For pots, I like to use square plastic pots, usually smaller ones. I like that plastic is much cheaper, and lighter too so that my racks don't collapse one night :) I do admit that it is rather hard to find good quality plastic pots. Most are super flimsy. So basically, I am a plastic fan, though I have a few terracotta pots saved up in case I get the inspiration for a decorative piece.

I use a couple of different soils too. I use a rough gritty mix for most of my succulents. About half perlite half grit with an bit of turface. I use this for my Crassulaceae, Aloe, Haworthia, and Gasteria; basically all the ones with really vigorous and sturdy root systems. For the Mesembs, I use the above soil mix, but with a generous portion of finer soil and a bit of turface fines. I have found that it is much easier to establish Mesembs in a finer mix.

I generally need larger pots, and for some genuses, Lophophora, Ariocarpus, Encephalocarpus, Pelecyphora, Turbinicarpus I also need a deeper pot to accommodate their deep taproots. ´Long Tom´ pots I have only ever found in terracotta - not plastic - even then it is a bit of a search to get a sensible price. I prefer a coarse, gritty mix, with just a little organic nutrition.

Also my guys live outside all year round. If I were to use a perlite mix in plastic pots they would fly about whenever the wind blew.

Long Tom pot compared to standard 4".

Vast majority of pots I use are plastic. They come in many, many sizes. I use them mostly because they are lighter, I have many plants (not only succulents) and recycle many, many pots since I rather buy a ne plant than spend $ on fancy pots, and also because I keep many hardy succulents outside and terracotta gets damaged in freezing temps. I do have some terracotta - my neighbours gave me about 40 last Spring..., and also some wooden boxes/container (home-made). And few cement containers (those are very heavy!) that I have hardy succulents potted in.

Mix I use for succulents is very gritty. I use lots of perlite since it is easy to get around where I am. Much more difficult to find pumice! Many ppl complain about perlite being too light - flying if windy - washing up to the surface: it does all those things...BUT - I use top-dressing of gravel or pebbles to keep it in its place (I know some ppl do not believe in top-dressing either :). Top-dressing keeps perlite from flying/being blown around by wind. Succulents are not watered as much often as other plants, and I never had problem with it being in top part of mix because it washed up - it does take some time - definitely longer than 1 year IME, and by then plants are often repotted. I started using gravel as top-dressing originally to discourage squirrels from digging in pots - and it helped :) I found other benefits of it after.

This mix works very well in my climate/location. I like it also because I keep all plants outdoors, and succulents get water - most often - when it rains. Drainage is very good, and I do not have to worry about plants sitting in muck. I will pull a plastic sheet over all plants if we have torrential rains lasting for days, but luckily, that is quite seldom. Par of Summer of 2016 was much wetter and bit cooler than usually here, with steady rains lasting 2-3 days, and I used that 'protection' few times.

This works very well in my climate. It may or may not work somewhere else...

I am also a devotee of top dressings - seeds can germinate and find shelter amongst the pebbles - pumice is readily available here - they ship it in from the volcanic (Spanish owned) island of Lanzarote. We are in a drought here that has been ongoing for a few years now - but the biggest desalination plant in Europe is just a couple of miles away. Forecast is for rain Saturday - but it often doesn´t arrive.

I keep most of my plants in terra cotta pots, because I like the look with desert plants. Only epiphytes and non-succulents are in plastic. Disadvantages of terra cotta are the weight (in combination with gritty mix!), the fact that they topple more easily with a mixture of sizes in a tray, and the loss of space with the round pots. More evaporation is an advantage when they are outside in the rain in summer, but something of a problem in dry and hot times. I have gotten rid of a few plants that were constantly unhappy in their pots.

I use Lechuza Pon for haws, cacti, aloes and the like, and I have started using pure pumice for most mesembs and for cuttings. Mesembs do establish better in pumice I find. My older plants are still in various combinations of chicken grit and Oilsorb. No real problems with that, but LP and pumice are ready to use, and I am often busy and/or lazy ;-). Epiphytes are in 5-1-1.

Spanish Fly, if I could get my hands on those tall clay pots, I would buy a ton of them. Good for you. I would love to see some of your potted plants in them.

