Wow! Very interesting results, Sweetheart! And we thought your original mix was the best! 😱 These are my observations: * The Haworthia in pure akadama with osmocote grew more fleshy roots rather than the fine hair-like roots. *The ones with worm castings have tons of feeder roots and longer too! *The ones with longer roots have healthier looking leaves. Looking forward to the next results when you show us the ones with less roots in this new mix of yours, Sweetheart. Then we can safely say which components helped in growing healthier Haworthias. Also, excited to see how cacti react to this type of experiment. Well done again, Sweetheart. You never fail to amaze me with your patience and dedication in this hobby. Learning a lot from you, as always! ❤️🤗😘💪🏼🌵💚
Thank you so much my love 🥰 Yes good observations. I did notice that with the Akadama, the roots were more fleshy with less feeder roots, the one in the regular mix well, less said about that the better! 😂 I think the secret ingredient is definitely the Kyodama, and of course the worm castings help with plants growing more vigorous feeder roots. Looking forward to doing more of these in the future, I don’t think the perfect mix is ever possible as everyone has different growing conditions, but finding the best for our environment is the goal. When I pot the more mature plants up in this mix soon it’ll be a good test, too. Thank you as always babe for all your, support and encouragement ❤️🥰🤗😘♾❤️
Thank you, Ess. Didn’t know you had a UA-cam channel. Saw your post the other day on Haworthia UK that you’re dealing with root mealies, not good. I’ve had to deal with those a few times in the past. Hope you manage to get rid of them. Cheers for watching and commenting 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🏜
BRILLIANT update Daz :-D and WOW such a difference with the root systems and the soil mixes, and its incredible how they have all reacted so different with their root sizes to the individual soil mixes, no 5 has got super rooty and healthy roots, such a FANTASTIC experiment and thanks so much for sharing the amazing update with us, and Hans and I are sending you and beautiful Edith lots of love and happiness and PLANT POWER to England and Singapore for a fantastic Friday today XXXX
Thank you so much, Lyn 😊 Yeah I was a bit surprised at the difference, I’ll definitely be changing up my mix for Haworthia plants. Always good to experiment and try out different things with our plants. Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Lyn. Have a wonderful day and upcoming weekend from Edith & myself to you and Hans ❤️🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
Oh wow look at that 1 year growth 😮 and the roots 😮 amazing result. Good to see the difference on them. Looking forward on the next update on them. And be nice to know how cacti will react on this experiment too. Well done Daz. Always very nice content. Thank you for sharing and hope you and Edith are having a lovely day 🌵💚
Thank you so much, Kath 😊 Been busy the last two days repotting all my Haworthia into the mix that did the best, that’ll be this weeks video 😁 Thank you for watching and commenting as always. Have a wonderful day and week from Edith & myself to you and Phil 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
So interesting to see the results of that experiment 😃👌. Now you made me consider using kyodama in my mixes, hahaha 😄... Thank you for sharing this! I never have time to do that kind of thing and just try as I do and afterwards I don't remember what I did 🙈. Have a great day Daz and Edith😘💞!
Thank you so much, Vanesa 😊 Yeah I think the Kyodama is the secret ingredient. In the substrate video I did a while back I went into more detail about the properties and benefits of using Kyodama. I think the worm castings helped a lot, too. Thank you for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
@@Cactimania For sure! Worm castings do a lot too. I use them in all my mixes because I make myself at home with our waste from the kitchen whenever is possible (although I've killed a few colonies of redworms while learning😅). Kyodama is really interesting because I've been hearing about the role of some kinds of sand in succulents nutrition and it seems to be very important for Haworthias. Must do some research yet but I'm definitely going to try 👌😘
Just now discovered your channel and I look forward to watching others on your network. Thank you for the video and especially your dedication to the craft~
Great results, and such differences in the roots, all the Haworthia you gifted me are in potting mix without soils, as I don't use soil at all, and those seem to be growing well, and I will be interested to see the roots on my plants, one has way outgrown its pot. Look forward to your next update on those Haworthia, and the Kyodama is soooo good for rooting. I loved the music you used for the video for the speeded up repotting!😁🪴🌟🌟🌟🤩
Thank you so much, Claire 😊 That’s great the ones from Edith & myself are doing well 😃 Will you do a video on the repotting? I’d be interested to see the roots on them as well. Yeah for my Haworthia I’m definitely changing their mix now, got loads of stuff coming from Kaizen today so I can make a start on repotting them all 😁 Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Claire. Have a wonderful day and weekend from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
@@Cactimania I've got a few videos I've still not edited yet...😬🤯 so hopefully try to get up to date. I would like to do a repotting video on a Haworthia that's,a good idea... 😃 that's good you have got goodies coming from Kaizen 🥳... I've got some restocking to do too 😄
I grow all my Haworthias in Akadama, Kanuma with a small amount of regular potting mix. They always grow a big root-system👌💖Akadama dries out rather quickly in dry weather and needs regular watering. Adding more potting mix can increase the water holding ratio. I tend not to add very much organic matter, I only add river sand and crushed granite. If you add a lot of organic material your cacti will grow too fast and lose their natural shape👌Thanks for sharing this update😌🙏💖
Yeah pure Akadama doesn’t really work for me in my environment. Results might have been different if I had given it a feed with every watering, the osmocote wasn’t really enough. I’ve been potting up some of my adult Haworthia into the mix that did the best, with a little bit of coco coir as well, time will tell to see how they do. Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Thank you 😊 Yeah I did notice that, it may have been why they had the poorer root systems, although it’s strange some stretched and others didn’t as they were all in the same area receiving the same light 🤔 Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Thank you 😊 Yes this mix worked out well. I’ll be doing another update on these plants soon. They’re all completely unrecognisable now. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
Science! Interesting results. I recently moved from a JI/gravel mix, that I'd been using for decades to JI/pumice/kyodama, it's going to be interesting seeing the results at potting time. Best wishes to you and Edith 🌵🌺🌼🌸💮🏵🌵
Thank you, Andrew 😊 Yeah I no longer use grit for my Haworthia, still use it for young seedlings but I’ll probably switch that out for Kyodama as well, I’ve got a feeling that might be the secret ingredient to these. I found the grit made the mix too heavy, the cacti deal with it better but the Haworthia not so much but I think I’ll use the Kyodama in everything now. The worm castings are great as well, I think that definitely made their roots more vigorous. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 👍🏻🌵🌼☀️🏜
Really interesting comparison, the difference in root structure is quite amazing. I've had some decent results growing Haworthia in near pure pumice and kyodama. Thanks as always for the vids!
