Contents
Today we will look into an easy formula or the recipe for the best All-purpose Best Potting Soil mix for all your plants based on scientific concepts. We will also make an Ideal Terrace Gardening light weight potting mixture and the best seed starting mix.
The 3 P’s of Successful Gardening
1. Planning your Garden
2. Potting Mix Preparation
3. Planting
Today, we will discuss the second P of gardening, which is preparing the best potting mix for your plants based on some useful scientific concepts. Please read till the end. First, we will discuss the criteria for the best potting soil for your plants, and then the formula or the recipe for the best all-purpose universal potting mixture for your gardening.
You need to understand this point: Why can’t I just dig up the ground and use this soil for my plants? This is because we have two major limitations:
- Compaction or hardening of soil – mainly with clayey soil, which can suffocate the roots.
- Lack of Nutrients in the soil – the major NPK elements (Nitrogen, Phosphorous, and Potassium) and the minor trace elements.
Hence, the need to prepare your own potting soil arises.
Important Concepts To Understand
Hold on friends, there are some more important concepts to learn before I disclose my recipe. A few criteria you should consider while preparing your potting mix.
1. DRAINAGE
We all know too much water can rot your plants. So a well-draining soil that quickly drains out water within a particular duration of time is important for all plants. This is the most important criterion for growing succulents, and based on this, you adjust the proportions of materials like sand, perlite, and other stuff.
2. WATER RETAINING CAPACITY
This is quite the opposite of the first factor. We have to add materials in such a way that the water should neither drain out too quickly nor stagnate in the container.
3. NUTRIENTS
This is a very important criterion in container gardening. We have to add certain nutrients to the potting mix so that your plant can produce flowers or fruits at the right time and grow in a healthy manner.
Having said that, let’s start making our potting mix with the best and easily available ingredients.
I am showing you two formulas. One is purely for terrace gardening, which is very lightweight and will not have any compaction. This can also be an ideal seed starting mix so that the seeds can push the lightweight ingredients during the germination process and to some extent, sterile. The second one is our all-purpose mix for most of our plants. You can change the proportions as per your requirement, but generally, this mix will be useful for any plant.
Potting Mix Formula
- Good quality Garden Soil – about 40 percent (by good quality, I mean it should not have large stones or other large-sized stuff in it).
- Cocopeat or Peat Moss – 30 percent. If you do not have this, you can use about 10 to 20 percent River Sand. Adding more sand may result in too fast drainage, which might be useful for succulents and cacti.
- Compost – 20 to 30 percent, such as decomposed cow dung powder, vermicompost, leaf compost, or a mix of these. These first 3 ingredients should be the minimum for your plants.
- Additional Fortification – You can further fortify this with 5 percent of any of these or a combination of these: Bone Meal powder for flowering and fruiting, Neem Cake or any oil cake powder for antimicrobial and antifungal effects for root protection.
- Beneficial Additives – Then you can also add Trichoderma or pseudomonas powder and some beneficial fungi called Mycorrhizae. You can watch a detailed video on these useful soil fungi from a link at the top right corner of this video and also in the description.
Second Formula of Potting Mix
The Second Formula of Potting Mix is a lightweight mix suitable for rooftop gardening and also as a great seed starting mix. Here you do not use garden soil, but only:
- Cocopeat or peat moss – 50 percent
- Compost – 30 percent, such as decomposed cow dung powder or vermicompost
- Perlite or Vermiculite – about 20 percent. You can check out my detailed video on the differences and benefits of perlite and vermiculite from a card link at the top right and also from the description.
- Optional Additives – You can optionally add the same 5 percent ingredients like bone meal, neem mix, mycorrhizae, etc., as discussed earlier..
Video Tutorial on How To Make Potting Mix
Please watch this video showing you how to make your own potting mix at home.
