Why a soilless plant mix?
The popular idea is to grab a bag of potting soil from the local garden center and pop your brand new plant right in. Unfortunately, the new plant could be doomed to a slow death. Most of our premade potting mixes are water retaining and fungus gnats magnets. Don't get me wrong I used the premade potting mixes for years and had successes and utter failures. I attributed my failures to my gardening knowledge and took it a bit personal. When I started doing my research I found two problems with my house plant journey. One, I was using pots without drainage and watering them way, way to much. Two, I was using a prepackaged potting mix.
So, I went on a year long journey to find out what makes the best soil for my plants. The easiest and most cost effective I found was using a prepackaged mix and adding in 50% perlite. My plants did okay, but not what I was looking for. I tried adding in sand and sphagnum moss and just didn't like the consistency. I added leca balls and really like that it gave it a chunkier consistency. The I found coco chips and fell in love with the way my plants improved. I used a popular soil mix specifically for indoor or tropical plants and it was full of fungus gnats. That's when I found mosquito bits and started to mix them in the soil too. It was a long journey to get to the point of a satisfying soilless mix.
Soilless mix for house plants:
2 bags of soilless houseplant potting soil (try not to get anything with too much peat moss)
1 1/2 cups of perlite
2 bags of orchid bark
2 lbs of Leca balls
1.3 lb block of compressed coco chips
1 cup horticulture charcoal
1 1/2 cups vermiculite
1/4 cup of mosquito bits
Most of the products like perlite and vermiculite I can purchase at my local garden center. Most of my garden centers just sell the prepackaged potting mixes. I do a lot of online shopping. When I order everything I make sure that I make a huge batch. This mix will make a large storage container full of mix. I do keep it in a container with a lid, just to keep it clean.
Make sure that you use pots with drainage holes. The old advice was to put rocks in the bottom and the plants will wick the water up and it will help with humidity. It really doesn't. If you're want to use the nice pots with no holes put your plant in a nursery pot before you put it in the cover pot. That way it can drain out when you water.
I always let my plants dry out before I water them again, this helps not only with not over watering but also helps with not giving root rot to your plants.
I hope this was helpful. If you hav any questions just ask. Also, find what works best for you. This is just a basic starting recipe for most plant types.
