potting soil

I have bought more huge bags of potting soil this year. It is expensive. Any tips on making your own? (for my indoor plants)
thanks, I gotta do something.
Dawn

Dawn,

I know people many folks don't believe this is good practice... but I have been
successful in recycling my potting soil. I put it in a big tub at the end of the season
- cleaning out any organic matter first. Then in the spring, I mix in worm castings
and use it for containers. For seed starting, I always use fresh sterile soil.

I also found that bricks of coir are reasonably priced and much easier to store.
They expand significantly when moistened. I mix in vermiculite & perlite (plus
worm castings) and use this a lot as well.

Tam

I recently potted up around 80 begonia plants using only Nature's Helper (about 1/4 the cost of good potting soil). It has the drainage properties I want and also seems to keep moisture available. I'm curious now if it will break down sooner than later and cause problems this winter. Hopefully it will be good for a year or two. If so, then I will use it a lot more for container plants.

http://www.natureshelper.com/

Here's a link on how to make your own:

http://www.budget101.com/garden/garden4.htm

Have you considered going soiless? I use a peat based potting mix call ProMix-BX. It comes in compressed bales. It's lots lighter and more root friendly than dirt.

X

Dirt? I hope no one is using garden soil (dirt) for container plants - especially indoor plants.

Can't you buy it by the cubic metre (yard) I buy mine in bulk....but perhaps you don't have that kind of thing. I store it under cover of a roof ....and then I can mix it with other kinds of stuff according to what I am planting...ie sand ...peat moss...cow doo etc.

Chrissy, what are you buying in bulk?
X - I tried your link but got nothing.

Hmm .. i just tried the link and it worked for me. You can go to any search engine and type in the following:

home made potting soil

You'll come up with lots of links.

X

I buy bulk potting mix....that works out very cheap that way.....you know like bulk mushroom compost etc.

I guess I would need to go to a real garden center for that.

Well our garden centres and produce stores deliver it .....see if they will do that for you...it is much cheaper.

I just realized you are from Australia. Cool! I would most likely have to go to a garden center and buy a truck load. I'm so used to going to our big box stores for everything that I don't think to buy in bulk. this year I did when I realized I spent $12.00 a pc for 4 30 or 40 lb bags of Miracle Grow potting soil.

I bought 5 bags of Nature's Helper (2.5 CF in a bag) today for less than $12 total. It's great for improving garden soil and I've used it for outdoor containers with pretty good results. Now I am experimenting with it for other tender plants. I like MG as well but buy the really large bags at Sam's but it is not as fast draining as I would like it. I incorporate about %30 Perlite when I use it.

I just discovered the ProMix-BX in the compressed format this season and have been very pleased with it for use in my Earthboxes and as a soil amendment. I found it at my local Agway which is very handy. It was not that cheap, yet reasonable. But I agree that the link given by Xeramtheum offers a very good do-it yourself mix. I add worm castings to all my soil and potting mixes.

I finally got that link to work. There are some good tips in there. I bookmarked it. Thanks.