Your guide to choosing a potting mix for your indoor and alfresco plants!

Choosing a potting mix is a bit like choosing toppings for your ice-cream. If the topping doesn’t compliment the ice-cream your whole dessert is a mess and downright unenjoyable. Finding a suitable potting mix for your plants is a similar debacle—you want to choose a potting mix that will continue to grow and nurture your plants.

The fact of the matter is, it’s a bit of a balancing act when it comes to choosing the right potting mix for your indoor plants. There are a number of factors you need to take into consideration when potting your plants. Ask yourself:

What is the species of plant?
Where is its natural habitat?
What soil conditions does your plant like to grow in?

Potting mix for indoor plants

Most plants of the indoor variety come from tropical locations where they grow in rich soil types and receive higher levels of moisture from rainfall and humidity. We always say it is best to try and duplicate similar conditions and use a premium potting mix which will definitely give your plants a better chance at surviving outside of its natural habitat.

The potting mix we use at The Home Plant Co has a large percentage of coco peat, made up from the pith inside a coconut husk. Coco peat is an organic and environmentally sustainable substrate for growing many plants especially of the indoor variety. It is a very good medium for seed and for establishing plants as it is anti-fungal and is great for reducing the risk of soil borne diseases. Coco peat allows quick penetration of water and has great water holding capacity. It also has good aeration, meaning oxygen is better circulated throughout the medium, helping the plants to grow faster and healthier.

What to look at when choosing your potting mix

It’s a fine line when choosing a potting mix as you don’t want one that holds onto too much water or on the other hand, have it dry out too much.

Nutrition also plays an important role for the success of your plants. A potting mix with short-term and long-term release, and up-front macro and trace elements, will ensure your plants get the right amount of fertiliser at the right time during their growth cycle.

All of our plants are applied with a beneficial bacteria after planting. Beneficial bacteria increases the efficiency of these natural biological processes to enhance the plant. Our beneficial bacteria is comprised of unique naturally occurring organisms and their metabolites which are produced in proprietary multi-phase fermentation processes. More importantly this encourages the plant to put down roots quicker.

Hopefully with this guide you have a basic insight into how you can get your indoor and patio plants off to the best possible start….

Look for the difference...

Premium Range Potting Mix

Drainage
Aeration
Moisture holding capacity
Water infiltration
Helps to give the plant sustained nutrition over time
Added trace elements

Budget Range Potting Mix

Cheaper raw material such as saw dust, can be anti-wetting and it compacts due to the degree of fines. Water pools on top of surface and it creates poor drainage
No controlled release fertiliser
Dries out quicker, meaning you will need to water more often.
Poor nutritional value

Why should you use potting mix?

Outdoor soil and potting mix can differ drastically. For indoor plants, using a potting mix might be more beneficial depending on the species. Make sure you are looking at the specifics of each indoor plant when choosing your potting mix and this will nourish your indoor garden!

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