Plant care - growing media

Plant Care - Growing Media

What actually is soil? Why do plants need it? James answers these key questions teaching you how to adapt your growing media to the plant variety.

Lesson Summary

• I use multi-purpose peat-free compost as a growing media.
• Peat is decomposed moss, bundles of plant fibres that hold water well.
• The harvesting of peat is unsustainable, therefore I have used peat-free compost.
• A keyword is soil-based, in the United Kingdom mixes that are soil-based come with the name 'John Innes' on the packaging. John Innes was a Victorian philanthropist who first developed soil-based potting mixes.
• A potting mixture of equal parts compost and soil-based compost is great for a number of reasons. The plant fibres act as an inert sponge, holding onto water and nutrients.
• The soil component is almost 100% pure minerals, including all the mineral content that your plant needs.

Equipment Used

• Sylva multi-purpose compost
• Kurodama (bonsai soil)
• Horticultural grit can be added to potting mixtures in varying quantities to improve drainage. This depends on the requirements of the plants.
• I have used Kurodama as his grit, mixing equal parts Kurodama to the potting mix for planting cacti and succulents.

Plant Varieties and Grit Ratios

• However, with ferns I use pure multi-purpose compost.
• The more water the plants need, the more plant fibre they need.
• The more drainage and air at the roots a plant needs, the more grit is required.