How to make a Well Draining Potting Mix for Plants? (7-Soil Amendments*)
It Doesn’t Matter Are You Vegetables, Succulents, Flowers Or Whatever, a Good Soil Mix always Plays a Very Big Role In Keeping Your Healthy & Well Growing. Therefore In This Post, We will Talk about Well Draining Potting Soil Mix in Details. It Includes the Importance of Soil Drainage, ingredients To make The Soil Well Draining, & Some easy-to-make Potting Mix Recipes for Plants.
What type of Soil Plants Like?
First Lets Discuss What Type of Soil Do Really Plants Like. Soil Is A Medium Where The Roots Grow. & For Their Healthier Growth, Things Like Fertility, Softness & Drainage Of Your Potting Mix are The Some most Important Things. But a Well Draining Potting mix Is always Important.
Soil Drainage, It’s Importance & Benefits;-
Well Draining Potting Mix Means The Medium That Dont Drain after To long & Not Too Quickly. In Such a Mixture, Roots Grow Very Healthily & Fastly.
The Drainage Of Soil is Also Important Because It helps In Better Absorption of Nutrients & Also Helps In Gaseous Exchange.
A well Draining Potting Mix is Extremely important For almost All Type of Plants, Because Most Of The Diseases On Different Plants Became Dominant Only Due To a Bad Drainage System.
Its Best Example Is Yellowing Of Leaves, Which is a Very Common Problem in Plants. Bad Drainage of The Soil Causes a Stunted Growth of Plant, Leading Towards Less Blooming, Weaker Immune System, Smaller Fruit Size Etc. These are The Some Very Simple Examples, That Describes us The Importance of a Well Draining Potting Mix.
Benefits of a Well Draining Soil Mix:-
There are Many Benefits Of using a Good Soil Mix, like Better Root Growth, Better Nutrients Absorption, Healthy Immune System, Less Diseases & More Flowering Etc.
How to make a Well Draining Potting Mix for Plants?
Now The main Question is How To make Our Soil Well Draining. There are a Few soil Amendments That I am Going To Describe You. Using Them in An Ideal Ratio Definitely Enhance The Drainage of Your Potting Mix.
Cocopeat (not alone);-
The First Ingredient Is The Most Known & Widely Used Thing, That Is Cocopeat. Cocopeat is very Easily Available, & Can Be Used For almost All Type of Plants, if You Follow the Right Ratio.
Cocopeat Enhances Soil Drainage, Porouscity & Retention Etc. Its Made Up Of Coconut Fibers, That’s Why its Organic as Well. Overuse Of Cocopeat can also Make The Soil To Much Water Holding, Therefore Use It In Your Potting Mix in Less than 50 Percent.
For The Seedlings Soil Mix, You Can Use Cocopeat & Compost in Equal Ratios, That Is Very Effective for Sprouting Seeds.
Perlite:-
The Another soil amendment is Perlite, That is a Natural White Coloured Granular Material. Its made up of Volcanic Glass, That is Very Light Weight, Imporves Soil Drainage, areation & Rention. Perlite is majorly Used In Making Light Weight Potting Mixes, on a Commercial Level.
You can Use Perlite For Seed Starting Mix & Cuttings Growing Media. Use Upto 20 to 30 percent of perlite in your Potting Mix, its More Than Enough.
Sand;-
An Other Cheap Option To Make The Soil Well Draining is The Sand. Using Sand In Our Soil Mixes reduces Their Compactness, Making Them Loose & Well Draining. The Problem With The Sand is That It Drains Water Very Quickly, That May leave Your Plant Roots thirsty.
Therefore right Usage Ratio is again Important. But Dont Worry, We Will make a Few Recipes Using These Ingredients at The End of The Post.
VermiCulite;-
The Next Soil Drainage Enhancer is VermiCulite, That is also a Naturally occuring Brownish mineral. its also used on a Commercial level for making Different Type of Potting Mixes.
Vermiculite is a Very Useful Soil amendement, That Enhance Soil Drainage & Porouscity. Vermiculite Is Very Light Weight, Thats why You can Use it for your Balcony Or Terrace Gardens.
Adding around 20 to 30 percent of vermiculite In Your Potting Mix Is More Than enough. its Ph is also Neutral Therefore Nothing here is To worry of.
Compost;-
The Another Common Soil Quality Enhancer is Compost. Compost Not Only Provides Nutrients, But Its also perfect thing to be Used Regularly in Our Soil Mixes. Compost Makes The Soil Softer & Its Regular Use also Enhance Drainage.
Cococoir;-
The Next Soil amendament is The Cococoir, That is again a Coconut Fiber. Its Majorly Used On The Base of a Container, & as a Mulch. In The Both Ways, It Improves The Soil Drainage & areation. Don’t Mix It with The Soil, But Must Use It as The Base of Your Pot.
Organic Fertilizers;-
You Can Also Use Different organic Fertilizers On Regular Basis, Because They also Improves Soil Quality, Drainage & Softness. It Includes Cow Dung Compost, Neem Cake, Rock Phospate, Mustard cake Powder & Bone Meal Etc. all Of Them Have Different Benefits, That are Added Here.
3 Simple Recipes To make a Well Draining Potting Mix;-
Now Finally Lets Know About the 3 Simple Recipes To make a Well Draining Potting Mix, That You can Use For almost all Type of Plants, Like Indoor Plants, Seasonal Flowering Flower Plants, Root Vegetables, Seedlings, Succulents, & For Growing Cuttings as well.
Seed & Cuttings Starter Mix;-
First is our Seeds & Cuttings Growing Media. Its Little Water Retensive, That is Perfect For Seed Germination & Rooting of Cuttings. For Making This, Take a
It is fertile, well-draining & Very Ideal For Growing Seeds & Cuttings. Otherwise, a Ready To Use Seed Starter mix is Here.
Regular Potting Mix;-
Our Next Potting Mix Is For Flowering Plants, Vegetables & Indoor Plants. For Making This, Take a
This Mixture Is Very Cheap & Useful, Because It has Nutrients, A Good Drainage & Its Loose as Well. This Mixture also have an Acidic Ph, Which is Perfect for More Blooming & Fruiting
Succulents & Cacti Potting Mix;-
Our Next Potting Mix is for Succulents & Cactus Family Plants. As They Don’t Like Much Moisture & Requires a Very Well Draining Potting Mix, Therefore i have Included a Good Amount of Sand in it, So Its Drains Well. Make Sure You aren’t Using Sea Sand, Because that Contains salt.
You can Use Construction Sand For This. Take
You can also add a small amount of Neem Cake, because if Prevents fungal attacks.
Summary:-
So Its all about Making Your Potting Mix Well Draining, but You can also Buy Ready To use Well Draining Potting Mixes, For Your Plants. A List Of Them Is Added Here.
