Collection: Potting Soil

If your plants are growing in a pot or container, you need potting soil. Potting soil, as its name suggests, is for potted plants or plants grown in containers.

It’s manufactured to create a chemically balanced, aerated, well-drained habitat for plants that will spend all or most of their lives in containers.

Most potting soils are made up largely of peat moss, bark, and perlite. You'll want to fertilize early and often if growing plants in potting soil.

What is potting soil good for?

It's typically described as the soil used in gardening that helps plants and flowers to retain nutrients and water.

Potting soil is also used to help prevent compaction, which can prevent plants from filtering out carbon dioxide and other toxic gasses that can kill the roots

Potting soil for succulents

Traditional potting soils are made to hold water, but a succulent holds moisture in its leaves. In fact, too much moisture in the soil and the cactus or succulent will develop root rot.

Succulents grow best in porous sandy potting soil, so amending your potting soil with sand is super important.

Choose cactus soil or mix potting soil with sand, pumice, or perlite. Succulent roots are very fragile so be gentle when repotting.

Potting soil for indoor plants

A good indoor potting mix is usually composed of peat moss, vermiculite, and perlite.

These mixes absorb moisture very well and resist compaction, but they tend to dry out very quickly.

As they do not contain any nutrients, you should provide your plants with a consistent supply of fertilizer.

The best potting mix for potted plants may vary slightly depending on what you are trying to grow. However, most of the potting soil contains peat, coir, bark, perlite, or vermiculite.

Here are some recipes for making your own homemade houseplant potting soil:

Organic fertilizer + limestone + coarse sand + perlite + peat moss for houseplants.

Vermiculite + pumice + coconut coir for houseplants.

Organic fertilizer + limestone + compost + vermiculite + coir fiber for transplanted seedlings.

Potting soil vs garden soil

Garden soil is made of natural topsoil or sand blended with relatively inexpensive, bulky organic material. However, potting soil mix contains no natural soil. It is a specially formulated mix made of peat, coir, bark, perlite, or vermiculite.

Potting soil lets water drain easily, so it dries out quickly.

Topsoil from the ground can be used to make the potting mix, but it must be sterilized first.

Topsoil straight from the ground usually contains organisms that can be harmful to plants, as well as unwanted seeds.