What is A Potting Mix. 6 Essential Qualities Of A Good Potting Mix

What is a Potting Mix:

A potting mix or potting soil is a medium that people use to grow vegetables, plants etc in containers. It is generally used as a substitute for the soil for growing plants.

Now, why buy a bag of soil, if you have a garden full of it? Because the potting mix is no ordinary soil – and your potted plants need something special if they are to grow properly.

What Are The Components Of A Potting Mix:

The life of the potted plant depends, to a large extent, on the quality of its potting soil. So choosing the right kind of potting mix is essential. There are various ingredients that are generally used as potting soil.

To prepare the best potting soil you need to know the ingredients well. Here are some of the popular ones:

Coconut coir:

Coconut coir is generally marketed in the form of compressed bales. Prior to using it, you need to add some water. Coco coir is made of coconut husk.

Peat Moss:

Peat moss used to be the most common type of potting soil, but due to the problems like environmental issues, nowadays its use got reduced a bit.

There can be different types of peat moss, the most common is sphagnum peat. Peat moss is not very good for re-wetting. More information on peat moss is here in this post.

Soil:

Nowadays most people avoid this media to prepare any potting mix. Though it has more inbuilt organic nutrients than most of the other media, the problem is endless.

Using soil can increase the total weight of the mix, and make it prone to waterlogging. Also, normal soil contains weed seeds and pathogens which need to be removed first.

Vermiculite:

It is a very efficient product for use in smaller containers. It is prepared by treating mica. Vermiculite is very light in weight and has a very good water absorption capability. More on vermiculite is here in this article.

Perlite:

Perlite is basically volcanic ash. Finer the grain larger its capacity to hold the water. It is neutral to slightly alkaline in nature and is a good way to reduce the acidity of the potting mix.

Perlite is dangerous to handle as its dust is highly irritating to the lungs. Use proper precaution before handling. Interested in Perlite? Find out more in this article.

other succulents

Sand is generally used to increase the porosity of the mix. It also increases the weight of the mix. It is a great ingredient in case you are planning to grow cactus and other succulents.

Wood chips:

Sometimes wood chips, pine bark etc are also used as an ingredient in the potting mix.

Characteristics of A Good Potting Mix:

• Good porosity: The best potting soils in general have AFP or air-filled porosity range between 10 to 20.
• Fast absorption of water: It should absorb water pretty fast.
• Lightweight: The Potting mix is used for planting in containers. So it should be lightweight so that the shifting of pots can be done very easily. For this purpose in most cases, people use the soilless potting mix.
• Cheap and Readily available: The ingredients of the potting mix should be readily available to you and are not very expensive.
• Free from weeds and pests: The potting mix needs to be weed and Pest free. In most of the cases, it is sterilized. It should also not contain any toxic substances or extra nutrients or salts.
• Easy to store: The ingredients of the potting mix should be such that you can easily store them. For example, you can store coconut coir in the form of bales, easily for a few years.

There are various types of potting mixes available in the market. Some of these are:

Potting Mix For Every Plant:

This type of organic potting soil can go with most of the plants and vegetables. The pH of the mixture is slightly acidic to neutral. Mix coconut coir with perlite or vermiculite in the ratio of 3:1 for this.

Acidic Potting Mix:

This type of mix is generally for the plants which love the acidic medium. The ideal mixture would be to add organic matter such as peat moss and perlite or vermiculite in a 4:1 ratio.

Cactus Friendly Mix:

Cactus and other succulents require very good drainage. Due to this reason the potting mix needs to be with an extra drainage facility. Add a little bit of sand along with coconut coir and perlite to make a proper mix.

Seed Starters Mix:

For seed-starters, add coconut coir and perlite or vermiculite in a 2:1 ratio. Many people prefer peat moss in place of coir. In the case of peat moss, the ratio would be much lower.

Here are some great choices for quality potting mix available for buying