When I started getting more serious about plantkeeping last year, I picked up the essentials for repotting the plants I had. I have potting mix, perlite, orchid bark, spaghum moss, and fertilizer pellets
But times have changed and I may have impulse bought a bunch of caudex roots online and I definitely don’t have the right soil for it so I have to pick up some cactus soil. I also may have purchased a bunch of seeds of various plants…
I figured if I’m driving to the supply store, I might as well get everything I might need. So what do you keep around if you want to be able to pot anything?
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I have too much stuff lol. I went semi-hydro for a bit so I have leca, bonsai mix, and zeolite (zeolite was a bag of ecotraction). I also bought some silica sand (i think it was a bag of pool filter? it was cheaper) to mix into soil to make carnivorous plant medium.
These days I mostly just use potting soil, cactus soil, perlite, and orchid bark. I prefer pumice over perlite since it doesn’t rise to the top when you water, but perlite is cheaper. I keep a bag of sphagnum moss for growing alocasia corms, though I’ve also used leca for that and it works well too.
I grew a bunch of succulents and a caudex plant from seeds in cactus soil, they did well (I also had fungus gnats at the time so I lost some to those).
my caudex plants now mostly live in a 1:1:1 mix of cactus soil (or regular soil if I’ve forgotten that I use cactus soil for them), perlite, and orchid bark. They’re all pretty happy.
I keep vermiculite for more moisture-loving plants, as it releases water for a bit longer than perlite while still providing drainage. My African violet loves it.
Sand is amazing for just drainage and I always add it to cactus and succulent mixes.
Small pebbles (I like lava rocks) have been a must-have for me for a long time. I add them as a top layer for everything. Combined with bottom watering, fungus gnats don’t stand a chance. They’re also good for cacti and succulents that don’t like to sit on top of wet soil for too long. I find them versatile because they can be used as a medium too, for example for succulents. A bonus is that they look real cute and you don’t tend to see the mineral deposits from water (water where I live is rich in minerals).
Hope this helps!