Choosing the Right Potting Soil for your Container Garden

Choosing the right potting soil is the key to successful container gardening. Many beginning gardeners dig up the backyard garden soil and use in their home garden and patio containers. Its sounds logical right? Sorry! Wrong. It’s essential to use a good sterilized general potting mix; they are well aerated with good draining capabilities and full of rich nutrition. Conditions in the garden are different than growing in containers, like the water retention , soil temperature, and nutrient levels.

You can work the topsoil from your yard and and combine with other additives to create a similar potting soil/mix - but why?

Choosing high quality potting soil is easy . It's readily available and affordable at garden centers and Home Depot or Lowe's. Buying mix is more convenient, but beware of buying potting mix from an open air pile.Left out in the open, these mixes are more likely to pick up weed seeds or disease spore. Buying sterilized mix in plastic bags are free of diseases, insects and weeds.

There are tons of choices, but really 2 different categories: Soil- based or soil-less. (Most of the mixes in the US are soil-less.)

Soil-based mixes contain sterilized garden-variety loam , combined with plant food and additives like peat, sand, vermiculite,or perlite. They’re a bit heavier than the soil-less potting mix. It’s messier to use, but but holds moisture and the nutrients better.

Use soil-based potting mix for container plants that you plan on keeping long term; or year round in the same pot.

Soil-less mixes are mostly peat or a peat substitute like composted coconut husks. These mixes also contain the nutrients, and additives that soil-based mixes do – but a downside is that the soil nutrients are lost quicker and the soil dries out faster. In the normal growing season the plants will need additional fertilizing and regular watering.

Because it’s such a light-weight mix- soil-less mixes are great for hanging planters and larger annual container gardens .

Remember- Extra care is needed in watering and fertilizing with a soil-less mix.

Tip If your pots are always drying out too quickly – you can add polymers or water –retaining crystals to your potting mix. These crystals are super absorbent; holding hundreds of times their weight in water. Read the package instructions carefully because if the soil is kept too wet the plants will get moldy and could die off.

Common Specialty Container Potting Mixes

Most of the plants you select for your container garden will thrive with the general all-purpose mixes discussed above. Special soil- less mix is available for seeds and cutting too – though the all-purpose mix is suitable for that application too.

There are some instances when the plants will need additional special formulations .It's important in choosing the right potting soil for these unique plants.

Aquatic Plant Mix This is a heavier soil- based mix created to stay in place when the pots are submerged underwater .

Cacti and Succulent MixThis potting mix contains a mixture of soil, sand, gravel and peat for excellent drainage.

Alpine-garden Plant MixThis mix will have added grit to a soil- based mix low in nutrients.

Acid Loving Plant MixPlants like azaleas, some hydrangea, and rhododendrons need acid in the soil for better blooming. This mix is peat-based without the lime additions.

Hanging Basket Mix A peat based soil-less mix works best because it‘s lightweight. Since hanging baskets dry out so quickly , it’s a good idea to get the mix that has water-retaining gel crystals and slow- release fertilizer granules already added .

If you’re on a tight budget, you can buy the crystals and fertilizer separately and add them to your hanging basket mix.

Taking the time to research your potting mix options and choosing the right potting soil or mix will lead you to success and enjoyment of healthy happy container plants. Read on for more tips on Container Gardening .

Selecting the Perfect Container and Garden Planter

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