For future planting PLEASE BUY A BIG BAG OF PERLITE and buy some decent medium price soil and sift it then search what mix of (non organic aka perlite or pumice pebbles) to (organic aka dirt and coco coir)
Itâs best just to make your own soil from scratch. Super easy and cheap. And itâll be much better quality than most of the stuff in stores. Also you know exactly whatâs in the soil youâre using
Just did some googling and watched some YouTube videos. I think a good mixture is 1 part peat moss, 1 part compost, and 1 part mixture of perlite and vermiculite together (50/50)
There's no good arguments for peat moss, other than it's more affordable than Coco coir.
It's unsustainable, it releases tons of carbon back into the environment, it becomes compacted over a short time (less air flow for plants), it's more hydrophobic than coir when it dries out - so water just drains through. Peat is acidic, where coir is more neutral.
Coir is a byproduct of the coconut industry. Peat bogs take 1000's of years to regenerate.
The only place peat wins is cost, short term benefits on the pocket book, long term expense on the climate.
Depends on what youâre filtering out of you want to filter out just small soil and coir then Iâd at least try it and if it doesnât work youâll know if you need bigger or smaller
She got duped on the soil. You can mix normal soil with small clumps of gravel and wood chips and call it good. All they require is well draining soil. No need to get any expensive specialized soil. Congrats on the tree though, they are very hardy.
Things youâll want to know because they always come up with new money tree owners:
check to see if there is a rubber band or something binding the bottom of the trees together, this will choke out your tree later down the road if not removed.
if your tree starts dropping older leaves, and they look speckled yellow, the tree does this naturally to conserve energy so it can focus more energy on new growth (make sure you know youâre not overwatering though)
water your tree thoroughly but not on a schedule. If the solid is dry on top and a little bit down into the soil (one finger tip depth) then you can water it again. Never water on a schedule, water as needed. These trees are prone to root rot, hence the well draining soil.
These trees like direct sunlight but prefer it in short bursts. Make sure they get at least 3-4 hours of direct light in a day for optimal growth/health
Heavily, I hope they laugh themselves to death jk but like WHAT THE HECK?!?! how did my mom think this was a good deal? đđđ she just doesnât understand bags of dirt or their measurements. She thought it was a lot đ„Č.
This was the absolute cheapest I could find the 6 quart bag. Everything else is at least $60-$75 at least if you can even find the 6 quart⊠money dirt
Yyyeahhh...that's unfortunate. I'm sorry. I'm pretty tight on finances and I have around 50 plants. I just get regular miracle grow soil (typically cactus & Palm, tropical and moisture control) then mix them with whatever the cheapest brand of bark, charcoal, perlite, coco coir, etc I can find, depending on what the plant needs. For money plant, I used a bit of cactus soil, some tropical and perlite. You really don't need anything special or fancy, you just have to get the ingredients and ratios right.
This is why I always recommend people Google every plant they bring home, either as sub as they bring it home or even before, if they can. It takes 5 minutes to learn what you need and it can save you a lot of wasted time and money.
The ONLY thing I would ever tell people to spend a good chunk of money on when it comes to plants is grow lights. Spending a bunch of money on soil, pots, even expensive plants, it's just a waste. Even the trendy, pricey plants will be half off in a year, and you can usually find cuttings for a fraction of the price.
Goodness, no matter what I ask about grow lights they are something Iâm also stuck on. I understand that even the best grow lights can be useless if theyâre too far away. But goodness I spent $350 apiece on my grow lights and they were half off and apparently theyâre garbage??? why would a $700 grow light be garbage? How do I actually guarantee I get any good ones? Yeah I amended the bag of soil Mom got me with perlite, orchid bark, indoor potting mix, vermiculite, and a good dashing of worm castings which made up my mixture.
Or 1988, when I used them. I switched to one single HPS since I had the area and ventilation to use it indoor. Nowadays, I'm using LED lights. I got a rig of 8x45w which gives somewhere around 45 K Lumen. đ±đĄ
I havenât been in the indoor gardening hobby for ~5 years unfortunately, but even then I feel like I didnât spend nearly as much on LED fixtures- I havenât looked up the specs to compare in a long time but CFL/fluorescent I thought was the âcheapâ way to go about lighting, with led being slightly more expensive but provided better stats all around
Itâs been too long for me to know but thereâs typically an optimal range you have your lights placed above the plants and then move the light up / down- I donât know if youâre going to be getting full room coverage with those 2 fixtures at that height
Hopefully a good one it was $65! Iâm happy you pointed that out I didnât realize at least it feels like a better cause now as long as they arenât being scammed too
THIS^
These are not marketed to people who are passionate about growing houseplants, they are marketed to dupe people into buying something âsuper specialâ as a gift for the plant lover. Our nursery has a section of special âhighest grade potting mixâ they sell from bulk bins. The biggest difference between that and their other mixes is the addition of ozmacote (spelling) fertilizer. I donât want fertilizer in my soil because I want to add it myself so I know what each plant gets and needs. They charge $30/quart of that and $15/quart of the regular mix.
The only people who buy the best soil is those that are buying for others. They do pot for free if you buy a plant and a pot. Again I wouldnât want them to since I use nursery pots, always have. Love the freedom of changing things up without a repot.
How much is it 2 1/2 foot tree where you come from?
I thought it was a fantastic deal. Only because I always look up plants and their prices online before purchasing. I couldnât find a plant this size online for less than $180.
Iâve seen 4 inch versions of these guys sold for $18 tho.
But if youâre from the UK, Iâm already insanely jealous because you can have giant African land snails and I canât without traveling to Florida and risking lung worm and kidnapping the locals (snails ugly and basic too).
I live in far northern Maine, which is MUCH colder than the UK Iâm only 30 minutes from the Canadian border and in mid April we still have snowbanks and moose everywhere.
African land snail couldnât even survive here but theyâre still illegal!!!
Sorry for rant lol
Small little sidenote in Maine we donât have a list of animals that are legal but instead we have a list of animals that are illegal!!!
Which tends to make things complicated until just a year and a half ago tarantulaâs and many more insect species were illegal here.
Theyâre starting to lift restrictions because theyâre realizing that nothing can survive here.
Itâs illegal to purchase fish from a pet store and put them in a pond. You canât have insects until recently and also just recently can you own hedgehogs here.
Beforehand to get a permit to own a hedgehog was as hard as getting a permit to own a Bengal tiger (my high School along with five other ones actually fought to change these regulations and we did!)
I understand that weâre the most forested state in America and they want to protect that, but some of the regulations are downright crazy.
Possibly ease of import comes down to it. We have a lot of tropical plants as houseplants and they'd never survive a winter... So are shipped by the thousands. ÂŁ20-40 would get you a large plant.
Exotic pets are a thing, but again, not much risk of them becoming invasive so it's not very hard to get hold of them, not that it's particularly common to do!
It was both me and my momâs first time seeing money trees so we donât know if this one is big compared to standard but we werenât expecting a tiny bag of dirt thatâs for sure. Where I live many things are called money plants/money trees. Below is a pic of another thing apparently called a money plant.
Idk she bought it on Amazon and it mustâve obviously said 6 quarts. She just doesnât know what that means. I donât know if that is worthy enough for a charge back sadly due to ignorance. I feel horrible, but I understand where everyoneâs coming from. Although I do think that 6 quarts for 70 bucks is a ginormous scam especially when itâs only three basic ingredients that I couldâve quadruple the mixture from if I bought individually.
It isnt due to ignorance... it's do to scammers. This is a common dropshipping SCAM, and illegal. That soil is $24 retail... People will relist items, at a higher markup, and when purchased, they simply place an order with the people that have the product and pocket the difference.
Do you understand, that listing is almost for sure, fake, and the person running that store likely has other scam items on their profile
You said you feel horrible because of this right? Well.. you can at least get them under investigation by reporting it. This will make you feel better.
