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Description
is potting mix good for succulents Molly's Gritty Mix for Cactus & BonsaiQuick answer: what is Molly's Succulent Mix? For: succulents, cacti, bonsai, Haworthia, Echeveria, Sedum, Jade, and any arid environment plant. What's in it: high mineral gritty blend of pumice, lava rock, and crushed bark. Low organic matter by design. Why it works: succulent roots are built to drink fast and dry out fast. The gritty structure drains in seconds and holds zero standing water, so roots don't rot. Pre rinsed and pH balanced straight
Quick answer: what is Molly's Succulent Mix?
- For: succulents, cacti, bonsai, Haworthia, Echeveria, Sedum, Jade, and any arid-environment plant.
- What's in it: high-mineral gritty blend of pumice, lava rock, and crushed bark. Low organic matter by design.
- Why it works: succulent roots are built to drink fast and dry out fast. The gritty structure drains in seconds and holds zero standing water, so roots don't rot.
- Pre-rinsed and pH-balanced straight from the bag. No salt flush required.
- Bonsai-safe. The grit profile matches what serious bonsai growers blend by hand from akadama, pumice, and lava.
More plant-specific guidance: Ultimate guide to growing succulents indoors, Potting soil vs potting mix.
Succulents and cacti evolved in arid, mineral-rich environments where water moves through gritty substrate in seconds. Their roots are built to drink fast and dry out fast. Standard potting soil holds moisture for days, suffocates the roots, and rots them from the bottom up. The fix is a high-mineral, low-organic, gritty mix.
Molly's Succulent Mix is engineered to mimic native desert and rocky-slope substrates. A blend of pumice, lava rock, and a small amount of organic matter that drains in seconds and forces the soak-and-dry watering rhythm succulents need.
The gritty-mix philosophy
Most "succulent soil" sold at garden centres is regular potting soil with sand mixed in. That's not what these plants want. The right mix is roughly 70% mineral aggregate (pumice and lava rock) and 30% structural organic (coir, charcoal). Water hits the surface and runs through within seconds. Roots get a brief, intense drink, then dry conditions for the next 1 to 2 weeks. That's how succulents stay alive in pots.
What's in the bag
- Pumice (volcanic, lightweight): the mineral backbone. Holds a tiny amount of water inside its porous structure, but lets the rest drain freely.
- Lava rock (red lava): chunky drainage and heat retention. Roots love the warmth differential it creates.
- Coir fiber (small percentage): just enough organic to retain a little humidity and prevent the mix from drying to a brick. Not enough to compromise drainage.
- Horticultural charcoal: filters salts from tap water (succulents are surprisingly sensitive to mineral buildup).
- Calcitic limestone (trace): buffers pH to the slightly alkaline range (6.5 to 7.5) most desert succulents prefer.
Low peat content, no worm castings (succulents don't want a nutrient flush), no commercial fertilizer. The whole mix is intentionally lean.
Plants this is for
Designed for succulents and cacti:
- Echeveria, Sedum, Crassula (jade), Sempervivum: the classic rosette succulents.
- Haworthia, Gasteria: they prefer slightly more shade but want the same gritty drainage.
- Aloe (vera and others): medicinal succulents, this mix prevents the rot they're prone to in heavier soils.
- Most cacti: Mammillaria, Echinopsis, Opuntia, San Pedro, golden barrel.
- Lithops (living stones): require fast drainage to stay alive year-round; this mix is well-suited.
- Bonsai with high drainage needs: juniper, pine, and certain deciduous bonsai work well.
- Caudex plants: Adenium, Pachypodium, and other swollen-stem species that need fast drainage at the base.
Not for: tropical "succulent-looking" plants like Hoya, Christmas cactus (Schlumbergera), or Easter cactus, which actually prefer humidity-retaining mixes. For those, use Molly's Aroid Mix.
Watering with gritty mix
The right rhythm: soak and dry. Water deeply, then wait until the mix is bone-dry before watering again.
