You can also make potting soil in DIY way rather than spending money while buying the same from any store. Mixing of soil can be an inexpensive way to make potting soil. However, you can make it very quickly on your own too.
How to make potting soil on your own?
Before you make potting soil on your own, you will need few small sized containers, where you can store potting soil.
Making your potting soil can be economical in the long run, if you can make in larger quantity to be spread by using epandeur a terreau (English meaning = potting soil spreader).
Following are few things that you must keep in mind while creating a mix of your own.
- For potting mix lighter will be always better. Any loose or porous mixture can keep your container a little lighter and can be easily moved.
- Perfect potting mix may not contain garden dirt or actual soil, which is composed of vermiculite, peat moss, sand, perlite and compost or shredded bark.
- You may start with few basic recipes where you may add little soil sulphur to reduce pH or can add lime to increase pH as per your need based on the plant.
- If you need rapid drainage like the case for succulents, cacti and lavender, you may add little extra sand and also perlite.
- In case, you need more moisture then you can add extra amount of vermiculite or peat.
Ingredients
Following are the ingredients needed:
- Peat moss of one bucket
- Perlite of ½ bucket
- Vermiculite ½ bucket
- Screened compost or cow manure ½ bucket
- Fine sand 2 cups
- Pelleted time-release fertilizer of 2 cups
- Lime ½ cup
Instructions
Try to mix thoroughly all the ingredients. It should be sufficient to fill 2 tubs of 14” or 5 tubs of 12” hanging baskets. For bigger containers, you can double or triple the amount of recipe.
Summary
Many gardeners will always swear by various compost benefits and they will resist the use of any prepackaged fertilizers. While planting any plant in the ground, you need to take plentiful compost in combination with cover cropping can be wonderful.
In restricted atmosphere for containerized planting meant for longer term, it will be almost impossible to obtain enough nutrient levels, so that plants will thrive by using only compost.
Organic fertilizers are incorporated in soil mix or can be added to water either for foliar or soil application.
