Only other advice is that if they have been inside or shaded then move into full hot sun slowly over time a drastic transition can burn and scar your plant and they take forever to recover, especially that purpusorum it grows slow. The Perle von Nuremberg is much faster and bigger. I had rosettes almost a foot in diameter on mine

Leaving root ball to dry up is recommended for few reasons: sometimes, existing soil is too dry and needs to be washed off, leaving roots saturated. Or some roots are damaged - either broken or with fresh cute if pruned off. It isn't absolutely necessary, but leaving it sit on some newspaper or kitchen towel will soak up extra moisture. Other reason may be that many ppl water heavily right after potting up and it could be too much if the roots are already too wet.

Dry them up (30 min or longer) if using moist mix - you don't have to use absolutely dry one. I usually rinse sifted perlite and grit, and leave it in a sieve to drip-dry, before mixing other ingredients. But either way is OK. Bark could be very dry too, and I have seen recommendations to soak it too (I don't use bark in gritty mix).

You have some nice looking specimens there! I just recently completed a few repots/transplants of succulents; I tried my best to take photos at every critical step of the process will outline then below:

Starting with a nasty peat filled mix, I began by removing all the old soil and straightened out the tangled root structures (using sharpened chopstick). Following this, I rinsed/sprayed the roots and foliage briskly with water from the tap. Then, I did some minor trimming of the roots and prepared my terracotta pot for planting (drilled hole in corner for wick, screened center hole, inserted wick into corner). Having prepared my gritty mix ahead of time, placing the utmost attention on screening each ingredient, I then slowly filled in the bottom portions, inserted plant around mid way, and proceeded to fill in around the roots with the gritty (using skewer to reduce any air gaps). The final product(s) really turned out nicely, in my eyes at least. I look forward to hearing what the other G-Dubyers (GW's) have to say!

Please keep up the good work and keep asking those questions! Study the masterful teachings of Al, and enjoy the process of adapting over to the Gritty Mix!

Thank you for responding, Todd and Rina! I think I'll put the Perle von Nurnberg is a slightly bigger pot, and maybe purpusorum in a smaller pot. Do you think they will do better in clay pots? I'm on the Central Coast, CA, so it doesn't get very cold in winter, but it doesn't get hot in summer either (65-75F). And it gets foggy in summer.

Thanks for the awesome picture guide, EHH! So you didn't let the roots dry before you re-planted them? I'm a bit concerned that my mix doesn't have the grit/crushed granite component. I'd rather not buy more potting mix ingredients (I have so much!) unless it's necessary. I have less than 1/3 Turface in my mix, but this mix still retain surprising amount of moisture. I made this mix for my Hoyas. Do you think I should add crushed granite?

In my gritty mixes, especially those for succulent species, I normally use an increased portion of crushed granite for added aeration and drainage. Surprisingly, the mixes still hold moisture longer than you'd expect!

For succulents, granite=desired ingredient. The mix you pictured above though looks good to me!

Thanks for the prompt response!

EHH

You have lava rock, perlite, turface - not absolutely necessary to use grit. I use less turface than grit & perlite since it does hold little more moisture. My mix is more like 40/40/20% (with 20% turface). And I don't measure exactly, it's more by the look :) of it.

You could grow your plants even in pure perlite, or lava rock - or any other ingredient as long as you know how that particular ingredient 'behaves'.

EHH

May I ask why did you drill extra hole for the wick? It could go thru the drainage hole... just wondering. Do you think that wick is necessary for your mix? Thnx.

I washed the roots of Echeverias, and I'm a bit concerned about the Perle von Nurnberg's roots (left in the picture). They look gray, and should I also be concerned about the black spot on the stem? I think purpusorum roots look OK.

What do you think? Should I cut the roots and the bottom part of the stem off??

No. That will extend the time to reroot fully by a lot more.

Should I remove the rotted looking roots at least?

