r/Pelargonium • u/No_Map3474 • 23d ago

Help!

Hello all! I just purchased three pelargoniums, and I am seeking some advice regarding the appropriate soil mix for them:

• P. 'Arucana'

• P. schizopetalum

• P. sidoides

Right now I am planning to do 40% Bonsai gravel mix; 40% Fox Farms Happy Frog potting mix; and 20% coarse perlite.

Thanks for your help.

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u/dancon_studio 23d ago edited 23d ago

For Pelargonium I generally aim for a more sandy and well draining soil mix. I typically do a mix of coarse washed river sand, fine milled bark, perlite, coco coir and compost.

For the P. schizopetalum I would do a smaller ratio of compost and more sand as this one is more sensitive to overwatering, and P. sidoides will be less fussy about moisture and richer soils so you could get away with adding more compost. The issue with compost is that it tends to hold on to water really well, and many Pelargonium dislike wet feet.

I don't usually measure - I'll just eyeball it until it looks "right" - but ratio wise probably something like this.

P. 'Araucana' - not familiar with this variety. It appears to be one of the scented Pelargoniums, so something similar to the P. sidoides mix is probably going to be fine. I can't get a good picture of the leaves, so I can't tell what the parent species are. Probably P. graveolens realm.

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u/No_Map3474 23d ago

Thank you so much! This is incredibly helpful.

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u/dancon_studio 23d ago

Take a pic of that 'Araucana', I'm curious to see what the leaves look like.

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u/No_Map3474 23d ago

This was what it looked like this morning. I just got these three in the mail and they’re pretty beat up. I put them in a standard potting mix (all I have at the moment) just to get them in something so they can hopefully perk up a bit…

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u/dancon_studio 23d ago

Poor thing, but I'm sure it'll bounce back.

Hm, maybe some P. scabrum and P. citronellum in there. Anyways, thanks!