The Succulent Journal for Tidbits, Tricks, and Tips!

Do's and Do NOT's of potting and planting indoor succulents.

Your interesting, neatly small and exceptionally large plants are (hopefully) now ready to be planted into a new container! Your plant may have come in a container like this when you got it:

These containers are usually plastic and flimsy and aren't made to protect and house your plants for very long. It is a very safe and sound idea to move your plant into another container for long-time storage and housing.

These plant pots may be made of glass, ceramics, porcelain, plastic, wood or any other material that can safely hold a plant without damaging it. The downsides to the materials mentioned are few, but a few are notably useful to know, such as:

Glass: Glass is a very pretty and ornamental, but like many things made of glass, the container you put your plant into may break or shatter easily. The glass will also create a moisture barrier that makes it hard for the water to leave the dirt, which could damage or rot and kill a plant's root system. When using glass, be sure to watch the amount of water you are putting into the soil on a monthly basis and check the plant for signs of drowning, or which the plant will be a very dark brown or even black at its base.

Ceramics and Pottery: Ceramics and Pottery are very good storage containers, but, like glass, they are likely to break if dropped. They can hold moisture but are better at getting rid of it than glass. While very good at letting water out of the soil, you may need to place your clay, ceramics or pottery container onto elevated and porous surfaces like a tray or hotplate so that the moisture from the bottom of the container does not ruin your table or windowsill.

Plastic: Plastic is flimsy and sure to break over time, but it will most likely not shatter like glass or ceramics. Plastic is a quick and easy solution to your plant potting problems, so it also holds the lowest shelf life. Over time, like many plastic goods, your pot or container could become brittle and cracked. Truthfully, it depends on the quality of the container, but plastic will be less trouble to acquire and will become less useful very quickly.

Now that you know a bit about all of your container possibilities, we can move on to the most important part of planting beside the plant itself: Dirt!

There are many ways to acquire the perfect soil for your tropical friends. The succulents you have will most likely want a sandy soil mix of potting soil and sand. Adding sand to the mix makes it easier for the water to drain out of your container, and helps the plant survive. You can try many of these processes to acquire your soil:

The Internet: Being the all-seeing, all-knowing eye of the new age, there is absolutely no way you couldn't buy dirt off of the internet. Whether through Amazon or some obscure website market, I have no doubt you can buy soil off of some site that perfectly fits your needs! (You can probably buy some plants on there too!) Good for people with little to no access to dirt, because you exist and are valid too.

DIY Succulent Soil: Why spend your few precious dollars on dirt when you could make it yourself! All you need is an overly abundant source of sand or very fine rocks and a whole lot of dirt. By mixing 1/2 Dirt or Potting Soil with 1/2 Sand, you can have nearly exactly the same stuff that you could have bought online, for FREE! Experiment with different amounts of each to satisfy your cool new plant pal!

Just dirt, My Friend: Depending on the soil you have at home in your backyard, and the consistency of the mix, you could potentially (and hassle freely) take that soil straight from your backyard and into a potting container. Isn't that great? Literally just taking the dirt out of your backyard and dumping it into a container is as easy as it sounds. The only downside is that there may be pests in the dirt or the wrong amounts of sand, which can be fixed by using the method above.

You have a cup of dirt now, good for you! To place your plant into this new container, simply turn the container it was bought in upside-down, and knead the container until the dirt and the plant come out of the plastic container in one piece, roots attached. Place a bed of pebbles or sand on the bottom on your new container, cover lightly with the soil mix, and place your plant into the new pot. Surround the succulent in soil gently, and you have (probably) successfully planted your plant! Hooray!

There you go! Now not only do you have your plants happily alive and well, but you can safely place them into a new pot too for a long life indoors!