If you are new to plant parenting, you might be scratching your head about which of our potting soils is the right one to use for what you are growing. We totally get it! It’s like determining which type of cooking oil you should use. Some are better for sautéing, and some are best employed in salad dressings and so on. You can use any oil (or soil!) but knowing the attributes of each and using them in the correct manner will allow your dishes—and your plants—to shine.
The “Which should I use?” question might be asked most frequently with our Container Blend and our Premium Blend Potting Soils. Again, from the general look and description of both, we totally get it! Let’s get to know these two products a bit better, along with our Cactus & Succulent Blend, so you can help your plants thrive to the best of their abilities.
Container Blend
Right from its name you understand the main purpose of our Container Blend Potting Soil. It is indeed for containers. However, containers can contain anything from pond plants to cacti. Container Blend is our all-purpose potting soil and could totally work for these extreme plant needs. By that we mean it drains well and holds moisture. Our blend of compost, pine bark, and coconut coir holds moisture, but not overly so. The addition of rice hulls helps the media drain well, and a dose of earthworm castings helps to create a happy and healthy living soil.
The plants that will live their best lives in Container Blend are fast-growing outdoor annuals and most of your basic houseplants such as aroids and aglaonemas. Your indoor herb garden will flourish in Container Blend, too, as will any large potted perennials and shrubs that might be permanently potted on your front stoop or patio. For nutrient hungry plants, be sure to add in a balanced organic fertilizer when you’re potting up your plants.
Premium Blend
Our Premium Blend Potting Soil is where we start to specialize a bit. It’s our most moisture-retentive blend, and so is suitable for plants that prefer to have more immediate access to water. This might be because they are growing quickly, producing fruits, or are jungly and tropical in nature. We’re talking about your indoor houseplants such as philodendron, ferns, and fiddlehead ferns. Outdoor tropicals like alocasias and colocasias, and any container-grown vegetable plants such as patio tomatoes and peppers, will do well with soils that are more moist than not.
What makes our Premium Blend super moisture-retentive is its high content of moisture-holding compost and worm castings. In fact, once you start using Premium Blend, you’ll notice you’ll need to water your containers nearly half as much as with peat-based potting soils. No joke! We add in perlite for just the right amount of drainage and aeration. Results from research trials show that tomato plants grown in Premium Blend are twice as large and produce twice as many fruits as those grown in potting soils from competing manufacturers. To get the most out of your Premium Blend Potting Soil, be sure to add in a balanced organic fertilizer when you’re repotting your plants.
Cactus & Succulent Blend
If you think your cacti and succulents don’t need much in the way of potting mix, think again. These plants need water just like any other plant, albeit not as much. We engineered our Cactus & Succulent Blend Potting Soil in conjunction with the researchers and expert horticulturists at the U.S. Botanic Garden and Chanticleer Garden, so this formula means serious business. It has excellent drainage, but enough moisture-holding capacity to satisfy your plants’ needs. We add in a dose of biochar—a carbon-negative ingredient that helps retain moisture and nutrients and increases a plant’s ability to take up more nutrients—for good measure.
And hey, it’s for more than just cacti and succulents! Use this blend for bonsai trees, jade plants, and other plants that will benefit from more than the usual drainage ability. For best results, pot up your plants in terra cotta, clay, or fiber containers to maximize Cactus & Succulent Blend’s drainage power. Speaking of potting up—while many other cacti and succulent soils are solely peat and perlite mixes, ours contains sand and shale, essentially mimicking the environments in which these plants evolved. And a secondary benefit of adding in this rocky aggregate is that it’s heavier. So when your cacti and succulents grow and get a little top-heavy, the pot’s heft will help keep it from tipping over.
Mixing Your Own Potting Soil
The above soil blends are perfectly amazing products to use on their own. But perhaps you’re an experienced plant parent and have a really good sense of your home’s growing conditions and the plants themselves. If you feel like tinkering a bit to dial in exactly what soils are best for individual plants, our products will let you do that.
Let’s say you have our Premium Blend Potting Soil, the one that is most moisture retentive, and you want to pot up a plant you have found can be sensitive to soils on the moist side. Add in as much as 10% of our Pure Rice Hulls to increase the drainage (psst! Sprinkle your soil’s surface with Rice Hulls to help deter fungus gnats, too!).
Or maybe you want even more moisture-retentive soils for a hot and sunny room where plants tend to dry out—mix in up to 10% of our Worm Castings to up the moisture content.
We’ve had customers who even add in a bit of our Biochar Blend to our Container Blend to provide their plants with even more beneficial soil amendments for superb growth. We love and trust our amateur soil scientist friends, so please go ahead and give the Mad Soil Scientist persona a try. Let us know how it turns out!
Speaking of biochar, we’ve released a product called 110 Blend Potting Soil. It’s a blend of coco coir and perlite into which we’ve already added 10% of our Biochar Blend by volume. No calculating volumes and percentages, just open the 110 Blend bag and open your plants up to the benefits of biochar. It’s super easy and with great results!
In short, there’s an Organic Mechanic potting soil for your needs. Start with our Container Blend to get to know your plants and their growing conditions, then move on to Premium (or even Cactus & Succulent Blend) when you know how your plants are faring. And if you need something a little more “just right,” create your own Mad Soil Scientist blend. You’ll know what’s best for your little plant babies!
And if you’re into meeting other plant parents at Third Spaces, consider joining a local plant club or plant society. Ask your local houseplant store if they are involved in any, maybe there’s a store discount for being a club member! Meeting up with like-minded plant lovers is a great way to share knowledge of what soil type is best for specific plants and learn from other enthusiasts. The Indoor Plant Society of the Delaware Valley is one such group with very happy plant parents!