Thank you, David 😊 Yeah I think overall Haworthia aren’t too fussy about what they grow in, always nice to have big vigorous root systems, though. Thank you for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Most interesting and enjoyable, will Look forward to seeing you expose The roots next time. It did look to me that some of the roots Was holding on the the pumice, the First two,but that may not be right In reality as I am watching a vid, Still a most enjoyable vid again And Thanks,Bill.
Thank you once again 😊 These Haworthia are doing well, grown a lot. I’ll have to do another update on these very soon. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful evening from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜
A very curious review. Although # 1 had the least roots, it was the tallest & seems biggest. While # 5 had the best roots and was fuller. This was a very interesting test! I am very glad you shared this video!! Thanks Daz!!! From Morris Park in the Ozarks, to the UK and Singapore, have a wonderful day!! Peace, Love, Plants!!!✌💖🌵🏵🌴🌺🪴🌹🌲🌷🌳😃👍
Thank you, Clyde 😊 #1 stretched the worst lol, none of these Haworthia should look like this, but still odd why that one stretched the most when all 5 were getting the same light. That might even be why it had the poorest root system. I recently found out that Haworthia tend not to like sandy/loamy soils, which is what the JI compost is. I found out a while back that the Haworthia roots didn’t do so well in my older heavier mix with the grit, so I think my new mix for Haworthia will be half a part of coco coir, half a part of worm castings, lapillo, pumice and kyodama. Got tons of Haworthia that need repotting very soon, especially the ones still in that old mix. Thank you for watching and commenting as always my friend. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself to you and Deb 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
And stronger means that they can handle more abuse, and the ones in organic matter break faster. Some will even grow so hard without gaining strength they break somewhere on the stem
Wonderful update, Daz! It is a bit surprising that the akadama did not produce as vigorous a root system as some of the other mixes as it is often touted in the haworthia community as being great for root development. Although, perhaps, as Edith pointed out, the roots appear a bit fleshier. I've been experimenting with different soil components as well and have added worm castings to many of my test mixes after seeing you add it to your mixes this past year. We don't have kyodama readily available in the US but we have a product called Bonsai Block which I believe is similar given that it is also a fired clay product, so I have incorporated that into some mixes. Hopefully mine will fare as well as your plants have. Hope you have a lovely day and will keep an eye out for future updates!
Thank you so much, Amanda 😊 Yeah I was a little surprised with the Akadama, I’m guessing the osmocote wasn’t really enough fertiliser for it with each watering, most Haworthia growers I know who use pure Akadama tend to add a liquid feed with each watering. I’ve seen some Haworthia grown in pure Akadama and they have roots like carrots lol. Probably another experiment for the future 😊 The Kyodama is definitely an excellent media to use, hopefully the similar material you found will produce similar results. Thank you for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Great experiment with great surprises. While the root growth was a significant difference, I am having trouble with the above ground comparison. The plant development is basically the same. How do feel about this?
Thank you, Bill. I feel it’s always more important with what goes on below the soil rather than above it. I’ve read and heard from multiple growers that you always want to try and have a rootball that’s as big, or bigger than the actual plant. Not always possible in some cases, though. The etiolation did compromise them a little bit, but looking at the plants now, the three with the best root systems generally seem to have healthier and chubbier leaves. I’m giving them more light now so in six months time these should all look more compact and quite a bit different again. Thanks for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Thank you so much, Magda 😊 Yes I’ll be doing some more soil mix experiments using some cacti, and also using some more readily available materials. Which means buying perlite, noooooo! 😂 Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Magda. Have a wonderful Sunday from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
That was very interesting, your old mix didn't do as good as your new mixes #3, #4, and #5. Your #5 seems to have surpassed all other mixes, now I have to do some searching on my end to see if I can find some of these materials in my area or an approximate at least, this was a very fun experiment, thank you for inviting us along. Great video as always.
