients succulents need, while allowing plenty of airflow to help develop strong roots.
As long as your container has plenty of drain holes, this type of soil is perfect for indoor succulents in pots.
Superfly Bonsai Succulent Potting Soils Mix
Superfly Professional Bonsai Soil Mix is another good quality, well draining succulent soil mix that works really well for your indoor plants.
It includes ingredients like Japanese Hard Akadama, pumice, pine bark, and haydite. What are Akadama and haydite? Let’s take a look:
- Japanese Hard Akadama – a naturally occurring, granular clay-like mineral used as soil for bonsai trees and other container-grown plants
- Haydite – commonly used in bonsai as soil for many different types of trees. It promotes better airflow to the roots, discourages compaction, and prevents water from evaporating too quickly while still allowing it to get to the plant’s roots.
This is another great choice for growing succulents that’s made with quality materials and provides excellent drainage.
Make Your Own DIY Succulent Soil
The potting soil options listed above are all great and work really well. After a while though (and when your succulent collection starts to grow), they can get pretty pricey.
You can save a lot of money by making your own succulent soil!
Not only is it cheaper, but you can customize the mix to perfectly work with your types of succulents and growing conditions.
There are several different recipes for succulent soil floating around on the internet, they all involve some mix of the following ingredients:
- coarse sand (not beach sand, it contains pathogens and creepy crawlies you don’t want near your plants!)
- crushed granite
- chicken grit (which is made of crushed granite)
- perlite
- pumice
- pine bark fines
- turface
- coconut coir (holds in moisture so only use this if your plants actually need more water)
- potting soil
You need a good mix that includes large particles of inorganic matter, mixed with part perlite, and other ingredients like peat, coarse sand and pine bark.
The best ratio to go with is two-parts inorganic matter and one-part organic matter, but you can play around with the amounts to get it just they way you and your plants like it.
If you go with sand, don’t use just any old sand you find at the beach or in sand box. Purchase some nice, clean sand made for potting plants.
You’ll also need a few other supplies like:
Most recipes for succulent soil are measured in parts, not specific amounts.
That means you can use any size cup or scoop to measure your ingredients, you just need to use the same measuring device for all the parts.
One part perlite and one part peat could mean one cup of each, or one wheelbarrow of each. It all depends on how much you need!
This article has a great succulent soil recipe that’s affordable and includes easy to find ingredients.
In Conclusion
As you can see, there are a few soil mixes that work best for succulents, and some that don’t.
You can find a good mix in your local garden center or online, or if you’re more of a DIY-er there’s always the option to make your own succulent potting soil.
I hope this article helped you choose the best potting soil for succulents. Got another favorite succulent soil mix that wasn’t mentioned in this post? Leave a comment down below and let us know!