- Wait until the top 2 to 3 inches feel completely dry. For most succulents in standard 4 to 6 inch pots, that's every 10 to 21 days indoors.
- Water until liquid runs clearly out the drainage holes. Don't dribble. Soak.
- Discard any water in the saucer. Do not let the pot sit in standing water.
- Wait. The plant will let you know when it's thirsty (slight wrinkling of leaves, lighter pot weight).
In winter, water roughly half as often. Most succulents go dormant or semi-dormant.
FAQ
Why is this so heavy compared to other succulent soil?
Because it's mostly minerals, not peat or coco coir. The weight is what makes it work. Light bag means light drainage, which is the opposite of what succulents need.
Can I use this for bonsai?
For tropical bonsai, no, they want a moisture-retentive aroid-style mix. For drought-tolerant bonsai (juniper, pine, certain deciduous species), yes, this mix or a 50/50 blend with finer organics works well.
Will the mix break down or stay porous over time?
Stays porous. The mineral components (pumice, lava rock, charcoal) don't decompose. The small organic fraction breaks down slowly. Most succulents in this mix can go 2 to 3 years before repotting.
Should I add fertilizer?
Sparingly. Succulents are slow growers and don't need much. A diluted (~1/4 strength) cactus-specific fertilizer once during the growing season (spring) is plenty for most species.
Packaged in a heat-sealed resealable bag. New formula released April 2026, see the formula release announcement for details on what changed.
Related care guide
Watering, light, and repotting fundamentals for succulents and cacti.
Have questions? Read the Molly's Succulent Mix FAQ for detailed information on watering, repotting, and which succulents this mix works best for.
New: the complete soil guide
Not sure if you need cactus soil or succulent soil? They are the same thing. Read: Best Soil for Succulents and Cactus →
Not sure which mix your plant needs?
Take our free 60-second Soil Finder quiz → Diagnose the problem and get the exact Molly's mix and amount for your plant, plus 10% off.
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4.6 ★★★★★
Based on 11 reviews
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Product Reviews
★★★★★ 3
Thought-provoking but misses its "target audience"
Format: Paperback
First, the good. This is a thought-provoking book that takes complex subject matter and makes it very easy to understand. In "The Evolution of Adam" Dr. Enns does an excellent job on many fronts - most notably giving a brief overview of the history of biblical criticism and its importance to the evolution debate. His ability to distill ideas down to the core was impressive. If I had to recommend to someone 50 pages on biblical criticism I might tell them to read the first portion of this book. However, as I read the book I kept wondering how the path he was taking would allow him to argue for an Evangelical perspective (as he says in the introduction). In short, he does not. Not even close.
Dr. Enns must not know his target audience very well if he thinks that this book is targeted for Evangelicals. Virtually none of the positions that he espouses in this book are even close to what an Evangelical Christian would be comfortable defending. He has little regard for any historicity behind any of the biblical accounts and frequently tosses out the phrase "most scholars agree" as a trump card. He does a good job of helping understand the culture and history that surrounded the biblical accounts yet in the end the reader is left wondering where story and history actually meet or if possibly the whole thing was simply conjured up for political reasons. In the end, I think the question the reader is left with is "does it matter if anything in the Bible ACTUALLY happened?". How you answer that may well determine how much you enjoy this book.
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Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2012
★★★★★ 5
Peter Enns "Upends" Tradition!
Format: Paperback
One cannot but deeply admire what Peter Enns has managed to produce within the span of less than 150 pages - not counting his endnotes. Kudos as well for his penetrating exegetical insights...to say nothing as regards his courage: few conservative evangelicals (and even fewer fundamentalists) will find the title "The Evolution of Adam" something that warms the heart. And yet what Enns has produced here not only is revolutionary (in a very real sense - see below) but may well prove to be one of the more controversial books on the science/theology debate of recent years.