Thank you, David 😊 Yeah that was a little surprising. I’ve got lots of plants to repot soon so they’ll definitely be going into a new mix. I think the Kyodama and worm castings are the two components that really helped those ones along. Will be interesting to see how they all do now in the same mix. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
This is going to make me look into worm castings a little more now. But what made you want to try them? I see that a lot of succulent forums online say that organic material is usually avoided because they are high in nitrogen. It’s why most recommended fertilizer is low nitrogen fertilizer. Any opinions or facts you can share would be greatly appreciated! I’m still new to succulents and I see so many contrasting opinions online, especially about soil.
I read on a couple of forums about people using worm castings for their succulents with nice results. I also like experimenting and trying out new things when it comes to these plants. Ultimately there is no perfect soil mix for succulents. What works for someone might not necessarily work for someone else or be suitable for their growing conditions and, or environment. That’s why it’s always good trying out different things and seeing what works best for you and your plants. The most important thing is having a mix that doesn’t retain moisture for long periods of time and is well draining. As for the nitrogen content I’m not too concerned about that. Organic material only makes up 15 to 20% of my mixes that I use for most plants, some have even less than that. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🏜
Thank you for your scientific approach! I have been researching everything I can about a pack of six baby cacti before I repot them and your videos are extremely helpful. I have opuntia microdasys, echinocactus texensis, cereus peruvianus, astrophytum asterias, mamillaria compressa, and brasilicactus haselbergii. I plan to mix horticultural grit, coir, perlite and lava rock with a dash of worm castings. I’ll add 5-10% more perlite for the astrophytum. Any other recommendations with the ingredients I have? And what size pot to get them through until UK spring? These guys are the size of my thumb and I’m intimidated.
Thank you 😊 The mixture sounds good, although I personally don’t use perlite. If you can get pumice instead that would be much better. I don’t use horticultural grit anymore in my mixes, I use kyodama instead. The grit will be fine though, it’s used in many people’s mixes for many years. For pot size with the size your plants sound, a 5 to 6cm pot sounds about right for them. Good luck with them and happy growing. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
@@Cactimania oh gosh. I meant to write pumice rather than perlite. Midnight ramblings to blame. Thanks for the advice re pot size. The mamillaria has a lot of roots coming out the bottom of the pot. I thought maybe it could use something wider than my 5.5cm seedling pots but I don’t want it to be swimming in soil. I also thought all of these guys could easily adorn my SW facing enclosed porch through London winter with my jade and sedums but they may not manage the change in temperatures as well? The rest of the house is kept quite humid for ferns, Hoyas, monsteras, pothos, and other climbers.
@@nataliemitchell5322 When it comes to repotting I usually put plants in a pot that’s nomore than a couple of centimetres from the rim to plant itself, that’s usually a good rule to follow, especially with younger plants. As you say, you don’t want them swimming in soil. Under-potting is always better than over-potting. If you can overwinter them somewhere cool then that’s perfect. Most of mine overwinter in a cool room with no central heating and fairly low humidity. Airflow is important, though. If you can have fan gently blowing over them to keep that air moving that’ll be ideal 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
@@Cactimania okay. Thank you! I think I’ve got this. I’ll keep a close eye on them and hope I learn to speak their language before anything detrimental happens. Keep being awesome!
Interesting! #1 Akadama + Osmotcote looks too stretched and unnatural | #5 looks most natural and it has a great root network, too. I would like to see what happens when you club akadama with worm castings 🤓You'll then have the benefits of both organic matter and a good inorganic fertilizer, which will compensate for the deficiencies in worm castings. Maybe you'll have a dense root system along with some thick roots - don't know.
Thank you 😊 Part of the stretching issue with some of these plants was from lack of light. There was a period of very gloomy weather that affected most of my low light level plants during that time. I’ll be doing a two year update on these plants soon. Akadama and worm castings would be an interesting experiment. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵🌼☀️🌺🏜
@@Cactimania great experiment. Takes good patience and care to ensure they get best possible growth conditions throughout the 1-year period. Looking at those long roots, I guess this time you should try using a tall square pot, like the Asians do. The roots will have more room to spread, network, and feed the plant.
