The Latest Method to Make Potting Soil Loose, Fertile and Airy

Everyone knows that the quality of potting soil has a considerable impact on the growth of flowers and plants; it can affect not only their vigor and blooming, but even their survival. Anyone who grows flowers and plants in pots hopes to make them grow with abundant flowers and lush leaves, and potting soil is precisely the most fundamental guarantee. For the vast majority of flowers and plants, the potting soil is often required to be loose, fertile and airy, so what should be done?

To keep potting soil loose, fertile and airy at all times, we generally need to strictly select the substrate materials when mixing soil. But a single growing medium is usually hard to simultaneously meet the three requirements of looseness, fertility and airiness, so to reach these three standards, we usually need to achieve it by preparing a mixed soil. For example, garden soil, perlite, vermiculite, pine needle soil, sawdust, leaf mold, peat soil, coal cinder, river sand and so on are all commonly used raw materials for mixing soil.

Moreover, if these raw materials are mixed in different proportions, the results in use will also differ, because the degrees of looseness, fertility and airiness differ. And with different lengths of use and different water and fertilizer management, the results of potting soil mixed in different ratios also differ. Therefore, when preparing potting soil for flowers and plants, we should consider the proportion of each raw material as appropriate according to the different growth habits of the plants.

But even so, fixed potting soil is not suitable for growing flowers and plants over the long term, because the longer flowers and plants are grown in pots, the nutrients and soil structure in the potting soil will gradually change. It can be said that the longer the potting soil has been used, the worse its looseness, fertility and airiness often become. This is because the plant continuously consumes the nutrients in the potting soil as it grows, and frequent watering and fertilizing will also gradually change the soil quality.

Therefore, although we may have prepared potting soil that meets the requirements of looseness, fertility and airiness in advance, after growing flowers and plants in pots for a long time we still need to promptly take corresponding measures to solve the problems of soil compaction and too few nutrients, so that it regains its functions and characteristics of looseness, fertility and airiness. A relatively simple method is to loosen the soil regularly, but the effect this method can achieve is rather limited, and it is also fairly easy to injure the root system. A better method is to repot and change the soil regularly, and this also allows us to prune the roots, which is very beneficial to the plant's later growth.

If it is not yet time to repot and change the soil, that is generally not recommended either, since frequent repotting and soil changing also causes considerable harm to the plant, and may even increase the risk of failure in recovering and settling in, leading to the death of the plant. So, to keep the potting soil loose, fertile and airy, we can bury some organic matter such as peanut shells and soybean cake residue in the pot, and the effect is very good.

Of course, we also need to pay attention during our usual care and management. Since we have prepared relatively high-quality soil that is loose, fertile and airy in advance, then to avoid or delay the potting soil becoming compacted and affecting water and fertilizer penetration and the looseness and airiness of the soil, we should be cautious in daily management, especially in the application of water and fertilizer. Generally there are also certain requirements for water quality and fertilizer; try not to use hard water and chemical fertilizers to grow flowers, otherwise it easily accelerates the compaction of the potting soil, thereby changing the soil quality, reducing looseness, fertility and permeability, and then affecting the normal growth of the plant.