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

FAQs

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

Mix the ingredients

Common Recipes

For a potting mix: 1 part peat moss. 1 part perlite. 2 parts compost.

Both potting mix and potting soil have their unique strengths—potting mix is great for providing superior drainage, while potting soil is nutrient-rich due to its composition, for instance. Here's when to use each growing medium.

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.

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 good potting soil needs to be able to hold plants up, to drain well but also be able to hold water, and to be able to feed plants. The key ingredients in my potting mix are: garden soil for fertility and bulk; perlite for drainage; and a mix of peat moss and compost for water retention.

Fertilizers, which are the primary source of nutrients, can be all-purpose time-release fertilizers, synthetic blends or nutrient-dense organic amendments such alfalfa meal, bone meal, and kelp meal. Avoid potting mixes that contain chemical fertilizers, especially if you are growing edibles.

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.

Potting Mix vs Potting Soil: Which One Should You Use? Potting soil's composition makes it suitable for outdoor plants. On the other hand, a soilless potting mix is a better choice for potted plants or a container garden because it: Offers a good balance of moisture retention and water drainage for potted plants.

Do you mix potting soil with dirt? ›

Potting mix is meant to stand alone, as opposed to being mixed in with existing soils. It is a self-contained product designed to provide potted plants with everything they need to grow and thrive. Garden soil is meant to be spread around. Mix garden soil in with your native dirt to improve it.

Plus it has perlite to help oxygen needed by plant roots to flow through the soil and plant food to get the growing started. Then—you guessed it—you'll need to take fertilizing into your own hands a month after planting.

Most gardeners make potting soil by combining perlite or vemiculite with peat or sphagnum moss. Two other organic materials that you could add to your potting mix are leaf mold and compost, which offer a wide spectrum of nutrients.

As we say here at The Dirt Bag, always use potting mix in your pots and garden soil in your garden. Potting mix is meant to stand alone, as opposed to being mixed in with existing soils. It is a self-contained product designed to provide potted plants with everything they need to grow and thrive.

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.