wonderful,thanks a lot for the video, I've been following your channel for a long time,cocopeat,kyodama,pumice, lava stone and vermicompost did a really good job.I'm trying to grow a cactus and a few haworthias..I use gravel, lava stone, pumice, zeolite,broken brick and charcoal in my mix.I'm considering adding some cocopeat and vermicompost to the mix as organic ingredients, but I'm worried about too much moisture(Humidity is very high in our area).kyodama is impossible to find. is there a different alternative that we can suggest? Akadama is very expensive.thanks
Thank you so much 😊 Your mix sounds great, plenty of mineral components. I don’t think adding a bit of cocopeat and vermicompost will hurt, even in a high humidity environment. It’s pretty humid here as well, especially over the winter months but the mix still drys out very quickly. Kyodama is a fired clay product so there might be some other alternatives to that, the closest one I can think of is moler clay, although I don’t use that in my Haworthia mix anymore as I found some of them didn’t really do well in it. Akadama is pretty expensive here as well, I pretty much only use that now for rooting small offsets. Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
@@etemucak1879 Ah yes, forgot about those, I think they would be a pretty good substitute. I’ve not used them myself but CactusCove here on UA-cam has used those as part of her mix and her plants have done very well. No harm in experimenting anyway, that’s what it’s all about 😊🌵☀️🌺🏜
@@Cactimania lecat but it holds too much moisture, I hesitate to use it in cactus mix. Now will your previous cactus mix video be invalid? will there be a new mix video?
@@etemucak1879 I will be amending my soil mix video I did a couple of years ago as the mix I use for cacti now is a bit different. What I used in this video is pretty much what I use now for the Haworthia. The only thing that sometimes changes depending on the availability is the lava rock to zeolite and visa versa 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
I had a half dead Alocasia princess and I decided to pot it up in just clay & pumice mix 🙂 it survived & has continued to thrive 🙂 both clay & pumice, I brought from Kaizen Bonsai.
That’s awesome, Laura 😊 Yeah the moler clay I got from Kaizen is good quality, the seedlings love it anyway and it seems better quality than the stuff sold as cat litter, less dusty too I noticed. Pumice is great stuff, if I had to only choose one mineral component it would always been that. Thanks for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day and week from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
Very interesting video as always! What a great difference in root growth does different mixes make! Thanks for sharing video! Would like to ask you a question please! I have received a msg from Cactimania saying to phone on whatsup, was it from you or a SCAM? I did not reply to it! Love to you and Edith!
Thank you so much, Sylvia 😊 Yes those are spam/scam comments. I will never ask anyone to WhatsApp me via UA-cam comments, and any competitions/giveaways and winner announcements I do are always done via the videos. If you ever see those types of comments please report them. Thank you for watching and commenting as always. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵🌺🌼🌸☀️🏜
Very interesting! Been waiting for this video to come out. I am surprised at the very little roots developed in the regular mix. Hmm.. For me I actually like the roots that grew in Akadama and Osmocote (#2). Not too many fine roots but it has strong thick roots. I find that plants with a lot of fine roots are more prone to root loss. Those fine roots do not do well when they are subjected to extreme conditions such as prolonged drought. Thick roots are stronger and are able to store more water, which is what I need in my arid environment. But in the end, I think it really depends on one’s growing condition. Any thoughts on why those roots developed like that? Maybe something for your next update video. 👍🏼😃🌵Great video, Daz!
Thank you so much, Ana 😊 It’s actually important for them to have those feeder roots, though. The fleshy roots are just good for storing moisture with nutrients. It’s the feeder roots that collect that water and nutrients so there should be a balance of both types. It probably didn’t develop many because the osmocote wasn’t really enough for it, a lot of Haworthia growers who use pure Akadama tend to use liquid feed with every watering. Haworthia also tend to shed their roots annually and regrow new ones. I also recently found out that mixtures containing a high proportion of fine sand or loamy soil are not conducive to healthy Haworthia and will cause root loss over time, so I’m actually debating whether or not to even use the John Innes compost for them anymore, which is what was in the regular mix. Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Ana. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜☕️
That makes sense. 👍🏼 Thanks for doing this experiment. We usually just look at what we see which is the top of the plant. But having strong roots is often overlooked but it is vital to the health of the plant.
Wow! Very interesting results, Sweetheart! And we thought your original mix was the best! 😱 These are my observations:
* The Haworthia in pure akadama with osmocote grew more fleshy roots rather than the fine hair-like roots.
*The ones with worm castings have tons of feeder roots and longer too!
*The ones with longer roots have healthier looking leaves.
Looking forward to the next results when you show us the ones with less roots in this new mix of yours, Sweetheart. Then we can safely say which components helped in growing healthier Haworthias. Also, excited to see how cacti react to this type of experiment. Well done again, Sweetheart. You never fail to amaze me with your patience and dedication in this hobby. Learning a lot from you, as always! ❤️🤗😘💪🏼🌵💚
Thank you so much my love 🥰 Yes good observations. I did notice that with the Akadama, the roots were more fleshy with less feeder roots, the one in the regular mix well, less said about that the better! 😂 I think the secret ingredient is definitely the Kyodama, and of course the worm castings help with plants growing more vigorous feeder roots. Looking forward to doing more of these in the future, I don’t think the perfect mix is ever possible as everyone has different growing conditions, but finding the best for our environment is the goal. When I pot the more mature plants up in this mix soon it’ll be a good test, too. Thank you as always babe for all your, support and encouragement ❤️🥰🤗😘♾❤️
@@Cactimania ♾❤️♾
бро,)))спасибо за эксперимент.......я использую субстрат 1/5....... 1 часть кокоса и 5 частей минералки диатомит , лава, пемза....спасибо за видео...
Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Wow! You're fast! Awesome experiment! You have such an amazing green thumb! Sending you and Edith hugs and warm wishes! Have a wonderful day!🌹
Thank you so much, Amanda 😊 Glad you enjoyed the video. Thanks for watching and commenting as always. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜
Thank you, as always, Amanda! You always make Daz and I smile with your wonderful comments! Well wishes to you as well. ❤️💚
@@edithcoliagrandis Thank you so much! Sending hugs and all our love from Gizmo🐶 and I. 🥰
@@Cactimania Thank you again. You do such an amazing job with your videos. Well done my friend.🌹
Great video what a difference in soil mixtures it was interesting in the root development of the five plants thanks again for a wonderful video
Thank you so much again 😊 I’ll have a two year update video on these plants coming soon. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Great update Daz, thanks, as always!
Thank you, Ess. Didn’t know you had a UA-cam channel. Saw your post the other day on Haworthia UK that you’re dealing with root mealies, not good. I’ve had to deal with those a few times in the past. Hope you manage to get rid of them. Cheers for watching and commenting 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🏜
Love this experiment!
Thank you, glad you enjoyed 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
BRILLIANT update Daz :-D and WOW such a difference with the root systems and the soil mixes, and its incredible how they have all reacted so different with their root sizes to the individual soil mixes, no 5 has got super rooty and healthy roots, such a FANTASTIC experiment and thanks so much for sharing the amazing update with us, and Hans and I are sending you and beautiful Edith lots of love and happiness and PLANT POWER to England and Singapore for a fantastic Friday today XXXX
Thank you so much, Lyn 😊 Yeah I was a bit surprised at the difference, I’ll definitely be changing up my mix for Haworthia plants. Always good to experiment and try out different things with our plants. Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Lyn. Have a wonderful day and upcoming weekend from Edith & myself to you and Hans ❤️🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
@@Cactimania XXXX
Oh wow look at that 1 year growth 😮 and the roots 😮 amazing result. Good to see the difference on them. Looking forward on the next update on them. And be nice to know how cacti will react on this experiment too. Well done Daz. Always very nice content. Thank you for sharing and hope you and Edith are having a lovely day 🌵💚
Thank you so much, Kath 😊 Been busy the last two days repotting all my Haworthia into the mix that did the best, that’ll be this weeks video 😁 Thank you for watching and commenting as always. Have a wonderful day and week from Edith & myself to you and Phil 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
So interesting to see the results of that experiment 😃👌. Now you made me consider using kyodama in my mixes, hahaha 😄... Thank you for sharing this! I never have time to do that kind of thing and just try as I do and afterwards I don't remember what I did 🙈. Have a great day Daz and Edith😘💞!
Thank you so much, Vanesa 😊 Yeah I think the Kyodama is the secret ingredient. In the substrate video I did a while back I went into more detail about the properties and benefits of using Kyodama. I think the worm castings helped a lot, too. Thank you for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
Exactly, Vanesa! I am also considering using Kyodama for my Haworthias. Ha ha ❤️💚
@@Cactimania For sure! Worm castings do a lot too. I use them in all my mixes because I make myself at home with our waste from the kitchen whenever is possible (although I've killed a few colonies of redworms while learning😅). Kyodama is really interesting because I've been hearing about the role of some kinds of sand in succulents nutrition and it seems to be very important for Haworthias. Must do some research yet but I'm definitely going to try 👌😘
@@edithcoliagrandis Hahaha 😂, he creates us necessities! Have a great day at Singapore, my dear 😘
@@cactusandfriends_by_vane very true. Have an awesome day in Spain, mi amiga! 🥰
Just now discovered your channel and I look forward to watching others on your network. Thank you for the video and especially your dedication to the craft~
Thank you, I appreciate that 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Great results, and such differences in the roots, all the Haworthia you gifted me are in potting mix without soils, as I don't use soil at all, and those seem to be growing well, and I will be interested to see the roots on my plants, one has way outgrown its pot.
Look forward to your next update on those Haworthia, and the Kyodama is soooo good for rooting. I loved the music you used for the video for the speeded up repotting!😁🪴🌟🌟🌟🤩
Thank you so much, Claire 😊 That’s great the ones from Edith & myself are doing well 😃 Will you do a video on the repotting? I’d be interested to see the roots on them as well. Yeah for my Haworthia I’m definitely changing their mix now, got loads of stuff coming from Kaizen today so I can make a start on repotting them all 😁 Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Claire. Have a wonderful day and weekend from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
@@Cactimania I've got a few videos I've still not edited yet...😬🤯 so hopefully try to get up to date. I would like to do a repotting video on a Haworthia that's,a good idea... 😃 that's good you have got goodies coming from Kaizen 🥳... I've got some restocking to do too 😄
man i relly love you video
you give me experint
Thank you, glad you enjoyed 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
@@Cactimania you must have a million like in you video iam ibrahim from jordan and i must thank you man you the bast
I grow all my Haworthias in Akadama, Kanuma with a small amount of regular potting mix. They always grow a big root-system👌💖Akadama dries out rather quickly in dry weather and needs regular watering. Adding more potting mix can increase the water holding ratio. I tend not to add very much organic matter, I only add river sand and crushed granite. If you add a lot of organic material your cacti will grow too fast and lose their natural shape👌Thanks for sharing this update😌🙏💖
Yeah pure Akadama doesn’t really work for me in my environment. Results might have been different if I had given it a feed with every watering, the osmocote wasn’t really enough. I’ve been potting up some of my adult Haworthia into the mix that did the best, with a little bit of coco coir as well, time will tell to see how they do. Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Wow 😯 So interesting video, I'm so happy thilat I stumbled over your channel.
