I have been wanting to make my own potting soil for months now, but I have been slow to get off the mark. I have found may recipes online, but I needed to get to my local nursery to get some supplies. Today I picked up what you see below. On the left is coconut coir. This material is a more sustainable replacement for the more limited peat moss. I have found that many recipes have switched over to this.

Recipe #1Recipe #2Recipe #3Recipe #4

Potting Soil Ingredients

My goal is to use my own homemade compost as the main organic material and combine that with the coconut coir and some perlite. I tried using my compost alone as a potting medium, but it is very hydrophobic, which means it sheds water and resists wetting. I think by combining the materials I will end up with something that works better as a potting soil.

I am not sure yet what my ratios are going to be for my mix, but I am looking at 3 parts compost to 1 part coir and 1 part perlite. I will play around with this mix until I feel I have something that works, though, so this ratio could change greatly once I start mixing. Once i get something I like I will also show you some re-potting I need to do and maybe even use it to start some seeds.

If you have any advice on making your own potting sol using these ingredients or others, leave a comment on this post. I would love to hear about your experience. What it comes to projects like this, I am far from an expert and will take any advice you have to offer. This is all a part of A Gardener’s Notebook — trying and learning together.

4 thoughts on “Project: Homemade Potting soil project”

  1. Hi,
    I have a recipe for soil-less soil mix which uses peat and perlite and 2 other ingredients. Let me know if you want this recipe – it was given by an expert here in India, whose workshop I had attended.
    You can replace the nutrition with your home made one, in the measurements recommended.

    Rgds,
    Ishita

      1. Best mix for soil less mix I have used is
        1 bushel of vermiculite, 1 bushel shredded peat moss, 8 T Super phosphate, 8 T Ground limestone, and 2 c steamed bonemeal

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