I'll be honest with you: a big part of why Faseela exists is because I got tired of hunting for decent pumice in the UAE.
Anyone who's tried to source proper horticultural pumice here knows the drill. You call around to nurseries and get blank stares. You find a bag that says pumice, get it home, and it's half dust, half the wrong grade, occasionally salty enough to burn roots. You end up either paying a fortune to import a small bag, or giving up and using perlite that floats to the top of your pot after every watering.
Meanwhile, everything I was reading — every serious aroid grower, every semi-hydro guide, every propagation channel — kept coming back to the same material. Pumice, pumice, pumice. And I couldn't reliably buy any.
Here's what made it especially frustrating: my early research turned up an odd irony. Pumice actually has a huge range of uses beyond horticulture — lightweight concrete, insulation, filtration, abrasives — and there's plenty of it moving through the UAE for those industries. The supply is here. It just isn't washed, screened, graded, or packaged in a way that a plant parent can put straight into a pot. All that pumice, and none of it accessible for direct-to-consumer horticultural use.
That gap was one of the things that pushed me to start Faseela. If I wanted properly washed, screened, coarse horticultural pumice in the UAE, I was going to have to bring it to market myself. So here we are.
Let me tell you why it's worth the trouble.
The short of it: Pumice is a lightweight volcanic rock riddled with tiny air pockets. Blended into your potting mix it drains water, holds air, and buffers moisture — the three things that stop root rot and speed up growth. It doesn't break down, it doesn't migrate to the top of the pot like perlite, and properly graded horticultural pumice is genuinely hard to find in the UAE (which is part of why we started stocking it). If you grow anything tropical here, worth a try.
What pumice actually is
Pumice is a volcanic rock, but a very specific kind. When lava cools fast enough, dissolved gases don't have time to escape — they get trapped in bubbles as the rock hardens. What you end up with is a lightweight, porous stone shot through with millions of tiny air pockets. It's one of the only rocks in the world that can actually float on water, which tells you how much of it is technically nothing.
Here's a subtle but important detail, though — pumice only floats initially. Once fully saturated, it eventually sinks and stays where you put it in the pot. Perlite, the substrate people most often reach for as a pumice substitute, will never sink. That's why perlite always seems to migrate up to the surface of your mix after every watering while pumice stays buried in the root zone doing its job. Small difference on paper, huge difference in a pot.
Horticultural pumice is that rock, washed clean of dust and screened to a consistent size. Our coarse 10–20mm pumice is the size that most houseplants want — chunky enough to create real air channels through the root zone, small enough to mix evenly with soil and bark.
Why it works so well
Three things happen when you add pumice to a mix, and they all work together:
Water drains instead of pooling. Roots that sit in soggy substrate suffocate. Pumice keeps the water moving down and out of the pot, which is the single biggest thing standing between you and root rot.
Air gets to the roots. Those tiny bubbles inside each stone aren't just for looks — they hold air in the substrate even when the pot is freshly watered. Roots need oxygen almost as much as they need water, and this is what most "well-draining mixes" are trying to achieve.
Moisture is buffered, not hoarded. Here's the clever bit. Pumice drains freely, but the porous surface holds a small amount of water and releases it slowly as the mix dries. So your plant gets a quick drain after a watering, then a steady drip of moisture for the days in between. No swampy roots, no bone-dry stress. It's basically self-regulating.
Pumice vs perlite: which should you actually use?
This is the question everyone eventually asks, so let me just answer it plainly. Both work. They're not enemies. But they behave differently in a pot, and that difference matters.
Perlite is lighter, cheaper, and easier to find. It's what most commercial mixes use for aeration and it does a fine job — up to a point. The problem is that it never sinks. Water it in, and over weeks and months every piece of perlite in your pot gradually rises to the surface, leaving the root zone denser than when you started. You end up with a layer of white bits on top and compacted soil underneath. Not ideal.
Pumice is heavier, more durable, and stays where you put it. It anchors top-heavy plants (particularly useful for tall Alocasias and mature Monsteras that turn any lightweight pot into a tipping hazard). It resists compaction. It holds a bit more moisture than perlite. And because it sinks, it does its aeration work in the root zone where you actually need it — not floating uselessly on the surface.
