How To Make Your Own DIY Potting Soil For Your Garden
First, we’ll take a look at what a good potting soil should do, then we’ll dive into the different types on the market as well as how to make your own. By the end of this article, you’ll come out knowing exactly how to make your own soil.
Before getting into the specifics, let’s look at what functions potting soil serves.
Delivers Water and Nutrients to a Plant’s Roots
The main goal of a quality potting soil is to get the right amount of nutrients and water to a plant. To do so, two conditions must be satisfied:
1. The soil must have enough organic matter and nutrients
2. The soil must retain enough water to deliver to a plant’s roots
These conditions are fulfilled by adding compost to the mix and by making sure you have enough material in your mix that retains water (but not too much).
Provides Air And Space For Roots to Breathe And Grow
A good potting mix also ensures that there’s enough room in the mix for roots to breathe and grow. A plant’s roots desperately need oxygen in order to function properly, so potting mixes that retain too much water or are too compact can seriously affect the growth of a plant.
Supports The Growth of The Foliage Above The Soil
Finally, the best potting mixes have enough structure to be able to support a plant as it matures. This means it needs to be deep enough so roots can grow and provide the support structure that the plant needs. The soil also needs to be loose enough – but not too loose – to allow roots to penetrate new soil properly.
Now that we understand the goals of a good potting soil, let’s take a look at why you might want to make your own soil.
There are many reasons that gardeners prefer to make their own potting mixes, but the three major reasons are:
There are plenty of low-priced potting soils on the market, but they’re low-priced for a reason: they usually don’t contain the best ingredients. While making your own potting mix is usually not as cheap as the cheapest potting soil, you can make amazing mixes that are much better for your plants for only a bit more money than the cheapest stuff at the garden center.
Because…
