Editing Beginners Guide To Cycads (section)

===General Cultivation Rules:===
There are a couple of general rules for the cultivation of cycads, the first of which that they
nearly all (with only a couple of obscure exceptions) like a very well drained potting mix.
This can either be achieved by being carefull not to over water (the easiest solution),
or if you have
several plants, you can make up your own potting mix. I use standard potting
mix, to which I add @10% perlite, or polystyrene balls, to keep the mix open and free
draining. In the ground they also require a well-drained position. The other thing that cycads
like is deep pots, especially the seedlings. They can put down quite a long taproot that often
gets bent around the bottom of ordinary sized pots. This root however, doesn't get longer as
the plant grows, it usually just gets fatter, and forms an underground storage area for hard
times, so that the larger plants are usually quite happy in ordinary shaped pots.