Good San Pedro SOil?

[BeetleJuice]

Hey, im not sure if this has been asked, but from all the searches iv done i couldent find a very helpful answer.

Anyway, what i wanna ask is, Whats a good growing commercial soil and some mixes for San pedros, and for cacti in general?

Would normal good soil,with a good mix of pearlight good? How about store bought cactus soil,with a mix of perlight or vermiculite?

Thanks for any help

Peace

[Barebonejoe]

The way I look at it, the environment these cacti evolved to live in has pretty mild soil. Any store bought potting soil is great for cacti, if it's mixed with enough perlite to allow quicker aeration of the soil to allow more waterings with less chance of root rot.

I personally like to use organic soils for my plants, mixed with vermiculture to give it a slightly better boost, and lots of perlite. It's relatively hard to kill these plants. The most common mistake is people watering too much, causing root rot, and a dyeing plant. Make sure the soil dries out before waterings and you'll most likely have a cactus growing vigorously, regardless if you use the perfect soil mixture.

[Ninja Master]

yep my soils topsoil humus manure mix with sand and perlite all 1 1 1 1. tons of perlite and sand can make any soil mix work well with san pedro

[acidfrk]

how much perlite and vermiculture should one use for growing a 12 inch cutting? Also, how much sand should one use in the soil?

[MLO]

Here is what I do for my cacti pots. I put broken pots or rocks on the bottom .5-1" of the pot (for drainage). Next put a thin .25-.5" layer of fiborous sphagnum moss on top of that (stops the dirt/soil from falling into & clogging the drainage layer and milled long fibrous sphagnum moss prevents damping off). Then mix up perlite/vermiculite, fine washed silica sand, and cactus compost/soil, all equal 1/3 parts, and fill most of the pot, but leave 1.25 inches of space left from the top. Plant the cactus at this level, then add .25 inch of sand, leaving 1" of space from the top of the pot.

Works fine for my cacti, I have San Pedro & Peruvian Torch and some neat ones I bought at local nurserys that just look cool. All my plants are for ornamental/cacti garden reasons, I don't eat them.

[MLO]

I forgot to post a link, if you want to see a visual diagram, this page has a nice one:

http://www.cactus-and-succulents.com...pot-cactus.htm

[jux]

the problem with commercial potting soils is that they are peat based. this works fine for a while, but after the peat starts breaking down, the soil turns acidic (which the cacti dont like)...so if you use it make sure to repot at least once a year

i use a 1:1 mix of cactus potting soil and pearlite. a 1:1:1 mix of sand soil and pearlite should work well too.....