I too also use top dressing. Never use too but with warm temps and lots of light I find it helps prevent my mixes from drying out to quickly and keeps the bottom of many of my plants support and dry.

I love the ides here.

Mike

I use Bonsai Jack for my plants because I want a gritty mix but I'm too lazy to make it myself, lol. I've been quite happy with it thus far (~6 months of use).

I use square plastic pots but mine are a little different, they have holes throughout. They were advertised as "air pruning pots" meaning that the roots are supposed to grow until it hit the air and then stop and grow a new root. I think they work fairly well, maybe a bit too well because I've got roots coming growing every which way on some of my plants and they've only been in there 6 months. I prefer the plastic ones because it's a lot easier to tell when they need water because the weight fluctuations are so obvious. Also, I have my plants on a wall mounted shelf at the moment (under lights, of course) so I needed something light.

Photo of the pots and the holes they have on them:

Photo showing the roots peeking out of the holes:

I have another reason for using a gritty mix in terra cotta pots - they are HEAVY. My plants are outside all year and if I used perlite in plastic pots they would fly about when the wind blew.

Mike I did get in a good stock of those Long Tom pots but had to import them from the UK.

I use a mix of 60% perlite (or pumice) and 40% dirt. The definition of dirt in my case is totally decomposed granite that composes the lot I live on. In some cases 'dirt' may include compost I got from the dump if I want more water retention. This would comprise maybe 1/3 of the 'dirt'. I also re-use potting soil from deceased plants after making sure it doesn't harbor mealies. In all cases I keep at least 50 to 60% perlite/pumice. I used to prefer pumice to perlite for the above mentioned reasons. A club member that grows and produces a lot of sale and show plants convinced me to start switching to perlite over pumice. He regularly brought 300+ large plants to our plant shows and pointed out the wear on the back that occured when pumice used to be used. I also found that if I left a plant in the same pot for many years I would lose some large happy plants. Investigation showed the mix had almost become cement like with the pumice over the years. I believe this led to the roots eventually suffocating and/or not able to access water as well. As I re-pot older plants now the pumice content is diluted down with perlite and the mix is lighter. Most of my plants in pots are in plastic. If a plant wants to become a focus plant or show plant it gets moved into terra cotta or more commonly glazed show pots. I do a lot of propagation. This requires a lot of moving up from 2" plastic to as large as 23 gal. Needless to say, I have way too many plastic pots.

I must confess i have never liked perlite - too light and the grains always float to the top, leaving an unsightly debris. But - as ever - do what works for you and your plants.

And, sorry, gardenwombat, I just do not like the roots poking out the sides of your unusual pots. But - if it works for you .....

Spanish Fly, why do you call them awful? My plants seem very happy in these pots and I don't really care if the pots are ugly, I care about the health of my plants. Are the roots peeking out a problem? As in, is it detrimental to the health of my plants?

gdin got me interested:

"LECHUZA (PON) consists of:
Zeolite, German washed pumice, German,"

http://www.lechuza.us/LECHUZA-PON/PON-TERRAPON.html

Is that 'a German'? Do they give good advice? Do they fit in a bucket?

As someone who has gotten re-interested in succulents, this thread has been extremely informative. I use an occasional shallow coffee cup or mug for a plant, but you won't see me posting a photo of that here, for fear of my life.

I recently got the much heralded pumice, and would like to do some experiments with Haworthias that I keep propagating.

Sorry, gardenwombat, don´t mean to upset you. But I do think they are a bit impractical, water must come out the sides as well. And you ask - is the roots sticking out a problem? Well the roots will be partially in air, not soil, so will not be able to perform their function of collecting water and nutrients. I will stick to terra cotta, that works best for my guys.

To each his/her own. Since I bottom water (like ewwmayo), I actually prefer all the holes. I can slightly tip the pot towards a corner and let all the excess water out of the pot in just a few seconds.

I've had my plants in these pots since late June and they've been very happy. Here's an example:

My cacti I always top water - which is what nature does. The only plants that I bottom water are my orchids - which are epiphytic - grow in a pot of bark chips, which does indeed have a mass of holes.

gw

From what I know, air pruning of roots is good - it encourages growth of new roots, IIRC. It helps to prevent girdling too. I do not have those pots but it wouldn't bother me at all if the roots were growing/'sticking' out. I have few pond baskets - totally perforated- that I use quite a bit, usually to grow some hot peppers in them :) Those are too big for succulents (I know that smaller ones are available too).

