Container Gardening has its advantages like control over climate you can move the containers in hard weather, and you can create micro-climate by using greenhouses. You can do gardening even if you have poor-quality soil, make potting mixes or improve soil quality by adding organic amendments.
With these advantages in container gardening, you can make tailored potting mixes based on the plant’s needs by adding essential components for perfect container gardening soil. The right soil is crucial for healthy plants, the soil is an in-taker and transporter of water and nutrients. With the right soil mix, you can cut frequent fertilizer needs.
Importance of Soil Composition
With the right recipe (ratio) and adding the right ingredients (essential components) you can make the right soil mix that helps your plant growth. With empty garden soil, you can’t expect that much growth and productivity. Some of you might ask, in-ground gardening the plants grow well with this soil and produce blooms. Let me clear up this doubt.
In-ground gardening, the space for growing is not limited to the roots can expand and intake water from the ground and the roots grow stronger because the soil becomes harder in in-ground gardening. Also, in in-ground gardening, the nutrient levels differ from season to season sometimes we use harsh synthetic chemicals or high-quantity organic fertilizers.
Coming to container Gardening, the space is limited so you have to give needed nutrients in the soil to get better growth, productivity and health of the plant. I said needed not maximum, the reason behind this is adding too much organic matter even its organic can affect the plant like burning. It’s like breathing trouble to plants. By adding only primary components to the soil/potting mix you can get the desired growth and productivity in plants.
PRIMARY COMPONENTS OF CONTAINER SOIL
Potting mix vs Garden soil
I started with gardening soil for containers in my early days. Of course, it is budget-friendly sometimes zero cost. But guess what I killed a handful of foliage plants because of that soil.
Garden soil is less porosity soil and less aerated, in container gardening roots are not that hard like ground gardening so it’s hard for plant roots to reach water and nutrients. Potting soils are tailored with high-porosity material like cocopeat and the soil is aerated as well.
Garden soils are heavier and hold lots of moisture and less drainage soil. There are two problems here heavy soil means pots also become heavy you can’t put heavy pots on terraces, balconies and hanging planters that could damage the floor and the holding capacity of hanging hooks is lesser so the pot can fall from hooks because of over-weigh. Also, soil that holds excess moisture only leads to root rot and fungal infection in soil, this is not ideal for foliage and succulents. Potting mixes are well-drained and light weight ideal for your potted plants.
Peat moss vs Cocopeat
The role of peat moss and cocopeat is the same moisture retention and aeration. Cocopeat is a renewable resource and peat moss is a non-renewable resource. Cocopeat and peat moss hold water and stay moist for longer periods so no frequent watering and suitable for hot weather.
Also, both of them create air pockets in potting soil, which helps the root growth. Cocopeat has a 5.5-6.5 acid level suitable for house plants and indoor plants. Peat moss has a 3.5-4.5 acid level suitable for acid-loving plants like herbs, some fruits and veggies.
But Cocopeat is a more affordable and easily available material for potting mix you can combine compost and manure with cocopeat for foliage plants, and you can add pine parks or orchid parks and perlite for cacti and succulents.
Perlite vs Vermiculite
Perlite and vermiculite are commonly used for potting mixes for the same purpose as improving soil structure. Perlite is used to improve soil drainage and vermiculite is used to hold water retention.
Perlite is a naturally occurring form of volcanic glass that is heated to high temperatures until it pops into granules. Vermiculite is a natural mineral that expands into accordion-shaped particles a lightweight and spongy textured.
Perlite is used for cacti and succulents, plants that need well-drained soil. Perlite promotes soil drainage with a neutral pH. Vermiculite retains moisture It’s suitable for moisture-loving plants and holds nutrients like potassium, magnesium and calcium. Vermiculite can be used to grow seedlings and plant cutting that need moisture.
NUTRITIONAL COMPONENTS
The above-mentioned primary components play the role of holding moisture, keeping the soil aerated and keeping some nutrients. But they don’t have any individual nutritional value to support the plant growth. Adding nutritional components to potting mixes only makes the soil filled and perfect for plants. There are two stages of adding nutrition to the potting mix.
Compost or Manure
Adding Compost or manure with cocopeat or garden soil is the best way to enrich the soil from planting. You can use any one of them, but I prefer to add both in equal ratio is better than. Just a reminder it is also like a fertilizer so don’t add too much. Compost and manure improve microbial activity has one more benefit it helps to retain moisture and loosen clay soil in sandy soils.
The role of Compost and manure is improving soil nutrients and creating beneficial organisms in potting soil. Compost is made from organic waste that contains nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium in a slow-release form to improve soil fertility.
The role of Manure is an animal waste-based organic matter to improves soil fertility by adding nitrogen, potassium, and phosphorus. Manure encourages microbial activity in soil.
