What you pot your plants into makes a difference as to whether your indoor plants will thrive or merely survive. Not all indoor plant potting mix is created equal, here we will explain what to look for in a premium potting mix and what to avoid. When you purchase plants from a garden centre you'll often find they are in a peaty mix which suits the nurseries requirements. However, if like me you tend to "kill your plants with kindness" aka overwater you're going to want to change your potting mix to something chunkier and freer draining.
Chunkiness can be achieved with soil amendments such as coarse pumice, bark, coco chip and perlite. Chunkiness generally means free-draining and free-draining means your medium is less likely to hold water for long periods. This helps reduce the risk of root rot and other unwanted effects such a fungus gnats But chunkiness alone is not the only quality of a premium potting mix.
Aeration is super important also, because roots like oxygen, and unlike their outdoor counterparts they do not have worms and the like to help aerate their soil. Without aeration soil can become compacted and over time this can lead to it being hydrophobic. Aeration goes hand in hand with chunkiness as generally the chunkier the soil the more aerated it is. However, products such as fern fibre while not being particularly chunky in nature is great at adding aeration to your substrate due to its porous nature.
After all my talk of free-draining chunkiness and aeration the next important trait of a quality potting mix may surprise you: water retention. It makes sense when you think about it because plants need water and they can only absorb so much at any given time so a mix that manages to retain some water means you won't be watering everyday and you plants roots will not dry up too much. Coco chip and fern fibre are both good at retaining moisture while letting excess drain away.
Lastly, although not strictly potting mediums the next products are essentials for me for a premium mix. I'm very much a fan of liquid fertiliser and I like to give a weak does everytime I water even throughout winter. Therefore my preference is for not too much fertiliser in my potting medium and I generally avoid chemical slow release fertilisers. Instead I like to add a couple of soil amenders to my medium when potting it up. Namely, worm castings and biochar, these both encourage healthy, disease resistent plants and help increase soil biological diversity for a healthy potting mix.
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