How To Make The Best Potting Soil Mix Around – Without Peat Moss! : Making your own potting soil at home is a great way to cultivate the greatest potted plants at a reasonable cost. Contrary to popular perception, peat moss is not required in the mixture. Actually, you can produce much superior potting soil without it, as you’ll see with today’s recipe!
How To Make The Best Potting Soil Mix Around – Without Peat Moss!
Potting soil comes in hundreds of brands and variations. Many contain fungicides, fertilisers, and other substances that are not at all organic. Peat moss is another common addition to potting soil mixtures, but as you’ll discover below, it’s not the most environmentally friendly option either.
Creating A Great Potting Soil Without Peat Moss
In recent years, peat moss has become a hotly debated topic in gardening. It has long been a staple in both homemade and commercial potting soil mixtures, as well as a planting supplement for a variety of plants, including vegetables, herbs, and perennials. The organic material is light and spongy.
Peat moss can contribute organic matter, assist retain water, and lighten heavy soils, but harvesting it produces a significant amount of greenhouse gas emissions. Moreover, peat moss is not exactly easily renewable—it took millions of years for it to originate in bogs.
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The Best Potting Soil Mix Recipe: How to Make It Without “Special Ingredients”
It’s true that occasionally you may doubt if there is any actual “soil” in a bag of potting soil. Moisture pellets in some aid in hydration retention. Some claim that the rate at which their unique fertilisers can feed plants is twice that of ordinary potting soil.
However, the truth is that those non-organic components are not necessary. Particularly when you can use only a few basic, all-natural items to make extraordinarily potent homemade potting soil! We’ll get to the easy 5-ingredient recipe shortly, but first, let’s talk about what good plants require in their potting soil.
What Makes A Superior Mix of Potting Soil
Strong, robust plants require a few essential components and attributes in their potting soil. It must be lightweight to begin with. This is crucial when planting in baskets and containers, as heavy soil can quickly topple the baskets or shatter the container.
The Perfect Homemade Potting Soil Recipe
For years, we have been experimenting with our potting soil recipe to find the “ideal” combination. A few years ago, we finally decided on this particular recipe, and wow has it ever produced great plants!
For powering our flowers in pots, hanging baskets, and other containers, it has been fantastic. It’s just as effective for the veggies we plant in pots. Lightweight and well-structured, the mix contains a variety of natural fertilisers that release over time.
The best part is that we can simply return it back to our compost pile at the conclusion of each growing season. There is no need to be concerned about conserving soil and repurposing it as compost because it is made entirely of organic materials. One more advantage of producing your own potting soil at home!
Old World Garden Homemade Potting Soil Recipe
- Compost – 6 cups
- Pulverized Top Soil – 6 cups
- Worm Castings – 2 cups
- Spent Coffee Grounds – 2 cups
- Perlite – 2 cups
Compost – (6 cups)
Compost is a must in creating great potting soil. Not only is it lightweight, it’s filled with an incredible balance of nutrients as well. Nutrients that are released slowly to the roots of plants over time.
Compost will also absorb and retain water in massive amounts. In fact, it can absorb 10 to 15 times its own weight in water! That absorbing power helps to create potting soil that doesn’t dry out too quickly.
Pulverized Soil (6 cups)
Pulverized top soil is simply loose dirt / soil. You can often find it bagged, or in bulk at mulch & soil stores. Whether you use bagged or bulk, it is important to make sure it is light and loose. Heavy, clumped soil will not make good potting soil.
Worm Castings (2 cups)
Quite simply, worm castings are one of the most crucial parts of this mix. They provide an incredible balance of slow-release nutrients to plants. All while keeping the soil lightweight and allowing it to absorb water more easily.
We use worm castings everywhere on our farm to power our plants. As a tea for liquid fertilizing. And, in their dry, natural state as a top dressing for potted plants and hanging baskets for natural fertilizing.
Coffee grounds (2 cups)
Coffee grinds are one of the best organic humus-builders. So simply accessible! Like worm castings, they give potting soil structure. They also have trace nitrogen, which is crucial for fertilising. Remember to use spent coffee grounds, not new coffee. Washing spent grounds removes acidity.
Perlite—2 cups
Perlite is pure volcanic glass. Heat makes it pop like popcorn. When added to potting soil, it’s almost magical. Perlite improves drainage and lightens soil. Also, that popcorn-like substance absorbs lots of moisture!
Perlite, like compost, retains moisture around potted plant roots and releases it when the soil dries. The potting soil won’t be affected by perlite’s neutral PH of 7. Another reason it is the ideal soil-lightener!
