In today’s article, I am going to share with you how you can create a soil mix that your indoor plants will love. When I first started growing indoor plants or propagating plants, I would generally just pop out into my garden and dig up a bit of soil. Not surprisingly, my plants didn’t do too well. And that’s if they survived. In Canberra, the soil is clay-like. So, I found that water wasn’t getting to the roots of the plant. Which it obviously needed to be able to grow.
Why does this matter? Because without the right soil, your plants can’t thrive. I then made the switch to regular potting mix. But I found I had the reverse problem. Where water would just flow too quickly through the soil. And the plants weren’t able to retain the moisture that they needed to be able to grow. The “why” here is simple: your indoor plants deserve the best soil mix to stay healthy and strong.
How to Create the Best Soil Mix
One day, I was chatting with a horticulturalist who suggested a few more things that I should try adding to create a soil mix. That is going to give me the water retention that I need. But also the aeration as well. So, the formula that I use is half potting mix. And then for the other half, I use a combination of three ingredients.
The first one is perlite. This stuff kind of looks a little bit like Styrofoam balls. They’re really lightweight. And they’re going to give you lots of pockets of air. So that water can pass easily through the soil. I use half perlite. And then for the other half, I use equal amounts of peat moss and this one which I really have trouble pronouncing—vermiculite, vermicelli, something like that.
So, peat moss is a really fine kind of moss. It’s going to help with water retention. And it just helps to improve the soil quality as well. And the last one that I add is this one—vermiculite, ventilate, don’t quote me. Um, but it’s really a little bit more like little sawdust. Um, or wood chips. And again, it helps with aeration, water retention, and drainage.
Once you’ve added all the ingredients, just give it a little bit of a mix around. And that is how simple it is to make a soil mix that your plants are going to love.
What You’ll Get with This Soil Mix
This is what I use whenever I’m propagating plants. Or transplanting my indoor plants into larger pots. The best soil mix doesn’t just solve problems—it transforms your plant care game. I hope that this helps you have a little bit more success with your indoor plants.