Why so? Primarily because (according to Enns - Part Two of his book) Paul's creative use (in Romans) of the Adam and Eve story in Genesis was primarily for apologetic purposes...a matter that will be discussed in greater detail below. But we begin with Part One.
Essentially Part One (four chapters) represents Enns' understanding of the crucial importance Ancient Near Eastern influences exerted upon the biblical writers - the writer/s of the Genesis creation account in particular. Enns (correctly in my view)hammers this point repeatedly for the reader to consider - i.e., the bible (the whole of it) was not written in a cultural vacuum unsullied by the surrounding culture/s of pagan religious thought, whether ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, or Greco-Roman. Indeed, to do otherwise would have been an impossibility - somewhat like trying to walk along the Tibetan foothills while refusing to breathe its polluted 'pagan' air. None of us ever fully escapes the surrounding influences of culture - and the bible was never intended to do so; rather, God (if one believes in biblical inspiration...as Enns does) works fully within the conceptual categories of culture. Hence, the two creation accounts in Genesis come to us fully embedded with the concepts of Ancient Near Eastern thought patterns. Perhaps the most we can say here is that the Genesis accounts represent (in varying ways) the "demythologizing" of prior Ancient Near Eastern accounts: the God of Israel is not to be identified with any aspect (sun, moon, stars, etc.) of the created order.
So far so good. There's nothing really new here that hasn't been said already by any number of conservative evangelical scholars. Part Two, however, is something entirely different. Here Enns focuses his attention on Paul's creative use of the Old Testament, seeing as how the death and resurrection of Christ has caused Paul to look at the OT writings from a radically different perspective - Romans 5:12-21 in particular.
These verses have a long, long history in the Christian Church as providing the church's understanding of how sin and death entered the world of human existence:
we all "inherited" sin and death in and through the disobedience of Adam back in Eden. Not so...says Enns. And here is where his account veers off in a direction entirely different from traditional orthodox belief - for, according to Enns, Paul gave a particular 'Pauline spin' to these verses that cannot be found either in the OT itself, or in the Second Temple Judaism of which Paul himself was a part. Because the death and resurrection of Christ radically altered Paul's understanding of God's redemptive work in the world he (Paul) "found" in the Adam story an ideal explanation for why it is all Jews and Gentiles alike share in the universal experience of sin and death. Therefore, Adam's disobedience in Eden is NOT the cause of the universal human experience of sin and death (per Enns); rather, the story of Adam's disobedience served Paul's apologetic purposes...quite apart from whatever the story's original intention might have been. The true "origin" of sin and death remains a mystery, for the answer is not to be found (indeed if it can be "found" at all!) in the early Genesis account of Adam and Eve.
And here is where we encounter the book's controversial nature, for Enns' view represents a dramatic departure from the traditional view - a traditional view that has a rich theological heritage that passes directly through the Reformation all the way back to Augustine.
As previously stated, I deeply admire and respect what Enns has done here. For the most part I think he is on the right track. Furthermore, he makes mention of the fact that recent developments in biology have strongly indicated that we cannot possibly trace all modern humans back to an original "Adam and Eve." However, we knew that already...quite apart from modern biology informing us of the fact. Anthropology and paleontology had already amassed considerable evidence that proto-humans and modern humans were spread across the earth long before any conceivable Adam and Eve could have existed. Apparently, however, modern biology speaks with a more powerful voice than anthropology; thus, we are seeing a spate of books recently on the topic of whether or not Adam and Eve were historical - Enns' book being only one of a growing number. (Due to the geneologies in early Genesis we are somewhat limited in "how far back" we can place an Adam and Eve. Placing them 25 to 40 thousand years into the past in order somehow to allow them to be the true ancestors of all modern humans does a grave injustice to the geneologies that plain and simply do not allow for this sort of radical time reversal - a matter that any number of evangelicals, who have done this sort of thing, seem unwilling to appreciate. The early Genesis geneologies, even allowing for some "gaps," serve as a control against such unwarranted time expansion. An Adam and Eve of perhaps 6 to 8 thousand BC appears to be about the limit of what we can reasonably expect). In any case, Enns has raised a thorny and difficult issue in a way previous books on the question have not, and I believe his book will contribute substantially to more open theological discussion (one hopes without heated rancor) on the debate. In the meanwhile, some final thoughts.
