What Is The Best Potting Compost For Indoor Plants?
If you’re looking to grow plants inside, in pots, and wondering what the best kind of potting compost/growing media is for your plants, then this article is for you. No matter if you’re new to indoor growing, or you just want to brush up – we’ll give you all the information you need to make your own informed choice.
Garden tip: Don’t forget the importance of a high quality, full-spectrum LED grow light and grow tent set up.
Traditional Potting Compost
Traditionally, gardeners grow plants in different sized round plant pots, using soil or multipurpose compost.
Modern Potting Compost & Other Growing Media
Modern growing methods offer you a plethora of different fabric plant pots and Air Pots that encourage profuse root growth by air pruning to encourage more root branching. There are also more soilless growing mediums, like Coco-Coir, peat-free composts and various mixed substrates to choose from.
This article aims to inform you, and make it easier for you to decide which growing media is best for you. Read on to learn how to compare the most popular substrates and where you can use them to your advantage.
Soil
Soil is a natural medium, but the soil for indoor plants is different to outdoor soil. This is because it won’t see seasonal cycles, like frost/thaw, rainfall and natural disturbance. There are many things to consider, for the best indoor soil to grow your plants in, such as drainage, water retention, and pH.
Indoor soil tends to come in several forms to cater to specific plants. Each form will comprise at least two soil types: sandy, silt, loam, and clay.
Soil already contains a natural level of nutrients, giving you a little more leeway in feeding your plant. When it comes to growing organically, the earth is essential. Soil contains live microbes and organisms that help break down organic plant food into a soluble form for your plants. This would not be possible using coco or other inert substrates as they do not contain the natural levels of organic organisms that soil does.
The three key things you want from soil to grow healthy plants are:
- Texture
- Good drainage
- Water retention
Additionally, plants grown in soil have a deeper flavour and aroma to your fresh produce.
Soils with too tight a texture are prone to compaction and this can affect your plants, as they won’t be able to develop strong roots.
Without good drainage, you can easily end up over watering your plants and starving them of oxygen. This can cause root disease or cause them to wilt.
Conversely, without good water retention, your roots will dry out quickly and become damaged.
It is a good idea to mix soil with coco coir, perlite, or clay balls to help with water and oxygen retention, and drainage.
GrowDog Soil Perlite Potting Compost Mix
GrowDog Soil Perlite mix is a professional pre-fertilized potting compost with added beneficial microbes and symbiotic mycorrhizal fungi. The beneficial microbes facilitate fast root development for improved upward growth. Mycorrhizal fungi is natures secret, its symbiotic relationship with plant’s roots is well know to dramatically increase the root zone. The mycelial fibres fill the potting compost and access more of the available water and nutrients than your plant is able to. The fungi feeds water and nutrients directly to your plants in exchange for simple sugars and starches.
GrowDog Soil Perlite has enough plant-available nutrients to last your plant 4 weeks, before you need to start feeding. This mix includes premium, weed-free Irish peat blended with perlite for compaction resistance, improved drainage, and water retention. GrowDog Soil Perlite is an excellent general-purpose potting compost with superb moisture retention and drainage.
The GrowDog Soil Perlite blend contains natural humic soil improvers, mycorrhizal fungi, base fertilisers and beneficial bacteria. It is a medium to heavily fertilised soil substrate containing enough nutrition to meet your plants’ needs for 2-4 weeks before starting your feeding regime.
You can use soil/Perlite mix in various indoor grow systems, including hand watering, flood and drain, passive watering and dripper systems. Mixing perlite in with the soil helps with its water holding capacity. It also improves drainage and improves aeration.
Coco Coir
Coco coir (coconut coir) is a waste product, manufactured using fibre from coconut shells. The coir product is buffered, conditioned, and pre-treated to stabilise it.
Coco encourages fast growth by improving the accessibility of nutrients to the roots, meaning quicker harvests and bigger yields. Coco is a lightweight material that provides a combination of water retention, drainage, and aeration. It has a neutral pH range of 5.0-7.0, making it a perfect blank canvas for your nutrients.
Coco is an environmentally conscious, recyclable product that utilises parts of the fruit that would otherwise go unused. Coco also has natural antifungal properties and can repel selected pests.
Perlite
Perlite is a volcanic glass that, when heated, transforms into a white mineral.
Having a bag of Perlite on hand is perfect to add to any potting mix.
