Make The Perfect Mini Succulent Garden With Your Old Egg Cartons

Succulents are notoriously easy to propagate. The way you propagate them depends on what kind of plant you're taking your cutting from, but it usually involves snipping off a leaf, allowing it to air-dry and callous for a few days, and then sticking it into dirt to allow roots to form. Once the roots begin to shoot out, you can plant it into a small planter, and a mini succulent is well on its way to establishing.

While it might be easy enough to plant this cutting into a leftover nursery planter or plastic cup, it can get trickier if you want to propagate multiple cuttings at once. For example, you can propagate a snake plant by cutting the leaf into multiple pieces, and then plant those pieces once they callous. For cases like those, use an old egg carton to house multiple cuttings at once.

An egg carton is the perfect DIY planter for mini succulents because it not only has 12 to 24 available spots open for planting, but it's also shallow. The carton mimics the look of a seed tray, which is small and shallow since it prevents overcrowding and the risk of adding too much water. Since the cups aren't deep, you won't have a heavy hand pouring water into them, and the dirt will dry faster, negating the risk of root rot.

To convert your old egg carton into a succulent propagation station and eventual mini succulent garden, all you need to do is create a succulent soil and put it into the tray. You can go about this in two ways. The first is simply to buy a succulent potting mix, such as Omitgoter Succulent & Cactus Soil Potting Mix, which retails for $8.79 on Amazon. This is a great choice if you're in a hurry or are a beginner planter looking for a shortcut. However, if you would like more control over what goes into the mix, you can make your own. The key is to make sure it's well draining. A safe recipe would include mixing two parts soil with one part perlite, peat moss, and sand to ensure plenty of water runs through and doesn't become waterlogged.

Once you have your mix, simply spread it across the cups of the egg carton with a trowel. Then, poke a small hole into each section, and plant your succulent leaf into it. Thoroughly water the tray, but only water it afterwards when it becomes dry. Overwatering is the enemy of succulents, so you want to have a light hand. Because of this, it's important you choose a cardboard or wood pulp tray since water can escape it, rather than a plastic one. In about two weeks, you should see roots peek out.