Perlite & Vermiculite are both volcanic in origin and both are put into potting mix to provide additional air space and to lighten things up so a potting mix is not too dense and heavy. Perlite does not provide any nutritional benefit and can collect fluoride if water containing it. That means that flouride concentrates after a while and can burn the leaf tips of some houseplants like Dracaena and spider plant . It is rarely a problem with any outdoor flowering plants, so don't worry if it is in your potting soil unless you are growing these plants.
Plants in pots need a lightweight soil mixture for good aeration, as potted plants typically lack earthworms to aerate the soil around their roots. Soil dug up from the yard should never be used for growing container plants, as it will compact tightly with each successive watering and drying cycle. Eventually, the plant roots will have little access to air and will be more susceptible to drowning and rotting because a tightly compacted soil drains water slowly. Before I introduce my favorite DIY potting soil recipes, let's talk about what potting soil actually is. The most important thing to understand about potting soil is that it doesn't actually contain real soil.
Potting soil, also called potting mix, is a soilless blend of ingredients used to grow plants. All good-quality potting mixes, including homemade potting soils, have a few things in common. A lot of consumers confuse heavy potting soil with good potting soil. In most cases when a bag of potting soil is very heavy there are two reasons for it; it is either water-soaked or it contains a lot of sand.
Unless you are growing cacti, adding sand is usually not a great idea. In general, sand is added to a potting mix simply because it is a cheap filler. Sand was used instead of more expensive components like peat moss or pine bark.
If you live someplace with very high winds, a little sand can help hold plants in place, but in general it is not needed. Myers says spring is a good time to repot houseplants using fresh soil. "There's an abundance of sunlight during that time, so plants are going to have some significant root growth," which will necessitate planting them in a larger pot. When learning how to take care of outdoor potted plants, some of the concerns are the same as they are with indoor plants. You'll still want to take care to use a good potting soil mix. You'll still want a pot that gives the plant room to grow and has plenty of drainage.
However, there are a few additional concerns that will come into play when caring for outdoor plants. What media you use really depends on where you grow your plants. For example, you will want to use a potting mix to grow plants, herbs and vegetables that are indoors. Soil is best for any outdoor planting in your herb or vegetable garden.
Soil is heavier than potting mix and will add unnecessary weight to your containers. As a result, diseases and bacterias can easily creep on your plant and attack it — essentially, your plant could die. I'm a huge fan of container gardening, and I know I'm not alone. But with hundreds of seedlings to start and over 50 large pots to fill each season, my container gardening habit used to come with a hefty price tag. When I started making my own DIY potting soil, however, I cut my container gardening budget by two-thirds!
Here's how I make homemade potting mix for all of my containers, houseplants, and seed-starting needs. If your potting soil won't absorb water, it's possible that you have hydrophobic soil. Hydophobic soil repels water and instead of it soaking into the soil, the water will go down the sides of the pot and through the drainage hole. This can catch a lot of people out as you give your plant a big drink, you see the excess water drain away and you think your soil is fine.
That's why it's so important to check the moisture of the soil to ensure the roots are getting sufficient water. If you think your soil might be hydrophobic, try inserting a moisture probe deep in the soil close to the centre of the plant to see how moist the soil is. If it's staying quite dry after a watering then you have a problem. What keeps plants happy and well-nourished is a potting mix, which is a light and fluffy combo of peat moss, pine bark, and perlite or vermiculite.
Never use garden soil, which is too dense for a potted plant. "It contains clay or sand, which won't let the plants breathe enough or get enough oxygen to the roots," explains Myers. "Your plants will not flourish." You can find potting mix at any garden center or nursery. As the winter chill fades, it's a great time to get a jump on spring by creating your own container gardens to decorate the porch, patio or even your kitchen windowsill. Soil is the most important factor in successful container gardening.
Standard garden soil is not suited for use in containers because it compacts easily and prevents proper aeration and drainage, causing plants to become stunted or even die. You must use a good potting mix instead – one that gives plants just the right combination of air, moisture, nutrition and support. The primary ingredient in most potting soils is sphagnum peat moss. A very stable material, peat takes a long time to breakdown and is widely available and inexpensive. It bulks up potting mixes without adding a lot of weight, and once wet, it holds water fairly well.
Peat moss comes from the peat bogs of the northern United States and Canada; this is usually considered the higher quality type of peat moss. There are some peat bogs in the southern US, but they generally are considered to be slightly lower quality. Peat moss provides a great moisture retaining quality with good air space for healthy growing roots.
For acid loving plants, like azaleas or Hydrangeas, this is sometimes the very best potting mix, however, for most flowering annuals peat moss by itself is too acidic. So it is usually best to go with a blended potting mix that has all three ingredients. You can use straight peat moss as your potting mix, but be careful not to overwater. Peat moss all by itself can stay wet for a long time after watering your plants.
To avoid overwatering your container gardens, the container must have drainage holes for excess water to drain from the bottom. Sometimes several drainage holes are required for large containers. Understand the moisture requirements for your plants so that you give them the amount of water they need. Some plants like to be constantly moist, and others prefer to dry out between waterings. Be aware that container soil dries out more quickly than soil in a garden bed. Most potting mixes initially contain fertilizer that will meet most plants' basic needs.
However, nutrients are quickly absorbed by the plants root system and are leached out of the container with every watering. To keep container plants well-fed, you have to provide supplemental food and organic matter once any fertilizer once-present in the potting soil is gone. Containing billions of beneficial microbes, and with superior water-holding capacity and nutrient content, compost is an excellent addition to DIY potting soil. Because it plays such a huge role in promoting healthy plant growth, I use it in all of my general homemade potting soil recipes.
