What Should You be Planting Your Succulents in?

As you begin learning more and more about the different types of succulents, how to care for succulents, and simply what a succulent even is, one of the next most likely aspects of your search for succulent knowledge is going to be what to plant your succulents in? Choosing the right pot to plant your indoor succulents in is one of the most vital parts of succulent success, seeing as it can be the make or break factor of the so-called “miracle plant”.

The very first feature that needs to be checked off on your potential pot is a drainage hole. This is highly important because when it comes to watering your succulents, you only know that it is watered the full amount when you can see water starting to leak out of the drainage hole located on the base of your pot. If there is no drainage hole, then the moisture will just sit in the pot beneath your plant and essentially turn the succulent to mush.

Next, you need to make sure you are planting your succulents in the right sized pot. For upright succulents, you should look for a pot that is about four inches deep, and approximately ½ inch wider than the base of your succulent. This will allow your succulent enough space to happily grow and blossom, but not outgrow its pot. It is unnecessary to put a small indoor succulent in a huge pot because it does not have a very large root system, and the drainage hole at the base of the pot will allow enough airflow so that your succulent’s roots are not constantly cramped and wet.

Now it is time to dive into what type of material your succulent’s pot should be made out of. It is said that terracotta pots are the number one material for succulent pot planting because it is the most breathable of the pot materials. Second in line is un-glazed ceramic pots due to their similarity to the terracotta pots, followed by glazed ceramic pots and glass containers. The issue with the glazed ceramic pots and the glass containers, however, is that it is highly unlikely that they would have a drainage hole, which is very important if you are looking for your succulent to stay alive and strong for a long time. The final material is a wooden planter. This is fabulous if it goes with your decorative theme, but it is last on the list of materials because if not protected well, it is likely to rot and eventually harm the root system of your succulents. A suggestion would be to lay down some variation of a waterproof liner to crate a barrier between your succulent soil and the wooden crate that it is in.

Finally, we need to know what type of soil to be putting inside our pot that we will be planting our succulents in! It is important to know not to plant your succulents in a very dense mixture that has traditional dirt or potting soil in it. This does not allow for good drainage around the roots of your succulents and will truly leave the roots far too wet and the leaves mushy. Instead, you should use something similar to a cactus potting mix, this could be gravel, or an even combination of perlite, coarse sand, and crushed granite.

I hope this brought you some insight into how to pot your succs!

Happy planting!