How to Grow in Potting Soil
- 1). Feel the bag of potting soil and look at the ingredients when choosing the soil. Not all potting soils are created equal. If it is a small bag, yet feels heavy and thick beneath your hands and lists few or no ingredients other than compost or soil, it may not be much better than your garden soil. For most potted plants you want a soil that is loamy--this way it drains well, preventing stem rot and other common fungal diseases.
- 2). Choose a soil appropriate for your plants. If you are growing orchids, for example, these do best in soil-less mixes containing peat moss. Some soils also contain fertilizer--choose these if you have a busy schedule and want to give plants a head start.
- 3). Select plant containers with drainage holes. Potting soil is nearly always used in container gardening--using potting soil in your outdoor garden will get expensive fast (for outdoor gardens, use topsoil and compost and add other amendments as necessary). Plants in containers do better in pots with drainage holes so their roots aren’t swimming in stale water.
- 4). Create a hole in the soil, using a spoon or small spade, when planting seedlings. If you are planting seeds, a pencil tip works well for poking the hole.
- 5). Fertilize plants grown in potting soil, unless fertilizer was already added to the soil. No matter how rich and loamy potting soil may look, plants may still not receive adequate nutrients from the soil alone. The kind of fertilizer and frequency of fertilizing depends on the plant, but one rule of thumb is to fertilize during warm weather (even if the plant is indoors) and stop fertilizing during the dormant season (fall and winter).
- 6). Use a watering can to gently water plants grown this way. A garden hose, unless the stream is very gentle, easily washes soil out of the pot. Water most plants grown in potting soil when the top inch or two is dry (again, this is a general rule and can vary from plant to plant).
