How to make your own potting mix / RHS Gardening (2024)

FAQs

How to make your own potting mix / RHS Gardening? ›

Some organic gardeners use 50 percent topsoil, 30 percent high-quality organic compost, and 20 percent organic materials, such as shredded leaves, mineralized soil (check with a landscaping supply company), worm castings, ground bark, wood-based fire ash, and completely composted cow or chicken manure.

Some organic gardeners use 50 percent topsoil, 30 percent high-quality organic compost, and 20 percent organic materials, such as shredded leaves, mineralized soil (check with a landscaping supply company), worm castings, ground bark, wood-based fire ash, and completely composted cow or chicken manure.

Potting soil, also called potting mix, is a blend of materials like sphagnum moss, bark, perlite, vermiculite, compost or coir that's intended for growing plants in containers. Guess what it doesn't have? Soil. That's because soil can carry fungus and other plant pathogens that can infect your plants.

The Formula for Soil Mix

To create your own perfect soil mix, thoroughly blend 1 part peat or coir, 1 part perlite or vermiculite, one-half part composted bark, and one-half part worm castings.

The ideal mixture for plant growth is called a loam and has roughly 40% sand, 40% silt and 20% clay. Another important element of soil is its structure, or how the particles are held together - how they clump together into crumbs or clods.

Universal Pot Mixture. One part Garden soil, one part coco-peat & one part Vermicompost (1:1:1), all three are thoroughly mixed and added in the pot. Plants grown in universal pot mixture remain healthy, active & good looking for a longer period.

3 in 1 All-purpose soil mix: A blend of Peat Moss, compost and humus. It is an optimized blend to blend into existing soils or to use on its own when planting lawns, flowers, shrubs and trees.

Gardening magazine's trial of the best soil mixture for raised beds found that a blend of 50% topsoil, 25% coarse sand and 25% compost was best. It determined that although the mix was quite heavy to put in the bed, it didn't settle much and was simple to dig.

Is it cheaper to make your own potting mix? ›

Before we go any further, note that if you only need a few small containers' worth of potting mix, you may actually be better off buying a pre-made mix! Making your own is usually only economical on a large scale.

A mixture of 70% garden soil and 30% organic matter creates a good general potting mix for planting up trees, shrubs, perennials and fruit. If your garden soil is heavy, reduce the soil content by around 10% and add some sharp sand, grit, or bulky organic matter in its place to improve drainage.

Compost, vermiculite, and peat moss.

Potting mix is commonly lighter and has better drainage and aeration than standard potting soil. It's also sterile, so you can be sure it won't introduce any fungi or weeds. However, because it's not soil, you'll want to replace it (i.e., repot your houseplants with fresh mix) every six to eight months.

For unopened and unused potting soil, you can store it for about a year or two before it goes bad. Usually, potting soil lasts longer when stored in a dry and cool container.