If you are looking to make the perfect potting soil this year to power your hanging baskets and potted plants to grow like never before, today’s simple recipe using six all-natural ingredients is just the ticket!
When it comes to finding the best potting soil for growing gorgeous flowers and vegetables in containers, the easiest method is to simply make your own. By creating your own mix, you can all but ensure your plants will have the healthy, loose, fertile soil they need for strong growth. And, perhaps even more importantly, know exactly what’s in that soil!
Although there are hundreds of commercial mixes available, it’s hard to always know what the actual ingredients inside the package are. Are they organic? Do they contain fillers? And exactly where did the ingredients come from?
Unfortunately, many commercial potting soil bags contain inert fillers that serve no benefit to plants at all. Others, meanwhile, can include a whole list of fertilizers and additives. Additives you might not want in your mix. Especially if you happen to be growing vegetables you will be consuming.
That’s not to say there aren’t some incredible potting mixes on the market. But not only can finding them be difficult, paying for them can be quite painful too. In fact, some soil mixes can be almost prohibitively expensive. But that is exactly where creating your own simple but powerful mix can save the day!
What Makes A Potting Soil Perfect
You actually might be surprised at just how easy it is to make the perfect homemade potting soil. When it comes right down to it, great potting soil requires four basic but extremely important elements.
The first, of course, is that it has to be full of nutrients. With limited soil, plants growing in containers need all the power and energy they can get. Unlike annuals and perennials planted in the ground, potted plants are stuck with the soil in their container all season long.
In the ground, a plant’s roots can expand and search for more nutrients. That just isn’t the case for plants growing in a container or in hanging baskets.
The second important feature of a great potting soil is that it has to drain well. The soil mix needs to be able to hold moisture for the plant’s roots – but not so much that it will saturate the roots and rot them out.
The Importance Of Good Soil Structure – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Great potting soil also needs to be lightweight. If the soil in your pots or hanging baskets is too heavy, it can cause all kinds of issues. Not only do heavy soils make it hard for roots to expand, they also make for containers that are hard to move and even harder to hang.
Finally, the soil has to have good structure. A dry or thin soil mix will allow water to run right through it. But if the soil is too thick and heavy, water will sit on top and never filter down to the roots. To be ideal, potting soil needs to have just enough structure to trap the water it needs, and enough filtering qualities to shed any excess moisture.
The good news is that the potting soil recipe featured today is absolutely perfect for creating soil with all four of those must-have positive qualities – and then some!
The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe – With Just 5 Simple Ingredients!
Using the simple list of ingredients below, you can create 100% organic homemade potting soil to power your plants beautifully all summer long. And even more, know the materials in it are safe and all natural.
Whether you only need soil for a few pots, or you need to fill a large quantity of containers and hanging baskets – as long as you stick with the ratios below, you can scale the mix to fit your needs. The ingredients for the mix are as follows:
- Loose Topsoil / Garden Soil – 6 Cups
- Compost – 6 Cups
- Worm Castings – 2 Cups
- Perlite – 2 Cups
- Coffee Grounds – 1 Cup
So what does each ingredient do for the mix? Each of the above all natural ingredients help in giving the potting soil mix the perfect structure, weight, drainage and power. Here is an in-depth look at each and how it helps to create the perfect potting soil.
Loose Topsoil / Garden Soil – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Top soil and or garden soil gives this potting soil its structure. Without it, the mix would be too lightweight and unable to hold water or nutrients.
You can certainly use good, loose soil from your garden. But you can also purchase topsoil or garden soil in bags. The key is that it must be loose and fine. If you are purchasing bagged top soil or garden soil, you can usually find it in bulk or in bags at most home and garden stores.
Often, the label will say sifted or pulverized, which means it has been screened to be loose. Pulverized top soil should crumble easily when squeezed in your hand. This is exactly what to look for as it means they will be loose and easy to mix. Avoid any top soil that uses fillers such as saw dust or ground mulch as additives.
Compost – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Compost truly is the perfect ingredient to help power and energize potting soil. For starters, it is full of the nutrients and microorganisms that plants love most. Even better, it’s in a form that is easy for plants to absorb into their roots.
Compost is extremely lightweight. And its ability to absorb and hold water is simply amazing. In fact, it can hold as much as 10 times its own weight in water. Best of all, this ingredient is free if you make your own compost! See: How To Create A Hot Spring Compost Pile – Make Great Compost Fast This Year!
When mixed in with pulverized top soil in equal amounts, it creates an incredible source of soil and humus that is the perfect base for an outstanding potting soil. If you are using your own compost, use a screen to remove large pieces for a super fine mix. If purchasing compost in bags, look for a finely shredded mix.
Worm Castings – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Worm castings are one of the most incredible, all-natural slow release fertilizers around. In recent years, they have become one of the most popular all-natural ways to power plants – and of course, potting soils. They are truly a secret weapon to energize plants in the perfect way!
Just like compost, worm castings are lightweight and absorb water. They also help give excellent structure to the soil as well. But even more, they contain an incredible balance of nutrients that are readily available to power plants. Affiliate Link: Pure 100% Worm Castings
In addition to using them in your potting soil, they can be used throughout the season. Simply sprinkle a few tablespoons on top of your hanging baskets and containers as a fertilizer. They slowly release their nutrients to plants every time the plants are watered and produce amazing results.
Perlite – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Perlite is the ultimate “lightener” of heavy soil. It is a 100% organic substance that is nothing more than volcanic glass that is heated until it pops.
When perlite is heated, it pops and puffs out to create a super lightweight material with open pores. And those pores hold and retain water at a stunningly high rate. Product Link: Harris Premium Horticultural Perlite for Plants and Gardening
Perlite aids greatly in keeping a potting mix lightweight. All while providing for excellent drainage and better water retention. Even better, it has a perfectly neutral PH of 7, so it won’t affect soil balance in the least.
Spent Coffee Grounds – The Perfect Potting Soil Recipe
Last but not least – don’t forget to add spent coffee grounds! They are another secret ingredient that are absolutely essential for making potting soil great.
Coffee grounds are actually an excellent slow-release source of nitrogen for plants. And their rich mineral make-up adds even more long-lasting nutrients to potting soil as well. But even more, they are great at absorbing water, and can help hold moisture to the roots of your plants.
Listen In To Our Podcast Below On How To Create Amazing Potting Soil!
To clarify, we are talking here about spent coffee grounds and not fresh grounds. Fresh grounds can be acidic and change the soil PH. Spent coffee grounds lose nearly all of their acidity in the brewing process. Because of this, they are perfect for adding to the potting soil mix.
Here is to creating your very own potting soil this year – and having the healthiest, most productive containers and hanging basket plants on the block!
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