Hi friends! I want to share my experience I had with potting some succulents that I bought from a vintage show last weekend. Long story short, AJ and I had this cactus for three years (his grandma got it for us) and it recently said its goodbye. We think AJ, yes AJ, overwatered the plant (lol). So I was on the look out for some new pretty succulents! When I went to the recent vintage show here locally in Omaha, I saw this small shop who was selling succulents. She had some pretty choices, so my friend and I both picked out some favorites!
I’m going to try and give you all a step-by-step on how I potted these succulents shown above, and hopefully give you an easy DIY! Now I am by NO MEANS a plant expert, but I did take some time to research and found some good materials for this.
First things first, I had to find something to put these little cuties in, but wanted it to be unique. I definitely wanted the pot or container to be a rustic farmhouse vibe also. I ran over to Home Goods and found this cute, little galvanized bucket and it was perfect! It was only like $7.00 and looked to be a perfect size for all three succulents I chose.
Next steps were getting the perlite and soil to use. Since I’m no expert, I just went to Home Depot and got some soil that was meant for succulents to make it easy. They had the perlite, or little white rocks, next to this soil as well. I’ve linked these items above so you can purchase your materials easily!
I picked everything up and was ready to pot these little guys!
I put enough perlite in there for what I thought was a good amount for three succulents. Do I know for sure it was the right amount? No. But I did a little research and found that an inch would be good, so that is what I added in the bottom of the bucket first.
Step 1: Add in your perlite (aka white rocks).
Step 2: Fill your bucket up with the soil that you have purchased. I didn’t fill mine enough at first (you can see below it wasn’t enough), so definitely try to get your bucket or pot filled to about an inch away from the top. You then want to create a little hole to plant your succulents in.
Step 4: After your hole is dug, you can start to pot your succulents. It might be slightly hard on the last one if you are doing multiples, as it was a little difficult for me on my third one. This was mainly because the plants pretty much take up most of the space in this bucket.
Funny story: The little cactus started leaking white sap. I was completely freaked out, so I Googled it: first mistake. Found so many things about poison and death and what not, so I messaged the lady who I bought these from, and she said it’s perfectly normal when potting them. Basically the tiny thorns punctured the cactus and caused this. The next morning it was fine. Just be sure to wash it off if it gets on you.
Be sure to cover all of your roots with the soil and once your plants are well in their place, go ahead and add on some more soil. Finish it off with some additional perlite on top, and there you have it!
This was a pretty simple DIY, but I wold say practicing this might help me for future plants. I often struggle with live plants because I am never sure what’s too much or too little water. I mainly check the soil and see if it’s dry and go from there!
I hope you all can learn a little more about potting succulents through this post, even if you aren’t an expert like me! It was a fun little activity to do, and I certainly enjoyed it. I would also greatly appreciate it if you could share this post using the below photo to your Pinterest!
If you have any questions, comments, or stories to share, please feel free to comment or send me an email! I would love to hear more about your tips or past experiences with succulents, and definitely some best practices on taking care of them!