Easily Sourced Potting Mix

[jreich85]

I've seen some great and well designed potting mixes on this site. However, all the recipes I have seen contain some fairly exotic (at least to me) ingredients. I was wondering if anyone had a pretty good mix design that includes ingredients that could easily be sourced from your standard home improvement or garden store (for example, Home Depot or Lowe's for us Americans). I'm not expecting the world's best potting mix, but something better than the typical pre-mixed "palm and cactus" soil that is found most places. Any input is greatly appreciated!

[knell]

My parents just use standard big brand "moisture control" potting soil for everything from date palms to Ravenea to Ceroxylon and Pritchardia, Dypsis and Jubaea.

Everything they have is doing great and many of them are doing better than my specimens in substrates across the bay that cost 50x as much. Every time I visit it is a lesson in not overthinking, but yet I still have my Seramis. I cant help myself.

[jreich85]

Haha, thanks for the insight knell. I totally understand where you are coming from, as I have probably killed more palms by overthinking them than anything else. 

It's funny that your folks' palms do so well in the moisture control mix, as I've always thought that it would retain to much moisture and cause root rot. I may have to give it a shot though. 

I'm somewhat happy with the mix I have now; I feel I just need something larger to create air voids in the soil mix and promote oxygen infiltration as well as drainage. 

[maxum2610]

As a generic mix suitable for most palms, I use 1/3 peat moss, the real kind if you can get it else coco coir, 1/3 pumice, available at your local Ikea store as VÄXER, and 1/3 perlite. As an alternative to a neutral soil, Seramis is very good but expensive. I recently switched to baked moral clay instead of Seramis, which is basically the same but somewhat larger in structure. You can buy molar clay as Cat litter. There's a great article from the bonsai community on which brands are suitable.

[Ben in Norcal]

I avoid moisture control mixes in CA, because they are typically heavy on peat moss.  If that stuff dries out, it's really tough to re-wet.  I am trying to keep it simple as well...but experimenting with the Coco Loco coir mix at the minute, with added perlite.  It's relatively inexpensive, holds water, but drains well at the same time.  We'll see - I have had terrible rot problems with seedlings in heavier palm/cactus mixes.

[Pando]

Some mixes with a lot of organics probably work great in controlled watering conditions (such as in the greenhouse) but may utterly fail if you have the containers outside. I lost way too many plants after repotting them to a mix I thought was the best thing ever. Looking back, things grew the best when I just took a bunch of dirt from the ground and threw it into the pot.

Recently I tried the EB Stone Citrus and Palm mix without anything else added for smaller containers. It's light and has just the right amount of ingredients (incl. lava rock). So far it's promising! Although it's very expensive, it doesn't get soggy in rain, and the prized seedlings will grow great until they will all be eaten by rabbits.

Edited January 21, 2017 by Pando

[palmad Merc]

On 22/01/2017, 03:12:29, Ben in Norcal said:

I avoid moisture control mixes in CA, because they are typically heavy on peat moss.  If that stuff dries out, it's really tough to re-wet.  I am trying to keep it simple as well...but experimenting with the Coco Loco coir mix at the minute, with added perlite.  It's relatively inexpensive, holds water, but drains well at the same time.  We'll see - I have had terrible rot problems with seedlings in heavier palm/cactus mixes.

I'm using Coco coir seed mix and perlite 50 /50 on these areca vestiaria seedlings, working perfectly 

I'll just make my own potting mix when they get older, bit of organic humus mix,Composted pine bark and pumice, perlite, touch of coarse sand..  

[cristi]

I killed my Areca Vestiaria and some Licuala Peltata with humus. I don't know what happened, but now I have some tropicals C. Renda, H. beguinii Obi Island in coco coir and perlite  50/50 like you. They are doing just great. If you really want to try humus, try it on only one seedling, not in all, for at least 2-3 months, then take action with all. Good luck.

I love your Vestiarias.

 

 

[Turtlesteve]

I'm using pine bark + perlite + peat moss.  I had the same goals as you.  The pine bark is sold as "soil conditioner".  It's crushed to about 1/4" in size and smaller and appears to be partially composted.  

I will mix a ratio of something like 5:3:2 on the wet side, or 4:5:1 on the dry side.  I started doing this after killing a couple of plants in "cactus mix" (roots rotted out).  I have only been doing this a year so have no long term experience. 

Steve

[jreich85]

Thank you all so much for the responses! I now have some great options to look into incorporating into my mix design to combat my root rot problems.