Terracotta is quite heavy - agree with you about weight on shelves. Same here, and what is worse - carrying so many plants in and out for the season would take me few days if they were in terracotta! Even tropicals I have - some are in big 15gal pots and bigger - I have hard time to move those even if plastic.

Yes, rina, I also read about the benefits of air pruning - decided to give it a go - and bought an Air-pot on line. The idea was that the roots grow through the pot and somehow prune themselves encouraging root growth.

As I say, I got better results with a ginormous conventional plastic pot.

I don't care much for the fabric ones for air pruning; roots get almost 'embedded' into fabric. I often drill more drainage holes in some plastic containers, and get some roots growing thru that way - especially plants like Brugmansia, figs and so on. They get pruned by me, with pruners or a knife!, if they don't prune themselves - when I have to move them indoors, they most often grew into ground/soil below pot :)

Btw, we use imperial system in Canada for many years now :)

Yes, I have heard Canadians are most civilised.

Gardenwombat, your progress photo is amazing! I love how compact it’s become. Can I ask what its growing conditions are? I’m guessing lots of light? None of my plants are that compact and cute, and I really wish they were!

Gardenwombat, I just have to add on to what Aleena wrote. I didn't really understand that photo the first time I saw it earlier this month. What happened between July and January? And where can I get those awful pots? (Kidding about the last part.)

Aleena, all of my plants are under CFL bulbs. I use a gritty mix and water most of my plants every 5-7 days depending on the plant's needs. I actually have some pictures of my setup and more progress pictures in another thread: https://www.gardenweb.com/discussions/5098646/do-some-succulents-just-lean-regardless-of-how-much-light-they-get

Jeff, I have more pictures (not from every month, though) but I just got lazy in making the comparison pictures. From July to January, it was pretty much just watering as needed and keeping them under grow lights. No major changes so just slow and steady growth.

Another one for Lechuza Pon. I use it for all my succulents with glazed pots. I like the fast draining and weight of the Pon and the prettiness of the glazed pots. I do try to buy at least a dozen of the same type of glazed pot so there is some order by way of repetition and not a total hodge podge.

I water every few days outside in the sun and inside under LED lights for winter maybe once a month. I see some wrinkly leaves, so should increase my watering no doubt inside.

Gardenwombat- awesome! I like the reflectors, I know the light isn’t as strong but it’s gotta help some rather than only direct overhead light?? Maybe that’s what mine are missing....

It's so interesting to see what others are using and how it works for them.

For my plants I use gritty mix, the original recipe of pine bark fines, turface and what they call #9 aggregate (it's hard to find poultry grit around here despite the city being surrounded on all sides by farms and corn fields, and at $5 for a 5 gallon bucket it's a no brainer). I'm relatively new to succulents so I haven't experimented with other ratios to find something better. Most of my plants are kept indoors year round and it takes about a week for the mix to dry completely so it works for me.

Most of my plants right now are in square plastic pots because terra cotta, like some stated already, are heavy and they waste a lot of space. The larger jades that go outside are in terra cotta but this spring I will be switching to plastic because they dry too quickly in the hot summer months. I'm also considering cloth grow bags for the ones that go outside, anyone have experience with them?

Patrick - I once bought a cloth grow bag - see my post above.

Thanks Spanish Fly, I've read that people use them for their jade plants with amazing results.

Grace, could I ask why you use the combo of lava rock and pea gravel? I'm wondering how they're different, or if it's a matter of cost. I'm trying to formulate a gritty mix now, and I'm bothering all kinds of people with questions, in addition to reading a lot of course.

Grace, a couple of questions if you don't mind: How did you like Al's gritty mix? I've heard so much about it and that people try it, but never the results. There are a ton of Youtube videos on it, but it's maddening because every one of them is just mixing it for the first time. Whoever did his marketing is a genius. (joking)

Who is Josh? I want to learn from him too. Thanks.

I use two mixes for my plants, one a gritty mix of pumice 3/8. Plus fines. The other is potting soil with 70% pumice. I have a large collection of pots,plastic, clay, glazed and bonsai.