Organic Fertilizers
Organic fertilizers can be added after planting within some time gaps to improve plant growth. The first thing is organic fertilizers are slow-releasing fertilizers which means it’s long-term you don’t have to add frequently and the fertilizers release nutrients slowly within some time.
I can’t say you only use organic fertilizers; I use both fertilizers but the quantity of organic fertilizer is dominant in my gardening method. Reducing synthetic fertilizer is a preferable method, you can use chemical fertilisers for flowering plants, foliage plants and succulents (non-edible). In edible plants trying to adapt fully to organic fertilizers is preferable even for pesticides. The concept of growing edibles at home is avoiding chemical feed food.
AMENDMENTS FOR SPECIFIC PLANT NEEDS
Acid-loving plants
Some of the plants are acid-loving like blueberries, lavender and azaleas. To those acid-loving plants add peat moss 1/8, pine park and sulphur 1/8 can maintain acid levels in the soil. The ideal pH level for these plants is 4.5-6.0.
Succulents and Cacti
Succulents prefer well-drained soil, they’re heat-loving plants so try to keep the soil mix well-drained. Waterlogging is an enemy of succulents and cacti. Adding coarse sand ¼, and perlite ¼ combined with cocopeat ½ and manure or compost ½ is a preferable potting mix for succulents and cacti.
Herbs and Veggies
Edible plants prefer nutrient-rich moist soil, not soggy or waterlogged soil. Edible plants dry out quickly so add cocopeat ½ with nutrient-rich manure/compost ½, peat moss ¼ and vermiculite ¼ if the plant is acid-loving, add perlite ¼ if the plant suffers from drainage issues but minimum quantity.
Foliage Plants
Foliage plants are houseplants and indoor plants. A well-draining soil mix but moisture-retentive is a combination for foliage plants. To get this a blend of garden soil ¼, cocopeat ½ peat moss and perlite ¼ for aeration, and vermiculite 1/8 for moisture. Foliage prefers moist soil without waterlogging.
Flowering Plants
Flowering plants need a well-drained nutrient-rich soil mix. Garden soil or cocopeat with compost or manure, peat moss, perlite and vermiculite. To better results add slow-release fertilizer (1/8) to potting mix.
WATER RETENTION AND DRAINAGE
Balancing Retention and Drainage
The potting mix has to be water-retained and well-drained. Sounds confusing right, the soil has to be moist but not waterlogged and soggy excess water stored in the soil only leads to root rot. Also, the soil has to be well-drained but not dry.
To balance these both in the soil, you must mix different amendments correctly into the soil. Empty red soil can’t do this job. Amendments like cocopeat, peat moss and vermiculite hold moisture and create air pockets for aeration. Perlite, Pine Park and orchid parks make the soil aerated and well-drained.
Mulch in containers
Mulching in containers has two benefits, in hot weather mulching helps to retain moisture in pots by avoiding water evaporation. In cold weather, mulching regulates soil temperature.
Drainage Holes and Pot Size
Apart from soil factors, two more factors play important roles in Soil drainage and Water retention. The pots with drainage holes drain out the excess water from the plant and keep the plant well-drained.
Small pots dry out quickly bigger pots hold excess moisture. The solution is choosing a pot that is 2 inches bigger than the root ball is a correct size and holds only needed moisture.
TIPS FOR CUSTOMISING YOUR SOIL MIX
Homemade Potting Mix Recipes
Reading the above characteristics of soil amendments gives you an idea about how to blend and make potting mix. You can make a potting mix based on plant needs with the above ratio or you can do your research about temperature, local climate, and humidity levels and identify specific plant needs and blend those and making a potting mix also works.
Soil Testing for Container Gardens
Doing soil tests using pH meters is preferable if you’ve poor-quality soil. And your plants can’t make it even with the right care. Knowing soil pH and making your potting mix with the right pH with the help of soil testing kits and Ph meters.
CONCLUSION
Making the right soil with essential components encourages plant growth and makes you a good gardener. Having good soil and knowing about the soil characteristics are important in a gardening journey.
Plant types and characteristics, Potting mix, watering techniques, pots and primary tools are basics in container gardening. You must know these before starting any plant gardens. Knowing the basics helps you to focus on primary things and cut off unnecessary spending on useless products.
In starting making your tailored potting mix may not work well, but remember you started something for your gardening journey. You will find out some tricks and tips on the go in a few months or years. There is no failure in gardening only experiments. Trying different things and improving skills through experience is a way to have a better garden.
Let me know in the comments section about your potting mix experience and shoot your garden question as well. Check out my other Blogs about Gardening to get more information about container gardening.
Happy Gardening!
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