Miracle Grow is a good one.....

What would really be ideal to see is test data with water holding capacity and the water release curves for each commercial soil. Unlikely anyone who rates these products has ever really tested them in a scientific way.

I buy Black Gold cactus/succulent mix, primarily because that's what my local garden center sells. But -- I also like it a lot. It's not extremely "peaty." It DOES have chunks of wood in it, which I'm not crazy about and often remove. For any succulents that I put in a soil mix, I mix Black Gold with 50% or 60% sifted/washed perlite or, more often, washed pumice. That seems to provide plenty of drainage. I have also tried Esposa, because my garden center sells that too. It seems very "rich" and peaty to me, so I prefer Black Gold. (BTW, I never use Miracle Gro. I find it way too peaty.)

I agree with robinswfl on the MG. Way too peaty as are any of the commercially prepared c&s mixes I’ve come across. I’ve never been able to use any straight out of the bad and always add at least 50% pumice.

Good luck with your search.

It's really odd about MG cactus soil - up here in La Belle Canada, I'd not use it unless it's heavily doctored to remove the numerous pieces of wood and improve its porosity by adding Turface and granite chips, but down in Arizona (where it's called cactus, succulent and palm potting mix), I use it straight out of the bag to amend the native soil prior to putting a plant in the ground (we have no potted plants there).

I'm with Robin - from what few commercial C&S mixes I've seen out on the market, Black Gold's the best, but as she (?) says, it also needs amending if you're growing anything but epiphytic / tropical cactus.

Another vote for Black Gold. It has by far the highest percentage of pumice compared to any other mix I’ve tried. I also almost always add more.

These are all valuable suggestions thanks. In examining all of these products (minus the Miracle Gro, which I did not even inspect), they all use compost and manure. Does anyone have data on what percentage of these mixes use such components? Is not that exactly the opposite of what we are all taught to do in the container gardening forum? All of our hand-made mixes have no compost and no manure, even as a top dressing.

Bonsai Jack (an online retailer) makes some great soil mixes. I also like Crump Greenhouse Cactus & Succulent Potting Mix. It's so "un-peaty" that I usually do add a small bit of a high quality potting soil to it.

Hoffman’s is as close as any commercial mixes I’ve seen to what I make.

@whip1 Hoffman's does not include any compost or manure. Do you happen to know the proportions of the peat, sand, and perlite that it uses?

I find the Kellog's product for cactus here in the Bay area pretty good for general use. It's sold at HD. It does have some manure and compost but no peat and is at least 50% pumice/sand/lava rock. Just need to add more pumice to adjust for specific plants. It's the cheapest in town too. After that and still locally, the EB brand is of better quality. No peat either :) but at least 30% more expensive.

Four months ago, I posted about using Black Gold as a C/S soil (usually mixed at 50% with something else -- pumice or perlite). But I do want to share my recent experience. I am not nearly so pleased with Black Gold C/S soil lately. The last two bags I have bought were heavily soil (and peat!) and precious little perlite or pumice. I added my own, of course.

As the Florida summer BLAZE started to ease up, I re-potted several succulents that have needed attention. To me, it was a no-brainer: 40-50% soil, 50-60% pumice. Honestly, within 3-6 weeks after the re-pots, ALL of the plants looked notably worse. Water was NOT seeping nicely into the soil but lingered too long on top. Leaves were browning, shriveling, curling. Very quickly, these plants went downhill big time. The only explanation I can find is -- Black Gold.

I'm retracting my endorsement of Black Gold. This "unevenness" of product happened to me before, about 4 years ago. At that time, I started ordering Hoffman's from Amazon, which is more expensive but worked well. I'm doing that again now. I spend a lot bringing in pumice from General Pumice Products and I don't want to ruin it by mixing it with substandard soil. And I certainly don't want to hurt any plants or lose any more of them. Sad to abandon a product because of inconsistency.

@robinswfl Mix 20% Black Gold with 80% pumice, or for more water retention 20% Black Gold, 40% turface, and 40% pumice. That should give you air space. I have found by experiment that up to 20% pure peat moss in a soil mix will preserve air space.

A prepared gritty mix: https://www.bonsaijack.com/category/premixed-bonsai-soil/succulent-soil/ 

As a first-time novice years ago, I used Miracle Gro (I think Cactus, Palm & Citrus Potting Mix), and will not again, after significant troubles with it.

Have used Black Gold (+ grit or other) for a few situations.

