How to Make Potting Mix

Whether your garden is organic or not, you may decide you want to try making your own potting soil mix. Regardless of the size of your garden, you can tailor the potting soil to meet your garden's needs. Here's how.

Difficulty: Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Bucket
• Water
• Pots
• Spade, shovel or trowel
• Large container
• Compost or aged manure
• Soil
• Sand
• Peat moss
• Leaf mold
• Bone meal
• Vermiculite
• Perlite
• Sphagnum peat moss

1. Determine what type of plants and seedlings you are growing in your pots. Different types of plants need different types of potting mix. Once you have a good idea of your plants needs, then adapt your potting soil to the plant.

2. Pack a 6-inch pot with the potting soil mix you plan to make. Set the pot in a bucket. Pour 2 cups of water into the pot. If you get at least 1 cup of water back, your potting mix is draining well.

3. Get a container large enough to mix all the ingredients. Increase or decrease the amount of mixture to suit your needs. Also, plan for storage of leftover potting soil.

4. Create seedling potting soil by mixing 6 parts compost, 3 parts soil, 1 or 2 parts sand, 1 or 2 parts aged manure, 1 part peat moss, 1 or 2 parts leaf mold and, if available, 1 part bone meal.

5. Mix 8 parts potting soil with vermiculite or perlite for general use. Add 1 part coarse sand. Fork in 4 parts sphagnum peat moss, compost or rotted manure.

6. Make a soil-less potting mix by mixing 8 parts sphagnum peat moss, 1 part perlite and 1 part vermiculite.