Plant Care & Problems

Potting Soil Recipes

Save money and grow healthy plants by making a potting soil mixture yourself. Read ahead for easy-to-follow recipes, and make them in batches to be used at your convenience.

Editorial Team Last Updated: Jan 12, 2019
Potting Soil Recipes

Recipe #1: Organic Mix

This is an organic soil based mix that gives heavy soil than other peat mixes and has better drainage. To reduce root diseases, compost encourages healthier soil mix. You can use perlite and add the fertilizer at the base.

Ingredients ⅓ screened mature compost ⅓ sharp sand ⅓ garden topsoil

Recipe #2: Orchid Mix

You can add this mix to most of the orchids like phalaenopsis and oncidium. Although it's a very good idea to repot orchids every one or two years as it improves the health of the plants, and helps them bloom.

Ingredients 6 parts fir bark 1 part peat moss 1 part medium grade charcoal

Recipe #3: Organic Substitute Mix

This next recipe's formula was concocted by the Farm and Garden Project from the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Ingredients 10 lbs bone meal 5 lbs blood meal 5 lbs ground limestone ½ cubic yard sphagnum peat ½ cubic yard vermiculite

Recipe #4: Prick-out Mix

This recipe is used when you are planting seeds, and then transferring them into the ground when the plant reaches its transplant size.

Ingredients 2 parts sand 2 parts aged manure 2 parts leaf mold 6 parts compost 3 parts soil 1 part pre-wet and sifted peat moss 1 6 inch pot bone meal

Recipe #5: Tipi Produce Mix

All plant material that comes into any gardens, nursery, or greenhouses can be grown in this mix.

This next recipe works well for small and medium plug trays, and can grow 1020 flats of peppers, tomatoes, lettuce, squash, cucumbers, and many flowers. You can also fertilize them two times in a week with fish and seaweed fertilizer, which is dissoluble.

Ingredients 4 cubic ft. bales sphagnum peat moss 1 bag coarse vermiculite 1 bag coarse perlite 5 parts dolomitic limestone 10 parts kelp meal 10 parts blood meal 15 parts steamed bone meal

Recipe #6: Shade Mix

Loam

To grow plants in the shade, follow the recipe to yield an ideal soil. Cover both the humus and soil to wipe out roots, clods, and formation of large rocks.

Ingredients 1 part humus (compost) 2 parts loamy soil 1 part sand

Recipe #7: Cacti Mix

To plant a Christmas, orchid, and any epiphytic cactus plant, take a look at this simple formula.

Ingredients 3 parts organic potting mix 1 part sand 1 part perlite

Preparing these recipes at home is always better than buying it from the store and risking if it will work or not. Always select top quality ingredients to make the soil yourself, and let your garden prosper. The only difference between a store-bought kind and the homemade mix is your blossoming garden.

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