Westes Zones 9b -- thanks for the suggestion to increase the pumice. I am currently up to 70/30 pumice versus soil. That sounds like it's in keeping with the that last statistic you offer about 20% peat still preserving air space. I may experiment with that. Here in Florida, like in California, we can re-pot plants pretty much any time, so.... I'll play around with it.

Shawna, thanks for the Bonsai Jack recommendation. I know several people here use it. I too have tried the MG soils and don't like them. I abandoned them years ago also. But....I may give that Bonsai Jack a try.

@robinswfl I have done multiple experiments now where I measure water holding capacity, air space, and porosity. Peat moss at 30% of the mix collapses the air space and is a poor container soil. Peat moss at 20% of the mix preserves the air space.

My most recent bag of Black gold succulent and cactus mix is very odd to me as well. There is something in it that looks like sawdust. I'm sure it isn't, but I don't know what it is. Some kind of hull? I don't know. But it seems odd to me. This will be the last bag of it I purchase as well.

I think it all depends whether you are using the container inside or outside. I'm in Vegas and I keep some cacti and agaves in full sun on the patio. MG (for palms and succulents) works great for that. It's a bit more absorbent which the plants appreciate in these harsh conditions. However, I would not use it in the house -- it's becomes too soggy.

I'm the person who brought this thread back up from 4 months ago, posting about my concern in the DECLINING quality of Black Gold C/S soil. I repotted several plants in the spring and summer in a blend of 50/50 or 40/60 Black Gold and pumice. This morning I repotted one that had been potted up in July.

I watered it, but the soil WOULD NOT soak in. It just laid on the surface. At the bottom drainage hole (I use plastic canvas inside the pot to prevent too much erosion) I saw whitish/yellowish mold accumulating. I removed the pot and throughout the soil, mold was forming. It was very obvious.

I have used Black Gold for years with no problem -- but no more. I have about 8 plants I now plant to repot, due to my findings this morning. Just FYI for anyone who may experience problems. Right now I'm using Hoffman's at about 1/3 soil to 2/3 pumice. We'll see how it goes.

Does anyone happen to know the exact ingredients included in the Dr Earth Exotic Blend Cactus & Succulent Mix? They really try to make this obscure on their website.

Per the label:

Aged fir bark, perlite, fir bark, composted green waste, sawdust, alfalfa meal, fish meal, fish bone meal, potassium sulfate, humic acid, kelp meal, kelp flour, beneficial soil microbes and endo and ecto mycorrhizae.

Let me expand this conversation. Imagine that we were going to make our own custom cactus and succulent mix to compete with the big-name brands. What would go into that organic part of that soil mix? Assume this is for a container application.

Without asking me to prove the reasons for it, assume that this mix has 80% inorganic sized components and 20% organic. My mix will have 40% sized and screened turface and 40% sized and screened pumice, keeping the particle sizes in the 2 mm to 4 mm size range. You could make that 80% pumice or 40% cherry stone and 40% turface. Whatever. Choose the inorganic components you like, and I am not focusing on the inorganic components in my question.

For those of you who worry about putting a sawdust or fine particle material like peat or compost into a soil mix, I can tell you from testing I did this summer that you can generally get away in a cactus mix with about 20% of the mix being fine particles. Above that percentage, the air space in the soil quickly collapses and fills with water. Under that percentage, the perched water table is minimal and the adhesion and cohesion of water do not work against you.

What I would like to ask the rest of you is what would you select for the remaining 20% of the mix that is organic?

Judging by the contents of other commercial cactus mixes, candidates for the 20% of the mix that is organic include:

* peat moss

* bark products or sawdust

* compost (from forest products)

* feather meal (high nitrogen fertilizer), fish meal, alfalfa meal, and/or kelp meal

* manure (chicken, earthworm castings, etc)

The last three on that list appear to be an attempt to load the soil with some fertilizer. So which ingredients would you add to the 20% of the soil that is organic, and what percent of that 20% would be each of those components?

@gardengal48 Thanks for that. I don't suppose they give a percentage of each of those or some way to establish the relative quantities?

Nope! And I've never found a bagged soil purveyor that does.

fwiw, I do believe they tend to list in somewhat quantity order, with the first ingredient(s) constituting the largest percentage(s).

@gardengal48 Thank you for the hints. Is there anyone online who publishes a homemade potting soil mix that includes some rough ratios of the organic components? I am going to assume things like potassium sulfate and humic acid are very tiny fractions. It would be good to see a discussion comparing the various organic ingredients I listed in my new post in this thread today. And I am particularly interested in the pros and cons of compost versus alfalfa meal versus fish meal versus kelp meal.