Last year, I attempted to grow chickpeas for the very first time on my own. After 4 months of cultivation, I ended up with two chickpeas. What happened, you may ask?
My potting mix was absolute garbage.
I purchased an organic potting mix from my local home improvement store that was supposedly made of locally sourced ingredients and free from synthetic materials. Sounds good, but this experience taught me that not everything that is natural and organic is functional in the way it needs to be. The soil blend was full of woodchips and was very loose, making it hard for my chickpea plants to grow roots in a stable environment. I also believe the potting mix was rotten, as the blend I purchased for my outdoor crops kept growing mushrooms (???) and the blend I purchased for my houseplants caused flies to develop and ultimately led to my houseplant beginning to die until I repotted it in a different soil blend and saved it. Crazy all around.
This year, I'm making my own potting mix, and I'm sharing with you the recipe I plan to use and why to help you decide which direction you want to go in as you start your garden this spring.
What's in the potting mix?
For my potting mix, I will be using a combination of 3 natural ingredients: coco coir, perlite, and vermiculite.
Coco coir is a natural fiber made from the outer husk (shell) of a coconut. Coco coir is included in the potting mix to help it retain moisture. The consistency of the coco coir provides enough "bulk" so that the water doesn't loosely flow through, giving the plant's roots a chance to soak it up.
Perlite is a porous glass made as a result of rapidly cooling magma from volcanic eruptions. Perlite is included in the potting mix to provide aeration (air flow) and drainage. Moisture retention is important for potting mix, but too much water/lack of drainage with no air flow can cause your plant's roots to rot and ultimately die off.
Vermiculite is a naturally occurring mineral that is mined from the earth. Vermiculite is included in the potting mix to absorb water, helping to prevent overwatering and root rot.
Coco coir helps the potting mix hold water, perlite supports air flow and water drainage, and vermiculite absorbs excess water to prevent root rot. Your basic potting mix is complete. Depending on your choice of crop, you will need to amend your potting mix by adding nutrient dense substances to feed the plants like compost, worm castings, kelp meal, etc. We'll get into that in a later post.
Basic Potting Mix Recipe
The following recipe can be used for your pre-amended potting mix:
- 6 parts coco coir
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part vermiculite
A "part" is whatever you decide to use as a unit of measurement. For example, for a small gardening pot, you may use cups. So your "part" is one cup: 6 cups of coco coir, 1 cup of perlite, and 1 cup of vermiculite. For something larger like a raised bed, your "part" may be a 5 gallon bucket: 6-5 gallon buckets of coco coir, 1-5 gallon bucket of perlite, and 1-5 gallon bucket of vermiculite.
As you do your in-depth crop research, which again, will be covered in a later post, you will find that some crops prefer moist soil while others prefer drier/well-drained soil. This may call for an adjustment of how much perlite or vermiculite you include in your blend but for your first year, just use the basic potting mix recipe provided here and keep that info in the back of your head as you observe your plant's behavior throughout the season.
Potting Mix vs. Seed Starting Mix
Now the potting mix blend I shared above is for when you have seedlings that are being placed into their final growing container for the season (or for when you sow your seeds directly into the ground outdoors instead of starting them inside first). When starting your seeds indoors and transplanting your seedlings to their final growing destinations at a later date, you need a seed starting mix first. Seed starting mixes are much more light and fluffy than potting mixes. This allows the plants' roots to break through the soil and get established easier than it would in a more dense potting soil. Dense/heavier soil is hard for a baby plant's roots to break through.
Seed starting mixes do not need to be amended at all, as the seeds contain all the nutrients that plant will need to germinate and begin growing. It is only once the plant begins to mature and grow its first set of true leaves that it needs to be relocated into a potting mix and amended with additional nutrients since it is no longer a seed.
Basic Seed Starting Mix Recipe
To make your own seed starting mix, the materials are the same as the potting mix, just with different ratios.
- 1 part coco coir
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part vermiculite
The seed starting mix I used last year worked well for me, so I will use it again. It was the Jiffy brand seed starting mix. It comes in a yellow bag and can be found at basically any home improvement store. This recipe is provided in the case that you want to make your own seed starting mix instead of buying one.
How to Make Your Soil Mixes
Whether you're making a potting mix or a seed starting mix, the instructions are the same:
- Combine all of your measured ingredients into a bucket or bin. Saturate everything with water.
- Mix everything together until the blend is moist, not soggy. Use your hands (with gloves on), a gardening shovel, pitchfork, or other tool you can use to thoroughly combine everything.
- Fill your pot or seed tray with the soil mix, packing the soil in lightly, meaning you press down so that the soil isn't powder-like airy but not down so hard that the soil is so compact that your finger can't penetrate it. Use your finger's ability to penetrate your soil as a measure for packing: you should be able to stick your finger to the bottom of the pot/tray with a little bit of resistance from the soil. If your finger flies through as though there is no soil present at all, pack it a little tighter. If you cant get your finger through at all, remove some soil and loosen up what remains.
Note: Coco coir comes dry and will need to be rehydrated before use. Simply soak it in a bucket of water for at least 24 hours until it's fully hydrated and you're able to break it into smaller pieces.
Be sure to connect with us on Instagram and YouTube, as I will post videos demonstrating how to make and pack your soil blends correctly.