Confused between Potting Mix & Potting Soil

[earth]

Hi,
last season I did not grow much but whatever I did worked fine with the potting mix I used. I went to Lowes the other day and asked the guy there what is better for container- Potting Mix or Potting Soil....he said Potting Soil is better for containers. So here I am ...I need to start sowing few seeds and totally confused whether to buy potting mix or soil for my containers.
please help!

[rainbowgardener]

Well it is kind of confusing because different manufacturers use different ingredients.

In general potting soil is soil based, though probably also has peat moss, vermiculite and other ingredients. Potting mix is a soil-less sterile growing medium that is all ingredients like perlite, vermiculite, sphagnum moss or peat moss, etc.

So the main difference is that the potting mix is lighter, faster draining, doesn't hold as much water, where as the potting soil is denser, holds moisture longer. Which is better depends on what you want to do with it. For uses where the faster draining is important (eg cactus) the potting mix would clearly be better (but then they sell special cactus mix for that with a lot of sand).

A lot of people would recommend the potting mix, but I use all potting soil, including for seed starting and do just fine with it. Don't know if this clears anything up .

[Kisal]

Like RG, I prefer a potting soil, in general. I only use potting mixes for my special-needs plants, such as cacti and succulents, and African violets.

[earth]

thanks! I will buy potting soil then...also it is cheaper than the potting mix

[serial_killer]

My internet has been down or I would have replied sooner.

I use a soil-less mix (pro-mix, potting mix, call it what you want) for all my veggies (also I use a succulent specific mix for my cacti) reason for this is I have a well tailored feeding regiment and don't need the soil/soil-less mix to provide any nutrients to the plants.

For my general house plants, or your run-of-the-mill just for decoration plants where yield isn't a concern, I just stick them in some general potting soil. Sometimes when I'm feeling nice I will feed the soil plants but I have to make sure to dilute the food strength first or the plants in soil will get burned.

Even in regular soil I always amend it with Perelite for better drainage.

[earth]

thanks serial killer! What is the feeding regiment u have for your plants... would love to know. I used some fertilizer on one of my plants long back..it was green liquid and I had to mix with water.... it killed my plant in just few hours havent used any fertilizer since then as I am feel I will kill my plants again!

[serial_killer]

Well for the house plants I just use my used nutes from my hydro system after adjusting the pH back up, it gets changed every 2 weeks and other than that they get water. For the soil-less plants I use the same foods I use for hydro.

-Reverso Osmosis water
-Cal-Mag (to add back in the good stuff RO removes)
-Superthrive (rooting promoter, I usually only use while the plant is young)
-Potash .7-4-11 (a bloom additive, though the only reason I got it is cause my banana tree really likes the extra K it provides)
GH-3 part Flora Series-
-FloraGro 2-1-6
-FloraMicro 5-0-1
-FloraBloom 0-5-4
-regular molasses

Since I mostly grow veggies I rarely need to use the bloom food. Potash replaces FloraBloom all together and adds even more K, so I have a full bottle of the bloom. Like I mentioned Bananas love lots of Potassium (K) throughout their life.
Obviously if I were to grow something that fruits or flowers I would cut back the gro formula and replace it with bloom and/or just up the Potash.


When I use soil in containers I use Fox Farm Happy Frog with perelite. For soil-less I use whatever I find at the local nursery, usually its a house brand at the place I go to and is a very basic mixture, then I add perelite depending on the ratios of it already in there. For more money you could buy more advanced soil-less mixes that have even more nutrients and not have to feed ever. They would have things like worm castings, compost, blood or bone meal, some kind of guano, fish emulsions, there's lots of stuff you can add.
I try to avoid any kind that has veremiculite, I just don't like the stuff- anything I grow with it always seems to wilt. (plus I hear its bad for you, but what isnt anymore!) Maybe its just in my head though...

note-any time I say just water I always mean RO water with Cal-Mag and pH adjusted to 7.0 for soil, or the plant specific pH for soil-less / hydro.

[rainbowgardener]

Above is why I use potting soil! I start my seeds in potting soil with Miracle Gro (my only exception to organic gardening; it's not going in the outdoor soil). Maybe I add some organic fertilizer to the water once or twice while they are growing indoors. Then they get moved outdoors and basically get nothing but compost.

If you grow in sterile soil-less mix, then you have to provide all the nutrients yourself, which to me seems a lot harder.

I water just with tap water, but I do let it sit overnight so the chlorine escapes.

[Kisal]

Above is why I use potting soil! I start my seeds in potting soil with Miracle Gro (my only exception to organic gardening; it's not going in the outdoor soil). Maybe I add some organic fertilizer to the water once or twice while they are growing indoors. Then they get moved outdoors and basically get nothing but compost.

If you grow in sterile soil-less mix, then you have to provide all the nutrients yourself, which to me seems a lot harder.

I water just with tap water, but I do let it sit overnight so the chlorine escapes.

Yep! I agree! [img]https://bestsmileys.com/thumbs/3.gif[/img]

[serial_killer]

It is easier in regular dirt, thats for sure! But its fun this way for us people who love to tinker.

You know leaving water out overnight to rid it of Chlorine is just a myth, Cl is very unstable and dissipates almost instantly when exposed to air. By the time you can get the water from the faucet to the plant its already gone. Not that leaving it out overnight hurts anything, just unnecessary, I guess it is beneficial in the sense that it gets the water to room temperature.

[cynthia_h]

When I *do* get it together to start seeds separately rather than just place them into the ground, I mix about 50/50 screened compost and potting soil. I water from the bottom, regular tap water from the hose, unless I have some rain water from my very primitive rain collector.

You can't get much more low-tech or low-cost. Which is how I was able to afford getting back into gardening in Spring 2008, when I had lost the last of three simultaneous part-time jobs (go figure: a part-time job in a grooming shop b/c I had to stay home and take care of a post-surgery dog). No steady work would be forthcoming for quite some time.

So low-cost was the only way. In California, seeds for food crops, like most basic foods, are not subject to sales tax, so I bought a few seeds. Most of the seeds I used were old ones from previous gardening. Enough of them worked so that I was successful!

So that complex formula again is 50% screened compost, 50% potting soil.

Cynthia

[earth]

Wow! thanks all....that was so much of info.... I knew nothing about fertilizing till now.