Explore Best Soil for Indoor Plants to Ensure Healthy Growth
Plants, whether outdoor or indoor, are undoubtedly significant to your home to let you breathe cleaner air. It makes sense of the green or fresh atmosphere surrounding you. Concerning indoor plants, they have limited space to thrive and require proper moisture retention and drainage, the phenomenon that takes place in their growth is not an ignorant one. You must be curious to know about improving indoor plant looks and their nourishment. Don’t you?
Soil is the fundamental substance that ensures delivering the actual amount of nutrients, aeration, and minerals that indoor plants need. Apart from its types and composition, its function is to let houseplants grow organic and healthy using outside fertiliser. Read the article if you are curious enough to know more about the best soil for indoor plants. Plus, you will learn how it works in determining plants’ longevity and is different from its other types.
What is the Best Soil for Indoor Plants?
Choosing the best soil for indoor plants is not as easy as it seems. It may take you a day or two to determine what to choose and for which indoor plant. Your thoughts must be justified to consult with the experienced gardener, but in the end, it is your choice to bring home quality soil appropriate for the indoor plant you like.
Plants are living beings just like human beings and require nutrients, minerals, and fertiliser for their best growth. Soil is the all-rounder components that keep most indoor plants alive without having them exposed to direct sunlight and access to thrive while deepening their roots. To be honest, selecting the best soil mix for indoor plants needs attention, proper research, and know-how of the soil types. Here are four primary soil types you can glance at and step ahead to the best potting soil for indoor plants.
- Sandy Soil: it is a type that works great to improve succulents and cacti growth
- Light and Fluffy Soil: this works amazing for orchid growth
- Fast-draining Soil: it is not found organic but instead formulated to ensure palm, citrus, and tropical plant nourishment.
- Loamy Soil: it is considered ideal soil for all the plants that require well-draining and nutrient-rich soil.
What is the Best Potting Soil for Indoor Plants?
As you know, indoor plants are different from plants that grow in vast landscapes; their soil is different, too. It is only the support system they need to grow in their pots and containers. So, potting soil must provide aeration, moisture retention, and adequate watering without decomposing rapidly. Here are some of the best potting soil mixes for indoor plants you must know about.
All-Purpose Potting Mix
While you find the best soil for repotting indoor plants or potting your indoor plants, there is nothing better than an all-purpose potting mix. The best part is that you can buy it from outside having a label “organic”. Even then, it is not enough and requires some additives, such as perlite, peat moss, vermiculite, and the like.
The best suggestion is to add in the following percentages to ensure your indoor plants get the best treatment needed for their growth, long life, and nourishment. In addition, an all-purpose potting mix is beneficial for all houseplants, herbs, ferns, and leafy greens
- 50% potting mix
- 25% perlite
- 5% vermiculite
- 5% peat moss
Specialised Mixes
Besides using all-purpose potting mixes, cacti-succulent mixes, and African violet mixes, you can get it formulated by your local gardener. It must contain essential potting mix constituents, such as perlite, horticultural grit, sand, and the like, to meet the special needs of indoor plants you keep inside your home.
Best Soil for Indoor Plants, No Bugs
Finding bug-free soil for indoor plants is confusing. While the basic potting mixes do work, sometimes, they fail to repel bugs and pests. You need specific potting mixes in order to complete the job. These are mentioned below. Please read it and make an informed decision.
Pro Tip: if you do not buy bug-free potting mix from outside or use old potting soil from your garden. You can sterilise it at 180°F for 30 minutes in the oven to kill pests and bugs before use.
1. Sterile, Pre-Packaged Potting Mix
When there is a concern regarding bug-free potting mix, the sterile mix comes into mind. It is commercially prepared under the supervision of reputed brands and can kill indoor-plant-related diseases, eggs, mites, and pests. The speciality is that sterile potting mix is suitable for almost all varieties of indoor plants, ensuring healthy growth.
2. Cactus and Succulent Mix
Another potting mix that distances a variety of insects, pests, and bugs from your indoor plants is none other than a cactus and succulent mix. It is ideal because the soil mix is well-drained and is formulated for the cacti, succulents and the like. Cactus and succulent potting mix contains a higher portion of perlite and sand that controls pest attacks.
3. Coconut Coir Mix
Moisture-loving and tropical plants are most prone to pest attacks. You can control it by using coconut coir potting mix. Your houseplant will thank you later by growing the way you want. Also, it is considered the most sustainable option and an eco-friendly soil to backfire insects and bugs compared to peat. However, it would be best if you moistened the coir before using it for your lovely houseplants.
Bagged Potting Soil Mix vs. Self-made Potting Mix
You must have learnt about the potting mixes in the above section. Here, you can get information on the comparative analysis between the bagged potting mix and the organic/self-made potting mix.
Bagged Potting Mix
Bagged potting mix is the one that is stored in bags and is for sale to bring it home and looks fresh when out of the bag. This potting mix is composed of sedge peat and reed, and lime is the one that maintains its pH. Bagged potting mix only works for one or two growing seasons; after that, plants fail to grow. It is because it decomposes rapidly, halts drainage, and builds up soil. However, if you look for the organic bagged potting mix, it will do wonders.
Self-made Potting Mix
On the other hand, it is a soil mix you can make yourself and store for a period until you know it is beneficial for indoor plants. It is composed of perlite mix, horticultural grit, pumice, composted bark, peat, vermiculite, peat, coconut coir, sand, wood fibre, and other soil additives. This soil potting mix lets your plants grow for a long term without fast decomposing, salt buildup, and poor drainage.
FAQs
What is the best soil mix for snake plants?
Indoor snake plants require loose potting soil to grow. The best soil for snake plants indoors is perlite, regular houseplant soil, cactus mix, coco coir, and sand. Typically, they store water in their leaves and keep up without needing water frequently. However, you must avoid using high amounts of peat because it retains water, proving harmful for its growth.
What kind of soil is best for aloe vera plants?
The best soil for aloe vera plants indoors is the one that is well drained and has maximum water holding capacity. You can prepare soil for them by combining succulent and cactus soil mix, palm and citrus potting mix, coarse sand, and perlite.
What soil do you use for spider plants?
The best soil for spider plant indoors is the one that is loamy, loose, and well-drained. The perfect composition for their healthy growth is all-purpose potting soil, a mixture of houseplant soil, perlite, and vermiculite. Do not forget to transfer them from the old pot to another one because they grow quickly.
Wrapping Up
The best soil for indoor plants is necessary to ensure your houseplants get the best nutrients, minerals, and fertiliser for their growth. If you fail to select the most appropriate one, indoor plants will not thrive, and you will have to say goodbye to them and your gardening skills. In case you are on the hunt to find the best soil or potting mix for indoor plants, read this blog post and get your answers.