Thank you, glad you enjoyed and found the channel 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌸🌺🌼🏜
Such an interesting experiment! It also seems like the ones with less root development were also the ones that stretched more.
Thank you 😊 Yeah I did notice that, it may have been why they had the poorer root systems, although it’s strange some stretched and others didn’t as they were all in the same area receiving the same light 🤔 Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Looks like you had the best mix. You had the biggest plant and way more time to get root bound compared to the others.
Thank you 😊 Yes this mix worked out well. I’ll be doing another update on these plants soon. They’re all completely unrecognisable now. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
Science! Interesting results. I recently moved from a JI/gravel mix, that I'd been using for decades to JI/pumice/kyodama, it's going to be interesting seeing the results at potting time. Best wishes to you and Edith 🌵🌺🌼🌸💮🏵🌵
Thank you, Andrew 😊 Yeah I no longer use grit for my Haworthia, still use it for young seedlings but I’ll probably switch that out for Kyodama as well, I’ve got a feeling that might be the secret ingredient to these. I found the grit made the mix too heavy, the cacti deal with it better but the Haworthia not so much but I think I’ll use the Kyodama in everything now. The worm castings are great as well, I think that definitely made their roots more vigorous. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 👍🏻🌵🌼☀️🏜
Love Science too! Thank you so much, Andy! 🥰
Really interesting comparison, the difference in root structure is quite amazing. I've had some decent results growing Haworthia in near pure pumice and kyodama. Thanks as always for the vids!
Thank you, David 😊 Yeah I think overall Haworthia aren’t too fussy about what they grow in, always nice to have big vigorous root systems, though. Thank you for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
Thank you 👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻👍🏻
You’re welcome 😊 Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜
Most interesting and enjoyable, will
Look forward to seeing you expose
The roots next time.
It did look to me that some of the roots
Was holding on the the pumice, the
First two,but that may not be right
In reality as I am watching a vid,
Still a most enjoyable vid again
And Thanks,Bill.
Thank you once again 😊 These Haworthia are doing well, grown a lot. I’ll have to do another update on these very soon. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful evening from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜
Great video mate....funny how the plant with the worst roots has grown the best though 🤷♂️🤷♂️
Yeah is a bit odd, but quite stretched that one. Cheers for watching and commenting mate 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🏜
A very curious review. Although # 1 had the least roots, it was the tallest & seems biggest. While # 5 had the best roots and was fuller. This was a very interesting test! I am very glad you shared this video!! Thanks Daz!!! From Morris Park in the Ozarks, to the UK and Singapore, have a wonderful day!! Peace, Love, Plants!!!✌💖🌵🏵🌴🌺🪴🌹🌲🌷🌳😃👍
Thank you, Clyde 😊 #1 stretched the worst lol, none of these Haworthia should look like this, but still odd why that one stretched the most when all 5 were getting the same light. That might even be why it had the poorest root system. I recently found out that Haworthia tend not to like sandy/loamy soils, which is what the JI compost is. I found out a while back that the Haworthia roots didn’t do so well in my older heavier mix with the grit, so I think my new mix for Haworthia will be half a part of coco coir, half a part of worm castings, lapillo, pumice and kyodama. Got tons of Haworthia that need repotting very soon, especially the ones still in that old mix. Thank you for watching and commenting as always my friend. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself to you and Deb 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
And stronger means that they can handle more abuse, and the ones in organic matter break faster. Some will even grow so hard without gaining strength they break somewhere on the stem
Wonderful update, Daz! It is a bit surprising that the akadama did not produce as vigorous a root system as some of the other mixes as it is often touted in the haworthia community as being great for root development. Although, perhaps, as Edith pointed out, the roots appear a bit fleshier. I've been experimenting with different soil components as well and have added worm castings to many of my test mixes after seeing you add it to your mixes this past year. We don't have kyodama readily available in the US but we have a product called Bonsai Block which I believe is similar given that it is also a fired clay product, so I have incorporated that into some mixes. Hopefully mine will fare as well as your plants have. Hope you have a lovely day and will keep an eye out for future updates!
Thank you so much, Amanda 😊 Yeah I was a little surprised with the Akadama, I’m guessing the osmocote wasn’t really enough fertiliser for it with each watering, most Haworthia growers I know who use pure Akadama tend to add a liquid feed with each watering. I’ve seen some Haworthia grown in pure Akadama and they have roots like carrots lol. Probably another experiment for the future 😊 The Kyodama is definitely an excellent media to use, hopefully the similar material you found will produce similar results. Thank you for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Great experiment with great surprises. While the root growth was a significant difference, I am having trouble with the above ground comparison. The plant development is basically the same. How do feel about this?