That would be OK.

you are lucky to live in a beautiful climate, id say almost perfect for echeveria. They are from Mexico so you would think a very hot climate but generally they live over a mile above sea level so cooler than you might think. Yes on clay pot not only do they look nicer they dry faster.

Hi Rina,

I usually drill these corner holes as a personal preference, since you can get away without it just fine. I find myself more confident about ridding pots of any perched water with this setup.. After each watering, I tip the pots with this wick'd side down and the H2o flows out effortlessly.

Again, personal preference!

Thanks, Todd. It's nice to hear that the climate here is good for Echeveria. I personally wish it was a bit warmer :)

EHH, what do you use to drill a hole without breaking a pot? I only have Dremel rotary tool. I'm going to see if I can find some attachment to do the job.

OK, I'm sorry to keep asking the same question over and over. I want to make sure I'm doing things right. The Perle von Nurnberg's root. Do they look bad to you guys? Is it better to remove all the fine roots, or just leave them alone and pot up? If I do remove the roots, how likely is it to recover? I do have an option of returning/exchanging the plant since I only got it yesterday. But silly me, I get attached to plants quickly.

You need proper drill bit; they have them for Demel tool too. Either consult your manual or ask in the store.

As for roots, don't remove any unless you need to, there are not too many of them - Jeff (cactusmcharris) pointed out why. I can't see anything wrong with them. Why do you feel that you need to remove them?

Perle von Nurnberg is one of the easy-to-grow echeverias...just pot it, and don't 'kill it with too much love' - meaning too much water and poking around (this is meant well, I think most of us have obsessed at the beginning).

Thanks Rina, I have killed some cuttings with too much love before :)

I'm not sure if it's visible in the picture, but the roots are gray and feels mushy. It looks like root rot to me..

I have killed some mature plants with too much love :(

If you are sure they are mushy, prune them off (some roots have more brown color, but shouldn't be mushy). Otherwise, more roots - better for faster recovery and growth.

Thanks, Rina. I hope it'll make it!

Wow EHH, I love your idea of using a wick to test moisture in the container! I think I should start doing more of that. I mostly go by feel of the terra cotta pots, or effects of the plants reaction to dryness, but as you know, those aren't 100% accurate.

Thanks for sharing your potting process!

Mockturtle - Good for you gathering all the GM ingredients! Your mix looks spectacular! Just a personal preference in my opinion, especially so for echeverias and crassulas (which I mostly grow) are tad sensitive to bark in the mix. I find it hard for the young tender feeder roots to establish themselves over the bark portion. Even if they do, it's quite hard for me to control the moisture level. Now, I go completely inorganic in my GM, and I'll add a scoop of rich peat or loam just to give smaller or wimpy roots like your Echeveria PvN to grab onto. As for well established plant, they tend to recover much faster than young cuttings with lesser roots.

I agree what Rina said, Pvn are one of the most robust Echeverias around. As long as you keep dry, provide it steady light (for your case, only shaded light since it's very stressed now) it will take 4-6 months to establish itself. Once roots are establish, you'll see them offset like no tomorrow.

I've seen the wick in the pot trick for bonsai plants I haven't felt the need to do it. It's so hot here and I use so little organic material and no fines that I don't have problems with plants staying to wet. Even succulents which need to dry out a little. I usually only.have problems with new plants that haven't grown a good root system yet. Mine are mostly crassulaceae and adenium. I've actually.found the adenium really want lots of.water and fertilizer, just none at all in winter.

Hmmm, maybe I should make a new mix without bark. I went a little crazy and got seven more Echeverias. I know there are some feed stores somewhere not too far to get crushed granite. I'm not really a fan of Turface though I have a whole bag of it. Maybe grit and pumice in 2:1 ratio? It doesn't get very dry or hot here, and rains a lot in winter and spring.

Agree with Todd, mix I use is also drying out fast, if I was to use wick there would be no moisture left :)

But excellent to use if more water retentive mix and/or too-generous-with-water grower...If using wick, one should make sure it doesn't sit in a saucer with water, or it will reabsorb water back.