When perlite still wins: lightweight propagation and seedling trays, where you want the mix to stay airy and easy to lift and re-pot. I use a 50/50 pumice and perlite mix for a lot of cuttings for exactly this reason — you get the drainage and moisture buffering of pumice with the featherweight handling of perlite.
When pumice wins: pretty much everything else. Long-term potting, semi-hydro, chunky aroid mixes, cacti and succulent blends, top-heavy plants, anything you don't want to repot in six months.
Why it matters even more in the UAE
Growing houseplants here is a specific challenge. Our interiors are heavily air conditioned and dry, which pushes us to overwater. Then summer heat bakes any pot near a window. Combine those two things and you end up with the worst possible root environment: hot, wet, and starved of air.
Pumice quietly solves most of that. It stops water from stagnating, it insulates roots against temperature swings, and — crucially — it doesn't break down. Peat and coco coir eventually compact into a dense brick at the bottom of your pot. Pumice stays exactly the same, one year in, three years in. One good repotting with a pumice-heavy mix genuinely lasts.
How to actually use it
Easiest starting point: blend pumice into whatever mix you already use. You don't need to buy a new bag of specialist substrate; you just need to change the ratios.
Aroids (Monstera, Philodendron, Anthurium, Alocasia, Syngonium) can really thrive in a chunky mix that's around 30–40% pumice, with the rest a blend of orchid bark, coco coir, and a little worm castings. Give an unhappy aroid this mix and watch the recovery.
Succulents and cacti want it heavier — at least 50% pumice through a cactus soil base. They're evolved for gravelly volcanic ground; give it to them. Though these plants may require a smaller pumice grade than the typical 10-20mm.
Cuttings, seedlings, and tissue culture seedlings root beautifully in a 50/50 pumice and perlite mix, a 50/50 pumice and aqua soil mix, or even a 1:1:1 mixture of pumice, fine vermiculite, and aqua soil. Enough moisture to encourage roots, enough air to prevent rot on delicate new growth. Again; however, for this use case you may need finely graded pumice stones.
Semi-hydro — pumice on its own or blended with LECA gives you a stable, wicking medium that most tropicals thrive in. I have had success with every kind of leca to pumice substitution I have tried. Furthermore, pumice does have some pH buffering capacities that LECA does not. It's also cheaper here in the UAE.
Plants that particularly love it
Honestly, almost everything benefits from more pumice. But if you're growing aroids, Hoyas, Begonias, orchids, succulents, or any plant a shop describes as "needing a well-draining mix," consider pumice non-negotiable. That last phrase is basically code for add pumice.
Do you need it though? No, the best soil mix is the one that works best for you. Having said that, you should at the very least try it out see if you like it!
Frequently asked questions
Is pumice better than perlite?
For most long-term potting, yes. Pumice sinks once saturated and stays in the root zone, while perlite floats to the surface after every watering. Perlite still has its place in lightweight propagation and seedling mixes, but for potted houseplants, our opinion is pumice generally wins.
How much pumice should I add to my potting mix?
Depends on the plant. Aroids like Monstera and Philodendron do well at 30–40% pumice. Succulents and cacti want 50% or more. For most tropical houseplants aim for at least 25%.
Does pumice break down over time?
No. That's one of its biggest advantages over peat and coco coir, which compact into a dense brick at the bottom of the pot within a year or two. Pumice looks and behaves the same three years in as it did on day one.
Can I reuse pumice?
Yes. Rinse it well between uses to clear out old soil and fine roots. If the previous plant had a fungal or pest issue, sterilise by soaking in diluted hydrogen peroxide or baking in the oven at around 90°C for 30 minutes before reusing.
Where can I buy horticultural pumice in the UAE?
Right here — Faseela's 5L (roughly 2kg) bag. Properly washed, screened, coarse 10–20mm. That specific gap in the UAE market was a big part of why we started the shop.
Where to get it
You already know where I stand on this. We stock properly washed, screened, coarse 10–20mm horticultural pumice — the version I always wished I could just walk into a nursery and buy — in a 5L (roughly 2kg) bag.
→ Shop our horticultural pumice
Repot one plant with a pumice-heavy mix this month and pay attention over the next few weeks. Healthier roots, faster growth, more forgiveness of small watering mistakes. Once you've seen the difference, you'll wonder how you ever did it any other way — which is exactly what happened to me.
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