By Ezra Free

Everyone has their own style of mixing their soil. The following is my current recipe for soil amendments in my container gardens. I am, of course, very open to suggestions or criticisms so I can take them into consideration.

One of the most important things most (but not all) plants need is well aerated soil. When you buy a pack of seeds they generally state on the back some instructions and you will notice many plants mention they require “well-drained” soil. So how do you mix your soil so it will be well-drained? By amending your soil with something that will provide aeration. In this case, by aeration we are referring to the amount of air gaps in the soil.

To provide aeration I amend my soil mixture with perlite and cocoa coir.

Coco coir is processed from the fibrous husk of coconuts. I have found coco coir to be better then peat moss because peat moss has had a tendancy to become water logged after a while causing very poor aeration in the soil. This can be fixed usually by tilling the soil a bit, but the shock of this situation can cause a delay in growth.

The perlite used in agriculture is actually “expanded perlite”. Perlite is an amorphous volcanic glass which is then expanded to 7-16 times its own volume by heating it to 850-900° C which releases the water as vapors, leaving an inorganic material of low density.  Perlite makes composts more open to air, while still having good water-retention properties.

I mix 1 parts coco coir and perlite to every 4 parts soil.

Each gardener should mix their soil in a large bin of some sort and feel the soil as they go along until they get the consistancy they feel is right.

More on this subject later, but in the meantime if you have a better recipe we’d love to hear it so don’t be afraid to comment!