Why should you mix your own potting soil?

Soil is an extremely important part of your beloved houseplant’s overall health. Think about it… your plant will be living in the same soil for 1-2 years (depending on how quickly it grows). It will affect your watering schedule, how well the roots are able to grow, and could be a make or break scenario for your plant. Repotting is a stressful experience for a plant. After a repot, it will focus all of its energy towards situating and growing its root system. This is why you should never repot an unwell plant, unless you believe that it is necessary. 

A quick fix when you’re first getting into houseplants is to buy cactus soil and/or mix perlite into your potting soil. While this is improves soil aeration you will probably run into problems with the perlite and soil separating, mold growth, and pest infestations. 

If you seem to keep getting fungus gnats, no matter what you do, then you might be buying infested soil. This was the case for me at least. Once I switched to a high quality potting soil that I ordered online (this is important) my pest problem became manageable. I have a theory that the soil I was buying from big box stores was getting infested with pests because they are often in dense, wet, exposed conditions. It is also more economical to buy one large bag of soil that you can work through throughout the year. My favorite potting soil by far is Fox Farms Happy Frog Potting Soil. 

What do I add?

When making a batch of potting soil, this is my general recipe. When potting individual plants, I mad add more or less of each ingredient depending on what is best. 

Fox Farms Happy Frog Soil (or other high quality potting soil)’

A high quality soil base is very important when starting your potting soil mix. I love fox farms happy frog soil because it contains earthworm castings which are high in nutrients, and is dark fluffy and nutrient rich (reoword this). 

Orchid Bark

Increases aeration

Increases moisture content

Orchid Bark is a great addition to you potting soil. Not only does it make your potting soil chunky and airy, but it also retains moisture. This is great because it prevents root rot, while also making your plant resilient to inconsistent watering schedules. If you have an especially moisture loving plant, go heavy on the orchid bark. This would include begonias, calatheas, orchids, and others. 

Pumice

Pumice is a stone that helps increase aeration in your soil. You may also use perlite in place of pumice, but perlite will often separate from your base potting soil which can cause problems later. Make sure to rinse with water before using, and wear a face mask when rinsing. There is a surprising amount of dust created from these. 

Charcoal

Charcoal is another inorganic ingredient that also increases air supply in your soil. Make sure to rinse charcoal before using while also wearing a face mask when washing. 

Leca (optional)

Mosquito Bits (optional)

Mosquito bits increase aeration and repel potential pests like fungus gnats. 

What do additions do/how much of each item?

Check out the chart at the top to see how much of each you should add. Depending on the plant, pot, location, and your watering habits you can add more or less of each addition to make the optimal mix for your plant. For a begonia, peace lily, and other moisture loving plants, you’ll want to use more orchid bark and less pumice and charcoal. For cactus, sansevieria, and other moisture hating plants (they don’t hate moisture, they just store water in their stem), you’ll want to use more charcoal and pumice and less orchid bark. 

Storage recommendations

With all of these additions it is useful to have an organized storage system. For the soil I use a large dog food storage container. It is airtight, and keeps the soil fresh and protected from the environment. For the other additions I put each product in a plastic rectangular storage box. These stack nicely and keep the additions fresh. Each ingredient is noted with a custom label maker. If you do not have a label maker I highly recommend it. I got his label maker on amazon, and for 10 bucks it provides significant value. This label maker has various fonts, colors, borders, and emojis.

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