Thank you, Bill. I feel it’s always more important with what goes on below the soil rather than above it. I’ve read and heard from multiple growers that you always want to try and have a rootball that’s as big, or bigger than the actual plant. Not always possible in some cases, though. The etiolation did compromise them a little bit, but looking at the plants now, the three with the best root systems generally seem to have healthier and chubbier leaves. I’m giving them more light now so in six months time these should all look more compact and quite a bit different again. Thanks for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
Great experiment, what a difference between no 1 and no 5. Are you going to experiment with your cacti potting mix as well, please?
Thank you so much, Magda 😊 Yes I’ll be doing some more soil mix experiments using some cacti, and also using some more readily available materials. Which means buying perlite, noooooo! 😂 Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Magda. Have a wonderful Sunday from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
That was very interesting, your old mix didn't do as good as your new mixes #3, #4, and #5. Your #5 seems to have surpassed all other mixes, now I have to do some searching on my end to see if I can find some of these materials in my area or an approximate at least, this was a very fun experiment, thank you for inviting us along. Great video as always.
Thank you, David 😊 Yeah that was a little surprising. I’ve got lots of plants to repot soon so they’ll definitely be going into a new mix. I think the Kyodama and worm castings are the two components that really helped those ones along. Will be interesting to see how they all do now in the same mix. Thanks for watching and commenting, have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
This is going to make me look into worm castings a little more now.
But what made you want to try them? I see that a lot of succulent forums online say that organic material is usually avoided because they are high in nitrogen. It’s why most recommended fertilizer is low nitrogen fertilizer.
Any opinions or facts you can share would be greatly appreciated! I’m still new to succulents and I see so many contrasting opinions online, especially about soil.
I read on a couple of forums about people using worm castings for their succulents with nice results. I also like experimenting and trying out new things when it comes to these plants. Ultimately there is no perfect soil mix for succulents. What works for someone might not necessarily work for someone else or be suitable for their growing conditions and, or environment. That’s why it’s always good trying out different things and seeing what works best for you and your plants. The most important thing is having a mix that doesn’t retain moisture for long periods of time and is well draining. As for the nitrogen content I’m not too concerned about that. Organic material only makes up 15 to 20% of my mixes that I use for most plants, some have even less than that. Thank you for watching and commenting 👍🏻🌵☀️🌼🏜
Thank you for your scientific approach! I have been researching everything I can about a pack of six baby cacti before I repot them and your videos are extremely helpful. I have opuntia microdasys, echinocactus texensis, cereus peruvianus, astrophytum asterias, mamillaria compressa, and brasilicactus haselbergii. I plan to mix horticultural grit, coir, perlite and lava rock with a dash of worm castings. I’ll add 5-10% more perlite for the astrophytum. Any other recommendations with the ingredients I have? And what size pot to get them through until UK spring? These guys are the size of my thumb and I’m intimidated.
Thank you 😊 The mixture sounds good, although I personally don’t use perlite. If you can get pumice instead that would be much better. I don’t use horticultural grit anymore in my mixes, I use kyodama instead. The grit will be fine though, it’s used in many people’s mixes for many years. For pot size with the size your plants sound, a 5 to 6cm pot sounds about right for them. Good luck with them and happy growing. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🏜
@@Cactimania oh gosh. I meant to write pumice rather than perlite. Midnight ramblings to blame. Thanks for the advice re pot size. The mamillaria has a lot of roots coming out the bottom of the pot. I thought maybe it could use something wider than my 5.5cm seedling pots but I don’t want it to be swimming in soil.
I also thought all of these guys could easily adorn my SW facing enclosed porch through London winter with my jade and sedums but they may not manage the change in temperatures as well? The rest of the house is kept quite humid for ferns, Hoyas, monsteras, pothos, and other climbers.
@@nataliemitchell5322 When it comes to repotting I usually put plants in a pot that’s nomore than a couple of centimetres from the rim to plant itself, that’s usually a good rule to follow, especially with younger plants. As you say, you don’t want them swimming in soil. Under-potting is always better than over-potting. If you can overwinter them somewhere cool then that’s perfect. Most of mine overwinter in a cool room with no central heating and fairly low humidity. Airflow is important, though. If you can have fan gently blowing over them to keep that air moving that’ll be ideal 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
@@Cactimania okay. Thank you! I think I’ve got this. I’ll keep a close eye on them and hope I learn to speak their language before anything detrimental happens. Keep being awesome!
Interesting! #1 Akadama + Osmotcote looks too stretched and unnatural | #5 looks most natural and it has a great root network, too. I would like to see what happens when you club akadama with worm castings 🤓You'll then have the benefits of both organic matter and a good inorganic fertilizer, which will compensate for the deficiencies in worm castings. Maybe you'll have a dense root system along with some thick roots - don't know.