Why Does Potting Soil Get Hard But, I don't include it in recipes for seed-starting as it's too heavy for young seedlings. I use leaf compost from a local landscape supply yard, but bagged compost from Dr. Earth Compost or Coast of Maine are other favorites. Potting soils are specially formulated to provide adequate air, moisture and nutrients while also serving as a sturdy anchor for the plants. These fluffy blends usually include varying ratios of several materials.
Peat moss and sphagnum moss are two main components, both of which help retain water to prolong the time between watering. Some form of tree bark is also usually present, and aids with drainage. Compost, composted manure and leaf mold provide a source of nutrients, along with other materials that provide trace nutrients, like bone, blood and feather meal, or cottonseed hulls. Other materials, like perlite, vermiculite and sand, in varying quantities, increase or decrease the porosity of the mix. Peat holds water and has nutrients that plants love, so most potting mixes have peat as a primary ingredient. Peat-based mixes are cheap to make and since they're lightweight, easy to bag and sell.
The problem is that the peat moss decomposes quickly, faster than other organic materials. So peat-based mixes are made to last one season, at most. There are many different materials that you can add to your potting mix to increase aeration and drainage. These materials help to aerate soil in potted plants while maintaining moisture to a variable degree. Add fertilizers to peat-based potting soils because these mixes don't naturally contain enough nutrients to support optimum plant growth. Peat moss is decomposed sphagnum moss which appears as a fine, soft and at times fluffy, brown material.
It often has white spongy or silvery particles mixed in it, which are perlite and vermiculite, respectively. These materials are added to peat moss-based mixes to promote drainage and aeration. Plants that are commonly grown and imported into Singapore using peat moss-based mixes include houseplants like African violets and the Florist's Gloxinia. Peat moss should not be mistaken as compost and is acidic in nature. The best way to fix compacted soil in potted plants is to replace it with healthy, well-draining soil. Repotting your plants at least once every few years is an easy step that will have many other positive impacts on your plants.
It restores aerating materials , prevents excessive mineral or salt buildup, and allows you to remove any diseased roots. Have you ever run out of one potting soil in the middle of planting and had to switch to another type of potting soil halfway through a large container? If you find yourself in this situation, I have a tip for you.
Make sure to blend the two types of potting soil as much as possible. By mixing them together you get an even blend of potting soil and your plants will do better. It's where their roots are and where they get their water from. But it may surprise you to learn that not all soil is soil. That is, although we see indoor plants potted in what looks like brown, soily, dirt, they may actually be potted in something else. If you want your houseplants to thrive, they need to be in a nutrient-rich environment where they'll get enough water, sun, and air.
Over time, though, plants use up many of their soil's nutrients and organic material, says Jeana Myers, a North Carolina State horticulture extension agent. "The soil becomes depleted and hard and won't hold water or nutrients as well." To keep your indoor plants healthy, you'll need to repot them with fresh soil. But how often should you change out their soil for fresh stuff?
I used two bags before the rain started and mixed them into the good soil in my yard where I was building a rose bed. Those areas of the bed do not produce the healthiest roses, but the bad soil is completely mixed with the good soil. I have to add a lot of other good stuff every year to counteract the bad soil.
I never use anything purchased anymore in garden beds, although I do use the expensive potting mixes in outdoor containers. But, I figure if my plants can't grow in 100% home-made compost then I guess they're just gonna have to die. Peat-based potting mixes look great when you pour them out of the bag. They're rich and loose and black, and they've often been enhanced with fertilizer or water-holding crystals so your plant does great in them for a season. That potting soil is worn out because the peat moss has decomposed. That peat moss can decompose even if you never take it out of the bag.
If your potting soil has been sitting in your shed since last year in an opened bag and it's gotten wet, toss it. If it somehow stayed bone dry, it should be OK to use. Growing plants indoors is often a greater challenge than growing them outside. One of the reasons is that we must change our watering practices inside. Most people cannot use a garden hose indoors to spray smaller droplets of water over the plants and into the potting soil.
Indoor watering requires more careful application of water which is usually applied in streams rather than by drops scattered across the surface of the potting soil. The scattered water drops moisten the whole surface of the potting soil, causing it to swell somewhat trapping water in the potting soil. Potting soils often shrink when they dry between irrigations.
When water is applied in a single stream, the water often channels through cracks or between the soil and the pot rather than going through the soil and moistening it. The result is water coming out the bottom of the flower pot more quickly. The gardener then stops watering to avoid damaging furniture as water fills the dish under the flower pot. Following the usual directions, the gardener prevents water from soaking back up into the soil to prevent accumulation of salts. The end result is that the potting soil may not be uniformly moistened and the plants may not receive enough water. Composted wood chips lighten up potting mixes by increasing the pore sizes, and allowing air and water to travel freely in the mix.
Use composted wood chips in potting mixes designed for potted perennials and shrubs. To make your own, get a load of wood chips from an arborist and let them compost for a year, turning the pile every few weeks. Sphagnum peat moss is well-draining and well-aerated, but it's very low in available nutrients and it has an acidic pH, typically ranging between 3.5 and 4.5. Yes, potting soil only lasts 2-3 years on average, even if it is unused. This is because the peat moss has decomposed in it within that time frame.
The way to tell if it has expired is by looking at the expiration date on the bag. The other way to tell is if the dirt has a bad odor like rotten eggs. Mold can be another indicator, but that is harder to tell because the perlite in the soil can look like mold.
If you still want to use the expired potting mix, that is fine. But you will need to add nutrients to the soil to ensure the soil will work best for the plants. Most peat moss based potting soils are only designed to last a year or growing season. This is because the soil will start to compact down, which prevents the soil from draining as well as it should.