Rob, what do you mean by 'Plus fines'?

Rina, thanks. I should look at the container gardening forum, since I... grow in containers. I've read about Al's 5.1.1 mix, but I don't think I had seen that particular thread which looks to have good questions and answers.

Jeff, I should think you'd be able to find countless success stories w/ GM in the gardening forum - houseplants, C&S, container gardening, to start! The hardest (or most daunting) part is that first step of bringing together the components, so I'm not surprised that videos focus on this. Afterwards, it's pretty smooth sailing, if you've read up about it enough to have a general understanding of what follows.

I love gritty mix, and not just as soil. I love it as a learning experience. It was just fascinating to try at first, but it ended up really teaching me about gardening and plants in general (in addition to Al's posts themselves, and his feedback, of course). I tried both 5-1-1 and GM, and while both are undoubtedly useful for their own purposes, I gravitated toward changing virtually everything into GM except edibles like tomatoes, lettuce, etc. Peppers were good, actually, but the upkeep required was significant. I think tomatoes in GM would be fascinating, but I shudder at the amount of mix I'd need to create to fill 15 gallon pots. Yikes. No.

Of the house plants I have now, almost all have been grown in "real" GM or my variation of it. (Oh, except the Ficus lyrata, which never had the opportunity because I was out of GM when I got the plant.) I don't think I have a single succulent outside that hasn't lived for years in GM. And the best part is - when the gardening bug hits me and I'm fawning over everything in the spring, should I choose to water every single day -- it's fine. Everything from Clivia, Adenium, Hoya, Draceana, lemon and kumquat trees, etc. -- have performed amazingly in GM. While I am not a "GM or bust" person, it becomes pretty clear pretty quickly that when used properly, it's a far superior potting medium. Like I said, it makes you a better gardener overall.

While I have switched much of my plants to potting mix in recent weeks, that's only because of the ridiculously low humidity here and the fact that I am not home enough, watering enough, or diligent enough these days to provide the care that they need, and potting mix buys me a little more time than GM the way I made it. (With Turface, the moisture should definitely last longer.) The only dings I can think of when it comes to GM is that (1) it is heavy...oh, so heavy....especially w/ my pea gravel; and (2) YOU need to provide all it needs in terms of nutrition--there is no "set it and forget it" mentality. I think many of us prefer the latter as I tend to fuss over my plants, but with my larger plants, how heavy GM can be is a deal-killer. Oh, and another deterrent for me here in LV is that my house has a pool outside, and sifting out perlite dust (a spectacle in and of itself) means I'll invariably get some in the pool. My back also feels broken enough to not want to lug around lava rocks and pea gravel. If someone would make it the way I want and off my property, and then water when I asked them to, I'd use it for virtually everything, still. :)

Rina is right - Josh as in "greenman28." And his avocado tree. Totally awesome.

I had the best time trying to emulate his avocado seed-growing. And for awhile there, I was succeeding until I decided to root prune the thing. Haha.

Thank you Grace. It's nice to read the enthusiasm in it you have. Bugging people as I have been doing has been great for information. As far as experience so far, repotting nearly all of my small collection, looking at the roots, and seeing what years in a peat moss based mix has done has been very educational. I now look forward to what the gritty mix will teach me further. I never thought of it that way. I neglected many of my plants out of frustration, but I really do like taking care of them, so it should all work out well. I love the idea of it--partly because it's so strange, which adds to the mystique of growing these things--which is important too.

You might be surprised to find my name under the gritty mix since I have been using it for years and have been here for years...Al was my mentor when I first started and years ago I myself use to help others with it from houseplant, fragrant, citrus and this forums...Great stuff!

Mike

I was reading an ancient post and saw the username myermike and the usual enthusiasm. It's rare to have someone that active on a message board for that long. Usually the bad apples or constant stream of newbies wear people out. It's great to have you and others like Rina, Kara etc. that have been so helpful.

Plus fines is a engineering geologists term meaning the gravel, sand or crushed rock has all finer materials in it . As in 3/4+ means 3/4 and everything smaller. My pumice is 3/8+ 3/8 and everything smaller, which is really nice for soil mixes.