Good morning everyone and welcome back to the epic gardening

podcast. That was my best radio voice. Tell me how I did. Today we're talking about cactus, soil, everything you need to know

about it, as well as how to mix your own and a few brands that I really enjoy.

So the question to ask ourselves is,

what does a cactus need?

Well, most cactus plants are adapted

to dry desertified areas.

So they're sort of the camels of plants,

they store their moisture in their stems and leaves

to last them through a drought.

The exterior of the plant are used to being dry and warm even underground and

desert soil is rarely soaked for long periods of time. It'll get crazy amounts of

rain and then just nothing for a long time. So cactus roots don't really respond well

to constant moisture. When they're left sitting in water, what happens? You know the answer.

They root, rot, and die. So to protect your plants from excess moisture you

need to give them a soil that is well draining. If it's too wet you get root

rot. So how do we go ahead and make our own cactus mix? Well it's really easy and it can

often be cheaper although of course it is more time intensive. You need three

components. You need a base, you need some kind of

coarse material, and you need some kind of supplement. So with the right balance, you

can mix a soil that's more or less perfect for your cactus.

When we're referring to parts here,

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