Perlite provides compaction resistance and holds onto oxygen quickly, to help create a densely aerated environment for plant roots to thrive.
Perlite makes a great soil additive. You can add perlite to coco or soil to create a superior growing substrate. Perlite has superb water retention and drainage properties, making it perfect for using to germinate seeds.
GrowDog 70/30 Coco Perlite Mix
GrowDog 70/30 Coco/Perlite mix is a pre-washed coco and perlite growing media that provides a natural balance of water retention, aeration, and drainage whilst encouraging beneficial microorganisms. An optimal feeding regime will give your plant constant access to nutrients and aeration for faster growth.
You can use GrowDog 70/30 Coco/Perlite mix in various indoor grow systems, including hand watering, flood and drain, passive watering and dripper systems.
Always use a nutrient formulated for coco. This is important because coco can sometimes absorb CalMag while releasing sodium & potassium; coco-compatible nutrients and additives such as the GrowDog range will help compensate for this exchange.
Clay Pebbles
Clay pebbles (also known as “leca”) are small pieces of clay, processed at extremely high temperatures. They’re a great medium to use in hydroponic systems. They work well, mixed with coco coir too.
Clay pebbles are light and porous. Mixing clay pebbles with coco coir provides your plants with increased access to oxygen pockets. This helps to improve root growth.
GrowDog 60/40 Coco Pebble Mix
GrowDog’s 60/40 Coco Pebble Mix is a ready to use pre-mixed growing media. 60/40 provides washed and prepared coco coir with ultra-low EC clay pebbles.
The premium-grade, irregular-sized “leca” pebbles add structure, aeration, and drainage. Coco coir holds on to vital nutrients to feed your plant’s growth between feeds. The same processes also encourage the production of beneficial microorganisms.
You can use GrowDog 60/40 Coco/Pebble mix in various indoor grow systems, including hand watering, flood and drain, passive watering and dripper systems.
Always use a nutrient formulated especially for coco substrates. Coco can sometimes absorb CalMag while releasing sodium & potassium. A good coco-compatible nutrient and additive range such as GrowDog will account for this exchange.
Rock Wool
Rock wool is a lightweight hydroponic growing substrate made from fine fibres of molten basalt rock. It has fantastic moisture retention and aeration and is available in cubes, blocks, growing slabs and granular products.
You can use Rock wool for crops such as tomatoes, melons, cucumbers, peppers, strawberries, herbs and cut flowers. It has a unique natural moisture gradient between the top and base of a rock wool product. This provides excellent aeration, allowing you to easily root cuttings. It’s also perfect for your plants’ root systems to obtain plenty of oxygen.
Some rock wool products maintain a slightly drier root zone and help steer crops away from overly aggressive vegetative growth. In contrast, other rock wool products encourage ultra-rapid root growth and development.
Rock wool substrate won’t degrade through your growth cycle, making it ideal for use with hydroponic systems. Disintegrating materials can clog up your system’s components and cause problems.
Pre-soaking rock wool is critical. Immerse the rock wool in a pH-adjusted nutrient solution. Soak it until any signs of bubbles disappear. Deeply soaking the rock wool allows the water to penetrate all the microscopic pores and prepares it for roots.
Using a nutrient range suitable for your growing system is essential. GrowDog nutrients and additives are ideal for coco, soil and hydro systems and provide all the vital nutrients required for optimal growth throughout the life cycle of your plant.
Plant Nutrients
Growdog Mighty Minerals – Liquid Plant Nutrients
The Growdog Mighty Minerals liquid plant food incorporates a highly concentrated liquid A&B plant nutrient. It gives you a complete range of essential plant nutrients in a bottle (well, two, actually).
Mighty Minerals is simple to use. Its high-tech formula saves you money by combining Grow and Bloom to create a complete feeding regime for your plants.
GrowDog Mighty Minerals incorporates:
- Grow – High levels of nitrogen encourage fast leaf and shoot development.
- Bloom -Precise levels of phosphorous and potassium support fruit and flower production.
Give your plants the best chance of success, by using your choice of GrowDog potting compost with the full range of GrowDog nutrients, and GrowDog additive boosters. GrowDog nutrients and boosters provide your plants with the optimum mix of high-value minerals, natural chelates, essential nutrients, vitamins, and trace elements.
GrowDog Dilution Rates & Feed Charts
Click the following links to download the GrowDog Feed charts. Make sure you choose the right link for the media that you’re using to grow your plants in:
