Succulents are known for their low-maintenance nature, making them popular choices for both indoor and outdoor potted plants. Just like pet owners love to dress up their pets, some people enjoy decorating their succulents with beautiful pots or different rocks or pebbles as top dressings. Today, let's talk about the benefits of succulent top dressing and how to choose the perfect one for your succulents.
What are The Benefits of Top Dressing?
If you consider adding top dressing to your succulents, reading about these advantages, you'll have your answer.
1. Make your succulent garden look clean
With more and more succulent addicts love decorating their offices with some potted succulents. There are many benefits to growing succulents around us. To avoid dust and mess, placing one layer on the top of cactus soil mix will efficiently solve this issue.
These little rocks also keep the soil in place when watering. It reduces the amount of dust that flies up when you water! And it will keep soil from splashing up to the leaves of your plants.
2. More attractive than exposed soil
Have you ever watched a video about how to make a succulent fairy garden or how to make a succulent arrangement? Top dressings for succulents come in various colors, textures, and sizes. Choosing the right types of top dressings to match your succulent works shows your ability to sense beauty.
3. Get rid of your home of pesky gnats
Moisture and organic material attract gnats. Some species prefer the soil of houseplants. Add top dressing which is an inorganic material that prevents insects from laying their eggs in the damp, organic soil, and effectively help alleviate and solve this problem. Click here to learn How to Use Neem Oil on Your Succulents and Cactus!
4. Top dressings act as a weed barrier
Weeds are part of every landscape, competing with our trees, shrubs, and flowers for vital nutrients especially for outdoor gardens. River rock is considered the most useful weed barrier matter for indoor or outdoor use.
5. Regulate the temperature of the soil
We can't change the temperature but we can do something to save our plants. In winter, you can use dark color top dressing to warm your plants. Dark pebbles or gravel absorb more heat, warming the soil and stimulating root development. In summer, light colors reflect the heat—useful in hot climates, which means you can use light color top dressing instead.
6. Keep newly planted succulents upright
For young plants especially for succulents, they need time to get used to their new containers and get rooted in the surrounding cactus soil mix. During this period, top dressing plays a role in keeping them upright and helping them grow stronger. Even after this period, the top dressing works as well.
7. Add weight to plastic succulent containers
How to Choose Top Dressing for Your Succulents
1. Match Top Dressing to Succulent Plant and Pot
Since the primary purpose of top dressing is aesthetics, choose based on the colors of your pots and plants. Personally, I highly recommend Maifanitum Stones for their simple color and natural texture, which complement almost all my succulents. I also use sand stones to decorate Lithops, giving them a desert-like appearance that coordinates well with their small diameter and lithops.
2. Avoid Lightweight Stones
Lightweight materials like perlite tend to float up when watering, affecting the overall look of your arrangement. Opt for heavier options like Gritty Mix Rocks and Green Zeolite Rocks.
3. Skip Black Top Dressing
Black stones absorb heat, especially in summer, which can cause root rot in succulents. It's best to steer clear of black top dressing to maintain a healthy environment for your plants.