Turtle, you should adjust your mix to your temps and amount of rain. Some water needs to be held by substrate. I stopped using bark since it is difficult to find the 'right' one and am not willing to break it into small pieces.

Thanks, Rina. I'll water very lightly and see how it goes, and maybe add some grit later.

OK I am new to cactus plants I recently bought 3 carts of clearance plants from Lowe's and in these plant I got 38 moon cactus plants 50 cents each. Can some one please help me and clue me in to what they should be planted in .they are in reg soil but I have already lost two and from what I have read already it's because of the week soil. I love these so any and all help would be great thank you

Bonnie

just to let you know that it is usually better to start a new thread especially if the older one has many posts and probably plenty of answers to original poster - and may not be read as often.

There is a reason why plants are sold on clearance, and for such low price: most often it is a poor condition of the plant. Stores don't really know (or may have no time) how to care about different plants and succulents suffer usually more since they do not like to sit in wet soil. All plants in the stores get watered at the same time. Buying so many plants in poor condition makes it so much harder to save them - in very short time, you already lost 2. On top of that, the moon cacti are actually 2 plants: one on the bottom is a rootstock (more vigorous plant) and one on top - the colored one - is grafted on it. Colored plant can't survive on it's own since it lacks chlorophyl. It will grow grafted, but quite often doesn't grow more than few years (there are exceptions, but not that many).

The soil they are in is likely not so much week, but water-retaining. It is probably peat that either stays too wet or too dry - very difficult to keep right moisture.

Succulents need good drainage. You need to read about better mix to use for them. This thread has posts that mention better mix (even a photo of it), and you can search the forum for many, many more.

Getting proper mix and containers ready ahead of time would help, so all the plants could be repotted as soon as possible.

I am not trying to 'beat you up', just stating few facts. It is difficult to resist a bargain, but dealing with so many plants in poor condition isn't easy.

Bonnie, I believe this thread will be beneficial to you on saving your moon cacti. Rina explained things very well, and I'm afraid if you buy plants for a huge discount at such large quantities, chances are you will need to invest a lot more time to care for them to recover.

Mockturtle, Echeverias are very lovely, but they also dieback very quickly if they aren't established. One thing I've learnt at repotting them is being patient, observe if they have sufficient roots first. Else, I'll keep them in their original soil and nurse them before repotting into a gritty mix.

And also, I noticed that Echeverias grow very differently in your climate. Humidity aren't their best friend. In general, they prefer dryness and some cooler temps. Maybe eliminating bark/organics and adding more grit will truly benefit your plants in the long run. But don't worry about gathering all your soil ingredients now, they'll live perfectly fine in peat if you are careful with your watering hand. Most importantly is that they get sufficient light to stay compact.

Bernard, thanks for your advice. I already repotted them into my mix :( PvN was in a completely saturated peat mix (we had a week of rain when I bought the plant and the plant had been outside), I had to get it out of the soil to let it dry. The roots were gray and mushy, and many just crumbled and broke off. I've bought several more since then, and I repotted all of them. I haven't watered any of them yet, but I'm thinking some of them that were in a very dry soil may benefit from getting some water. All except PvN are being slowly acclimated to a sunnier location.

I think you're right about adding grit. I'm going to get some soon and make a new mix. Humidity here range from 50-80% and the day temps have been in 60's. Do you think grit and lava rocks (1/8 -3/16") in 1:1 ratio or grit and pumice in 2:1 would be a good mix?

Also, would you elaborate a bit more on "established roots"? All of my Echeverias had finer roots, some long enough to reach the bottom of a pot. Do Echeverias develop thicker roots? How do you check the roots of newly acquired plants? Do you just take it out of the pot, and if you see long roots, is that good enough? Some of them I can't tell, so I wash the soil off the roots, but at that point, I feel like I might as well put the plant in a more porous mix... I'm getting a couple more tomorrow, but these are from more of a specialty nursery, so hopefully they are in a better mix. I'll leave them alone until I can prepare a new mix.

Thank you so much for taking your time to help out a newbie!