Thank you 😊 Part of the stretching issue with some of these plants was from lack of light. There was a period of very gloomy weather that affected most of my low light level plants during that time. I’ll be doing a two year update on these plants soon. Akadama and worm castings would be an interesting experiment. Thanks for watching and commenting 🌵🌼☀️🌺🏜
@@Cactimania great experiment. Takes good patience and care to ensure they get best possible growth conditions throughout the 1-year period. Looking at those long roots, I guess this time you should try using a tall square pot, like the Asians do. The roots will have more room to spread, network, and feed the plant.
wonderful,thanks a lot for the video, I've been following your channel for a long time,cocopeat,kyodama,pumice, lava stone and vermicompost did a really good job.I'm trying to grow a cactus and a few haworthias..I use gravel, lava stone, pumice, zeolite,broken brick and charcoal in my mix.I'm considering adding some cocopeat and vermicompost to the mix as organic ingredients, but I'm worried about too much moisture(Humidity is very high in our area).kyodama is impossible to find. is there a different alternative that we can suggest? Akadama is very expensive.thanks
Thank you so much 😊 Your mix sounds great, plenty of mineral components. I don’t think adding a bit of cocopeat and vermicompost will hurt, even in a high humidity environment. It’s pretty humid here as well, especially over the winter months but the mix still drys out very quickly. Kyodama is a fired clay product so there might be some other alternatives to that, the closest one I can think of is moler clay, although I don’t use that in my Haworthia mix anymore as I found some of them didn’t really do well in it. Akadama is pretty expensive here as well, I pretty much only use that now for rooting small offsets. Thank you for watching and commenting 🌵☀️🌺🌼🌸🏜
@@CactimaniaThanks for your reply :) ,If kyodama is baked clay, then small-grained lecat (expanded clay ball) is considered the same product?
@@etemucak1879 Ah yes, forgot about those, I think they would be a pretty good substitute. I’ve not used them myself but CactusCove here on UA-cam has used those as part of her mix and her plants have done very well. No harm in experimenting anyway, that’s what it’s all about 😊🌵☀️🌺🏜
@@Cactimania lecat but it holds too much moisture, I hesitate to use it in cactus mix. Now will your previous cactus mix video be invalid? will there be a new mix video?
@@etemucak1879 I will be amending my soil mix video I did a couple of years ago as the mix I use for cacti now is a bit different. What I used in this video is pretty much what I use now for the Haworthia. The only thing that sometimes changes depending on the availability is the lava rock to zeolite and visa versa 🌵☀️🌼🌺🏜
I had a half dead Alocasia princess and I decided to pot it up in just clay & pumice mix 🙂 it survived & has continued to thrive 🙂 both clay & pumice, I brought from Kaizen Bonsai.
That’s awesome, Laura 😊 Yeah the moler clay I got from Kaizen is good quality, the seedlings love it anyway and it seems better quality than the stuff sold as cat litter, less dusty too I noticed. Pumice is great stuff, if I had to only choose one mineral component it would always been that. Thanks for watching and commenting. Have a wonderful day and week from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌸🌺🏜
Very interesting video as always! What a great difference in root growth does different mixes make! Thanks for sharing video! Would like to ask you a question please! I have received a msg from Cactimania saying to phone on whatsup, was it from you or a SCAM? I did not reply to it! Love to you and Edith!
Thank you so much, Sylvia 😊 Yes those are spam/scam comments. I will never ask anyone to WhatsApp me via UA-cam comments, and any competitions/giveaways and winner announcements I do are always done via the videos. If you ever see those types of comments please report them. Thank you for watching and commenting as always. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵🌺🌼🌸☀️🏜
@@Cactimania Thank you!
Very interesting! Been waiting for this video to come out. I am surprised at the very little roots developed in the regular mix. Hmm.. For me I actually like the roots that grew in Akadama and Osmocote (#2). Not too many fine roots but it has strong thick roots. I find that plants with a lot of fine roots are more prone to root loss. Those fine roots do not do well when they are subjected to extreme conditions such as prolonged drought. Thick roots are stronger and are able to store more water, which is what I need in my arid environment. But in the end, I think it really depends on one’s growing condition. Any thoughts on why those roots developed like that? Maybe something for your next update video. 👍🏼😃🌵Great video, Daz!
Thank you so much, Ana 😊 It’s actually important for them to have those feeder roots, though. The fleshy roots are just good for storing moisture with nutrients. It’s the feeder roots that collect that water and nutrients so there should be a balance of both types. It probably didn’t develop many because the osmocote wasn’t really enough for it, a lot of Haworthia growers who use pure Akadama tend to use liquid feed with every watering. Haworthia also tend to shed their roots annually and regrow new ones. I also recently found out that mixtures containing a high proportion of fine sand or loamy soil are not conducive to healthy Haworthia and will cause root loss over time, so I’m actually debating whether or not to even use the John Innes compost for them anymore, which is what was in the regular mix. Thank you for watching and commenting as always, Ana. Have a wonderful day from Edith & myself 🌵☀️🌼🌺🌸🏜☕️
That makes sense. 👍🏼 Thanks for doing this experiment. We usually just look at what we see which is the top of the plant. But having strong roots is often overlooked but it is vital to the health of the plant.