PRESENTER FOR AUGUST: Peter Walkowiak “Soil and Fertilizer for Succulents”

There are three ingredients for my soil mix. You can substitute other materials and those will be listed below. There are three materials to avoid, peat moss, sand and kor.  Both peat moss and kor (coconut husk ) are not composted and when they do it turns to muck. Sand compacts and does not dry out or allow good air penetration.

Soil:  60% Perlite #3, substitute pumice; this should be completely wetted and mix, do not remove fines unless excessive.

20% Compost, (substitute is good potting soil), I get my compost from the green recycling at the local dump, they use just greens, no manure

20% DG (decomposed granite); use 1/8 screen to remove gravel from fines. Gravel is for top dressing and fines for the soil mix.

Mix DG and compost together. Add this to the WET perlite and mix till blended and no white is showing from perlite. To achieve this you may need to add more water. Soil is ready to use. Always use moist soil and never water newly transplanted succulents.

Fertilizer: 10-30-20 Growmor water soluble fertilizer

White vinegar, 2 tablespoons per gallon, PH of 6.0 to 6.5

Peter graduated in 1985 from Cal Poly Pomona with a B.S. Degree in Ornamental Horticulture. He worked as manager, production manager and section manager for three wholesale nurseries for 14 years. He ran a landscaping business for another 14 years, the last five years of which he specialized in succulent landscapes. He started collecting succulents while at Cal Poly and his collection now numbers in the thousands. This led to propagating plants from seed and thus, the seed was sown for the nursery that he now owns and runs for the last fifteen years.

Peter has been fascinated with plants since he was 5 and interest in succulent plants  grew in college, 1981-82. By the time he graduated, his collection had grown to 200 and many are still alive. This collection has grown to more than 2,000 currently. The collection consists of cacti, euphorbias and caudiciforms.

He is the past president of the Palomar CSS and was on the board for the San Diego CSS. He was on the on the Board of Directors of the C.S.S.A. for the last ten years and served as the Nominations Chair  and Convention Sales Chair. He was show chair for Palomar’s one and San Diego’s two shows and co-chair for the Intercity Show.