How to Make Your Own Potting Soil

(Page 4 of 4)

December 2008/January 2009
By Barbara Pleasant 
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Adding Fertilizer

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Of the 35 recipes for organic potting mixes collected and published by the National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service, many include blood meal (for nitrogen), bone meal (for phosphorus), and small amounts of kelp meal, greensand or various rock-based minerals for minor nutrients. Think before you act, especially if you are substituting nutrient-rich compost for nutrient-poor peat, perlite or vermiculite. Give real potting soil a chance, wait and see, and let experience be your teacher. Should plants grow slowly or show other signs of nutrient stress, it’s easy enough to feed them with a mix-with-water organic fertilizer. Add organic fertilizer in small amounts until your potting soil is giving you the results you want. 

Until 30 years ago, most gardeners made their own potting soil by combining their best garden soil with rotted manure from the barn or buckets of leaf mold hauled home from damp stream banks, topped off with a dusting of wood ashes. Contrast and compare: North American gardeners now spend more than $500 million each year on potting mixes and specialty soils. How many of those dollars do you want to come from your wallet?

While working on this story, contributing editor Barbara Pleasant grew all of the seedlings for her fall garden in homemade potting soil, and they did well.
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