Personally, I find it more than a tad curious that David Rohl (a somewhat controversial Egyptologist) has recently authored a book (From Eden to Exile, Greenleaf Press) in which he strongly defends an historical Adam - and yet Rohl acknowledges that he is an atheist. All this is most strange: an evangelical scholar arguing against an historical Adam while an atheistic historian argues for one! ("What fools these mortals be!")
I happen to agree with much of what Enns writes. However, I think Rohl has a point- even though how he fleshes his historical Adam out is somewhat bizarre. For one thing, I'm not entirely comfortable (despite some of Enns' powerful arguments) with a geneology of Jesus in the Gospels that would include "fictious" characters who never even existed. (I might as well inform you that my great, great grandfather was Dr. Jekyll and my great, great, great grandfather was Mr. Hyde). I don't see why getting rid of an historical Adam is at all necessary. Enns himself offers the possibility that OT Israel viewed Adam as their senior partriarch - the man who originally started the "clan." I personally see great possibilities here via leaving Adam within historical existence as Israel's original, grand patriarch.
The origin of sin and death via the Adam and Eve story is another matter entirely. Biology and anthropology together appear to just plain and simply rule it out - and sticking Adam back into the age of the Cro-Magnons and Neaderthals in order to "save" the doctrine is a clear instance of an act of sheer desperation. But I see no reason why we necessarily have to conclude that the "origin" of sin and death (if that's the right word even to use...which I'm not even sure about) can only be regarded as lost in the misty past. I think there is a possible way forward here, and even via an historical Adam, while at the same time embracing what Enns is talking about. I think there may well be a way to retain a personal Adam (perhaps 6 to 8 thousand BC), while also showing how sin and death had their origin in him...but with an entirely different understanding that is informed by Enns' book. Unfortunately, spelling all that out is - like "The Evolution of Adam" - a book unto itself. And Amazon commentary is not the place where one is allowed to "write a book" - quite apart from how lengthy my own commentary here has been.
In the meanwhile...kudos again to Enns for his truly provocative and highly insightful contribution to the cause. His vigorous defense of the incarnation, the atonement, and the resurrection is profoundly gratifying. Because of his firm stance here no one can accuse him of being unorthodox!
(NOTE: Readers interested in a critical analysis of David Rohl's "From Eden to Exile: the 5000 Year History of the People of the Bible," and why this book is of such strategic importance for Old Testament studies - scholars in particular, can easily access my recent review of this book (titled "David Rohl: A "Maverick" in Search of History") by clicking on "See All My Reviews" directly above, or by going to the book's Amazon website.
Hope you enjoy the read!
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Reviewed in the United States on January 18, 2012
★★★★★ 5
A must-have for students and researchers
Format: Spiral-bound
I use this all the time. The Concise Guide to APA Style (7th Edition) is incredibly helpful, easy to navigate, and much less overwhelming than flipping through the full manual. Great quick reference for papers, citations, and formatting.
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Reviewed in the United States on May 16, 2026
★★★★★ 5
Perfect for learning APA format
Format: Spiral-bound
If you are one learning how to write, cite and use references in APA format this is the perfect book for you. It literally breaks down everything for you and has examples of what to do. It has an example essay if you need something to reference as well. I'd recommend this book to anyone that has a strict professor or that is learning how to write APA.
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Reviewed in the United States on February 15, 2026
★★★★★ 5
APA Guide, what you need for college papers
Format: Spiral-bound
It has the information that I need for my college classes, though the text could be a little bigger for better legibility.
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Reviewed in the United States on March 10, 2026