Pots & Potting Soils

Potting soils and mixes availability vary from state to state and countries so naming a brand is fairly useless. For succulents and terrestrial Bromeliads I start with the cheapest potting soil I can find. It contains a lot of sand and composted bark and not much peat with just a little perlite. From there I can go any direction from cutting it again with hardwood bark mulch, more perlite, pumice, or stones, more sand, or whatever I want for potting up Stapeliads, Agave or Cactus.

For Dyckia & Hechtia I use half the potting soil, half bark mulch, and a helping of perlite.

For Hoya, Rhipsalis, Epiphyllum, etc. I add bark mulch, humus, and vermiculite to retain moisture.

To all the mixes I add a hand full of blood meal, green sand, and trace minerals. From there I can add or delete any other fertilizers or additives depending on what I am planting and if I want more foliage, flowers, or just want the plant to harden off. I sprinkle powdered rock phosphate over the roots before potting to help stimulate root growth.

I use mostly plastic pots and hanging baskets for all of my plants. Don't like the look? Slip a plastic pot inside a woven basket, ceramic or terracotta pots to make them decorative. Hardware stores now carry spray paint for plastic so you can easily change the color, do a stencil, or get creative. You can also wrap them with colored duct tape, fabric, or decopauge.

Why plastic? Well, it's because they are lightweight, cheap, and easy to clean. When changing pots I soak the dirty ones in 10% bleach water then scrub with a brush. If that white calcium deposit remains I spray it with Lime Away and it dissolves and comes right off with very little scrubbing. Can't do that with terracotta as easily but it does work on glazed pottery. Rinse and let dry.

No more room on your plant shelf? Go up! Since my greenhouse space is limited I try to put all my 'mother' plants and specimens in hanging baskets. I hang chains along the ceilings to hold the baskets. If you keep your plants in the house and don't want to put a gazillion hooks in your ceilings, use two butterfly hooks and hang a chain between them. Using chain instead of rope will keep the hangers from sliding down toward the lowest point.

I use different sizes of S-hooks, up to 3' long to stagger the pots, short and long, which gives me twice the space than I would have if I hung them all side by side, especially the wide brittle plants like Dyckia and Hechtia.

Not sure how high or low you want to hang the baskets? I cut chain into 6-12" or more lengths then hang them with a short S-hook. Then I can adjust the height of the basket without having to climb on a ladder each time I want to rearrange. You will need large openings in the chain for plastic hangers but that decorative swag lamp chain works well and looks nice. Normally I use old dog chains, old rusty chain found at flea markets and garage sales, and anything interesting that I can use as a hook. Don't like the color? Spray paint it!

Need a hook in a hurry? Use an old wire coat hanger. Depending on the length you want you can one long or two shorter plus one very short hook from one coat hanger. Just cut it to length, adding a few inches for the straight end that you will need to bend up with pliars and you're done. For really heavy baskets I twist each end into a closed loop for extra strength. They are not real pretty but they do the job for free.