Succulent and Cactus Soil Potting Mix 500g, Bonsai Soil Mix Ready to Use, Fast Draining with Added Nutrients

This potting mix has been perfect for my succulent and cactus collection. The unique blend of materials provides excellent drainage and aeration, which is crucial for these types of plants. The pre-mixed formula saves me the hassle of creating my own blend, and I've noticed my plants thriving since I switched to this soil.

To be honest I’m not great at sizing stuff by weight, but this was a very disappointing amount. Roughly the size of a sharing packet of skittles. I potted all small amount of my succulents and cactus, too soon to say how well they grow in it.

Considering the price of this, I was expecting something better. The compost in the bag that arrived with me doesn't bear much resemblance to the compost shown in the listing: there appears to be a lot of random organic material which looks like the stuff I sweep off my greenhouse workbench at the end of the day.It's probably fit for purpose and from the look of it will provide adequate drainage for my two cacti that need repotting, but, frankly, you can pay less and receive better.

My late Dad was a collector of cacti and succulents, and I can remember growing up watching him repot them. Initially he made his own compost with a mixture of ingredients, but in his later years he bought a branded ready made product. This particular product is a mix of river sand, lava rock and vermiculite. From what I understood from him, perlite was also beneficial to cacti and succulents, but I cannot see this listed here.Looking at the soil, it seems to be a mix of mainly compost and grit, which should be okay for the plants as they like a well aerated free draining soil. Anything which holds moisture is bad news for this type of plant, as it causes them to rot.I have a few succulent cuttings which I have been bringing on, so I have transferred these to small pots using this soil. It is too early to say whether or not they will thrive.Price wise, for a small 500g bag, the current price of £9.99 seems rather expensive. If you’ve only got a couple of small plants, this would suffice, but for anyone with a larger collection, I would recommend looking on Amazon for more cost effective alternatives, as there are plenty to choose from.

This is a great soil mix

Very nice, well draining soil with little stones. This is a small pack but perfect for tiny cactuses that I got.

Very expensive for the size of bag. Returned

The first thing to note is that this soil mix is incredibly expensive at £9.99 for a mere 500g (at the time of review in late April 2024). This is a strange price when you can easily get 35 litres for around £15 from other leading brands on Amazon.Also, note there are no "ingredients" on the bag. So I am not sure what the organic matter is that is used (e.g. is it peat, moss, coir fibre, etc.?). The seller's description does state what the drainage material is, such as lava rock etc. I have pH tested the bag I was sent for review and it was 7.2 so very neutral which should be fine for most bonsai and most cacti. However, there are some cacti in particular that prefer a more alkaline compost mix.I have used it to pot up a couple of bonsai trees, and the mix is quite dry on arrival, but this makes it easy to use. They have been potted up for a couple of weeks and seem to be coping okay. It is for that reason that I have given this two starts and not one.