What Soil Is Best for Growing Green Plants? Soil Selection Tips Explained in One Go
Nowadays many people like growing green plants, because green plants are especially good at purifying the air. But although green plants are easy to grow, you can still run into plenty of problems. In fact, the most important thing when growing green plants is the soil: only when the soil is chosen well do green plants grow fast. So what soil should you use for growing green plants?
What soil should you use for growing green plants?
Humus soil, leaf mold, peat soil, turf soil, coniferous soil, mountain soil, plain sandy soil, Guangdong pond mud, etc. A detailed introduction follows.
1. Humus soil: also called manure soil. It is made by fermenting and composting a mixture of livestock manure and urine, bedding material and feed residues, and contains various organic matter as well as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium and so on. Its composition is mainly humus, it is loose in texture, acidic, and rich in nutrients, with strong fertilizer-holding and water-holding capacity, but rather poor drainage.
2. Leaf mold: it is the topsoil of forest areas in nature, formed from fallen leaves that have accumulated and rotted over many years. Leaf mold is loose in texture with many pores, acidic or slightly acidic, and rich in nutrients. It is suitable for planting all kinds of flowers that prefer acidic soil, and is also one of the main materials for mixing potted flower growing medium.
3. Peat soil: also called grass peat soil, it is collected from peat bogland. It is formed by the continuous accumulation of organic matter or under waterlogged conditions, part of which has already carbonized. It is dark brown in color, acidic, and rich in organic matter, sometimes as much as 80%-90%, and can improve the physical properties of soil. Peat soil itself does not provide much nutrition for plants to absorb and use, but it contains a large amount of fiber and humic acid, and has a strong ability to absorb fertilizer and hold water, making it a good material for mixing flower growing medium.
4. Turf soil: it is made by piling up weeds, straw and the like mixed with livestock manure and letting them rot. It contains relatively much humus and also relatively many minerals, and is weakly acidic.
5. Coniferous soil: it is formed from the fallen leaves and dead branches of conifers of the Pinaceae and Cupressaceae families and mosses piling up and decomposing into humus. Coniferous soil formed from the fallen leaves of Picea (spruce) and Abies (fir) is acidic (pH 3.5-4.0), rich in humus, and suitable for flowers that prefer acidic soil.
6. Mountain soil: commonly known as orchid soil, it is a natural humus soil produced in the mountainous areas of Jiangsu and Zhejiang, formed from fallen leaves that have accumulated and rotted over many years. It is dark brown, loose, and light in weight, both air-permeable and draining, while also holding fertilizer and water, making it a good soil for potting. This soil is on the acidic side and suitable for cultivating flowers that prefer acidic soil.
7. Plain sandy soil: a kind of fine sandy soil, pure in texture, with good aeration and water permeability, but it has no fertility and no granular structure either, and its water-holding performance is poor. It is often used as soil for sowing or cuttings of ordinary flowers, and is also one of the raw materials for mixing growing medium.
8. Guangdong pond mud: it is the fertile pond mud clumps of South China, the surface soil deposited at the bottom of ponds over many years. It is rich in organic matter, full of nutrients, slightly acidic, and hard in texture.
You can also add to the soil:
Vermiculite: good aeration and ventilation performance, but it easily turns into powder.
Perlite: air-permeable and not prone to accumulating debris.
Charcoal: it can eliminate toxic substances in pots and has relatively good air permeability.
Carbonized husk: it contains carbon, phosphorus and potassium fertilizers, which are very beneficial to plant growth.