Potting soil

[Enar]

Hello I mix my own soil for palms and I’ve experimented with many different ways. I’ve always had trouble with fertilizing my plants. I’ve never been very good at it. My question is how much fertilizer should I add to my custom soil mix I usually do coconut coir base which is ph neutral and vermiculite and perlite mixed together. I have Jobes organic granular palm fertilizer which contains some of the essentials like NPK + magnesium and calcium. But the directions are not very friendly towards people who mix soil from scratch and my palms look green but they seem to stay fairly small. Anyone had any experience? 

[Silas_Sancona]

34 minutes ago, Enar said:

Hello I mix my own soil for palms and I’ve experimented with many different ways. I’ve always had trouble with fertilizing my plants. I’ve never been very good at it. My question is how much fertilizer should I add to my custom soil mix I usually do coconut coir base which is ph neutral and vermiculite and perlite mixed together. I have Jobes organic granular palm fertilizer which contains some of the essentials like NPK + magnesium and calcium. But the directions are not very friendly towards people who mix soil from scratch and my palms look green but they seem to stay fairly small. Anyone had any experience? 

Depending where you are located ( U.S. / Abroad, X region of the U.S. ) there are numerous organic options you can easily add to your soil mixes either as you mix, or later.

I myself use things like Greensand / Langbeinite > for a good dose of slow release K ( and Sulfur / Magnesium = Langbeinite )  Crabshell Meal, Bat / Seabird Guano, Oystershell Meal/ Azomite, Alfalfa Meal etc.. for other nutrients / elements.

If in the U.S. ( no clue about who sells what outside the states ), several companies sell these products, Down To Earth being a great source for single-ingredient things.  Don't work for them or anything, but have used their products for years.. Not the cheapest, but great stuff, and gentle on all my plants. No worrying about salt content either  -Everything from terrestrial Bromeliad relatives and Cacti, to Palms  & Flowering stuff galore. Slow 'N steady,  just the way plants want their meals..

[PalmsandLiszt]

I like oscmocote. It lasts for > a year for small plants, and, when it runs out, you can just throw some over the top of the medium, or re-pot with more of it mixed in. I've never killed anything with osmocote; I certainly have with liquid fertilizers.
I don't think perlite/vermiculite/coir will bind useful nutrients very efficiently; I'd suggest adding something like seramis, leca or bark chips. Your plants might be small because the nutrients rush past the roots too fast for them to take up much. Clay-based things bind to nutrients, as will organics; coir and inorganics generally won't, but can regulate drainage and pH. I'd try to get a balance between them.

Too low light and/or temperature might also cause stunted plants without chlorosis. It really depends what you're trying to grow and where.

Just my two cents.

[GTClover]

I mix my own as well as do many on this forum.  I use Vigro mostly because it's widely available & is slow release, but whatever you choose, it most likely will tell you how much to use/gal of soil so I measure the ingredients & the final volume obtained & then add your favored amendments accordingly.

Edited October 5, 2022 by GTClover

[Palmfarmer]

For organic stuff add Bloodmeal for Nitrogen, Bonemeal for pusphurus and greensand for potasium. That will add a tom of micronutrients as well. 
I will keep on supplying the pot perhaps once every 6 months to add more. 
 

for an fertilizer you can get the palm spesific ones like Palmgain. 
if you cant find any palm spesific fertilizer look for this:

NPK for palm fertilizer are usually medium nitrogen low phospurus and high in pottasium. Often flower fertilizers have that profile.