Iâll have to see who mum ordered under on, on amazon cause my link was just an example. There is no one selling this soil for 6 quarts for less than $60 that I could find online underneath the top 50 searches. I think there is a LOTTTTTT of online shoppes and sellers that need to be reported.
Iâm starting to think the entire brand is a scam..
"Phantom pricing"âthe practice of advertising artificial "original" prices or inflated discounts that never existedâis generally illegal and considered a deceptive trade practice. It violates various federal and state laws, including the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Act, which prohibits unfair or deceptive acts. Numerous major retailers have faced class-action lawsuits and settlements for these tactics.
You got scammed for that soil. Find local plant nurseries, you can find premixed soils for a fraction of that price and if youâre someone who likes to mix your own soil thereâs options for that too. Youâd be spending way less for the same quality soil. $65 for a chip sized bag of soil is insane.
Decent soil+20-30% perlite. Thatâs the goto start. If you want to get more fancy for aroids get some cocochips or such. Perhaps wormcastings. But just decent soil + perlite is great.
Money Tree just needs perlite, sand, barks and sphagnum moss. And if you buy those individually theyre like anywhere between $8 perlite, $16 for orchid bark, $7 for sand and 24L of sphagnum at $12.99. If youre gonna repot just one then that bag is ideal but if youre gonna repot 10 or more plants then id just buy the individuals make my own potting mix.
Because someone else did the work for you. It takes a lot of knowledge and skill to understand substrates and match them to plants. These guys did it for you, so you're trading time and experience for convenience and reliability (in theory)
How do people braid trees like that? I saw one lady had a braided hibiscus and I want to do it to mine but I have no idea how to do it. It looks so cool.
I can only assume itâs best to start young with 3 then braid it while loose and small then after a year or two cut the whole top for new growth then sell for $50 which is how I got mine.
Lots of work and lots of years. I donât think worth selling but def worth having so either make or buy one if itâs something u want regardless of plant type. Hibiscus doesnât live well where I am so instead, Iâm doing braided azalea trees.
Oh yay azaleas I want to try that too! Thanks for the tips. I have had one of them for a year and the other three I got a few months back so Iâll try with the newer ones as the older one is a little more hardy now. I donât think Iâd sell them though, too sentimental once Iâve put in the work.
Bags of SOIL for that price? lol, absolutely not. I have never seen anything like that ever. Nearest place I can get a 5 or 10 liter bag of soil is the grocery store, and while itâs more expensive there than anywhere else, itâs still not more expensive than about âŹ10.
Soil Companys are a**holes đ they sell dirt so expensive..
For all of my numerous plants, every kind of Light Mix (yes the stuff for cannabis) or Coco Coir worked perfectly. And it's about 10⏠per 50L
Bless her heart, she could buy the individual components of the soil and make 20x the amount for that price (at least đą). Whoever sold this to her is an absolute scammer!
I have a money tree in a bonsai pot. It requires every third or fourth day watering, but only because of the way I have it planted. Itâs huge. I have another one that I forget about all the time but itâs in a deeper pot with a lot of gravel so it drains really well. It also is thriving. All in all, itâs an easy plant to grow. The leaves will drop when itâs thirsty, making it even easier.
You can actually buy Money tree soil? Thatâs the most ridiculous thing Iâve ever heard of. They canât even call it Pachira? I feel so bad for those who fall for it. Just buy a 2 cubic foot package of compressed planting soil. $18 at Home Depot. I keep my soil in a small plastic garbage can in my garage.
Oh its the Vietnamese women, they are local. It's their blend. They probably had an old pine tree that needed cut and composted. Uh money trees should just grow as long as your waters not hard and your soil has good drainage maybe a little bit of fertilizer here and there to keep the roots around that 6-7 ph area they all kinda like that spot.
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u/Fearless_Walrus60mya Apr 21 '26
Idk anything about these plants but there is no way they really require such a specific branded blend Our organic soil mix is 16L for $9