Find out what type of soil is good to use for houseplants. The type of soil often soil for houseplants isn’t often the best choice. Discover what to look for in good houseplant soil. Ideal houseplant soil holds nutrients and water, yet also drains well. What to look for in houseplant soil, including draining agents like pumice and perlite.
Hello and welcome to Healthy Houseplants, where we teach you all about gardening in the great indoors. Today’s video is sponsored by our Amazon affiliate link, which you’ll see in the description below. You’ll also see in the description below links to any videos I mentioned in this video.
Today I’m going to talk to you about soil and why soil matters. I get a lot of questions about soil, about a good soil to use for house plants. A lot of people, when you’re starting out, don’t necessarily realize how important soil is because you think the top of the plant looks good. You’re burying it in this soil, you don’t need to see what’s going on down there, you just want the plant on top to look good.
I’ll never forget years and years ago when I was very young, I was a young gardener, and I had planted a bunch of really pretty plants. But I planted them in soil, and this was actually outdoors, but it’s the same concept, in a clay soil. I remember thinking, “Well, you know, it’s gonna be okay because the plants look so good on top, they’re gonna be fine.” Well, they weren’t fine. The clay soil was way too heavy, and it created a problem with drainage, and the beautiful plants ended up dying. So that was my first lesson that soil really, really matters.
For house plants, what you want to look for is a soil that retains moisture, retains nutrients, but at the same time also drains well. It’s a very fine balance. So what I like to use is Pro Mix, and this is it. I like the Pro Mix BX. It’s hard to find online. There is another Pro Mix formulation for pots; I’m putting a link down below. Their products are good. There are some other good providers of soil that I am checking out, so we will be doing more of that because I know people are from various areas of the country, various centers of the world, etc., so it’s not always easy to find a good soil.
I’m showing you today what to look for so that you can go to the nursery, to your local garden supply, you can get some in the mail, you can check it out, and we’ll put some more links to different ones that are good below as well.
First of all, let me show you what you want to stay away from. This is, believe it or not, was a potting soil. It is very barky, as you can see here. It’s a very barky mix. There’s even pieces of leaves in here and bark in here that weren’t quite shredded up. This is essentially mulch. So what some of the providers are doing is they are actually putting mulch into bags and calling it potting soil. The problem with this is it does not retain water, it does not retain nutrients, everything flows right through. There is not a lot of biological activity going on because everything is flowing right through. You want this on the top of your plants. You want a mulch, and I have a video on mulching. You want to mulch with this sort of thing, but you do not want to plant in this sort of thing.
What you want to look for is something that has a base such as peat moss or coir, which is another thing they’ve been using as a more sustainable alternative. So here we are, like this. You can see it is lightweight, yet when you get it moist, it does retain water. There is perlite in here, so you want something with perlite or pumice. I do carry a pumice product; I’ll put the link down below. That provides good drainage, and I do have videos on why drainage is so important, so I will put that link below as well.
When you’re in the home supply store, in the home and garden center, and at the nursery, you can check out the soils without having to open the bag. You simply squeeze the bag. They may look kind of weird running around squeezing bags, I guess, but you will find out just by squeezing the bag. It feels kind of soft and smushy. Then look at the ingredients. Does it have some added good nutrients and things like worm castings, worm compost, guanos, alfalfa meal, or mycorrhizae? Those are good additives.
If you feel a lot of chunky things, a lot of heavy things, that is not a good soil. If you feel a squishy, nice soil, that is a good soil. However, some of the squishier ones that are very fine and don’t have a lot of drainage in them are okay, providing that you add something like perlite or pumice to give that extra drainage that your plants need. That will solve that problem.
Hopefully, this answers some of your questions about soil choice. I know it’s a big decision. It essentially is deciding a foundational aspect. It’s really deciding where am I going to place my houseplants, where is their home gonna be. Besides a pot, what goes in the pot is the soil, and that’s where the roots are. Without healthy roots, you will not have a healthy upper plant, as I discovered years ago.
So it is a very important decision. Feel free to ask me any questions. I’ll be happy to answer them. Thank you for stopping by today. Please leave any comments about any indoor gardening tutorials you’d like to see. Remember to like, subscribe, and share this video, and please check the bell if you’d like to be notified when we release a new video if you’re a subscriber.
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My Perfect Pumice link: https://bit.ly/3shBe1A
My Perfect Pumice/Green Gourmet Houseplant Food: https://bit.ly/3uRWhZH
My Green Gourmet Houseplant Food: https://bit.ly/38owIIl
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Promix Potting Soil Link: https://amzn.to/3iVIrjE
Happy Frog Potting Soil Link: https://amzn.to/32UDOiV
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