Bought this succulent from my grocery store. Anyone know what in the world the potting medium is?? Look at the picture; I have never seen a plant sold in this stuff...

That is really different! I think I'd be carefully removing most of it to plant it in a gritty, porous cactus mix.

Its sphagmun moss - orchid growers often use it to ship orchid plants but I've never seen a grower put a succulent in it. Karen is right, get rid of the moss. That's a death sentence.

Alright thank you guys for the quick answers!!

I was originally thinking the moss, but figured no one would ship a succulent in it.

This will probably be the most unpopular opinion of the month........ I placed an echeveria setosa cutting into what was essentially a tilandsia mix. rocks,tree bark and branches, and some kind of dried local moss. The plant still lives, and it had gotten pretty large....

An old commercial Cactus grower years ago in Vista, California named Bob Diehl once famously said about soil mixes "You can grow cacti successfully in ground-up automobile tires if you can get the watering and fertilizing right".

I think that is a real stretch - but he was trying to get across the point that it is all about using fast draining soil mixes!

Tillandsia don't need soil - they grow on tree trunks. I have quite a few living amongst my orchids. They just sit on the shelves or in pots. Once in a great while they root but mostly, they sit.

Hi Cole - make sure the pot has drainage holes too.

DaisyI said:Tillandsia don't need soil - they grow on tree trunks. I have quite a few living amongst my orchids. They just sit on the shelves or in pots. Once in a great while they root but mostly, they sit.

I know. It was mostly a mossy mix to give them the appearance as if they were potted.....
I only got one left though....

That's why they died - you rotted the bases with your mossy mix.

Wrong.....
They actually died a year after i pulled them out.......
Unexposed, in the shade....
They werent actually in the soil, merely laid on top, unattached....
They were watered via spraying old water......
I got lazy, think the alkalinity got to them....
Echeveria was just fine, if maybe a tad more vigorous than the parent....

DaisyI said:Tillandsia don't need soil - they grow on tree trunks. I have quite a few living amongst my orchids. They just sit on the shelves or in pots. Once in a great while they root but mostly, they sit.

Some Tills actually do sooo much better when potted in Orchid / Brom Mix, although not necessary the growth is far superior than when simply grown epiphytic. Which is unusual as they say the roots serve no purpose other than to anchor the plant, Im not 100% convinced ? maybe its simply a comfort thing for the plant..... they are much more connected to the universe than we are thats for sure.

It depends on the Till IMO. T. cyanea has always been potted from what I've seen, but ionantha is one of those free hanging ones.

Like I said, some do and some don't.

DaisyI said:Like I said, some do and some don't.

I must have missed that post then. I saw the one where you mentioned Tills don't need soil. But I agree, some do, some don't.

Clarification: Tillandsia are epiphytic, they don't need to be rooted into/onto anything to survive. If you place them on orchid bark, they will root to it but, they don't need to root to anything. Roots are not absorbing nutrients or moisture, just holding on. Maybe, when sitting on orchid bark, the water is better controlled.

Here are some of mine, rooted and not rooted:

That first one is intriguing. T. caput-medusae has always been one of my favorites.

It came home, as a 2-inch broken tip, with an orchid I got in Hawaii. I attached it to the hanger of this orchid (it was also a unrooted cutting) so I wouldn't lose it. Now, the orchid and Tillandsia are inseparable. Luckily both are epiphytic so can stay in that little pot together forever.

DaisyI said:Its sphagmun moss - orchid growers often use it to ship orchid plants but I've never seen a grower put a succulent in it. Karen is right, get rid of the moss. That's a death sentence.

I agree Daisy, but it is SphagNUM moss.Not really the right medium for succulents.