Methods for Making Homemade General Potting Soil
This article introduces the common knowledge of flower cultivation, specifically the method of making homemade general potting soil, which is a very useful tip worth collecting!
Most flowers prefer soil that is rich in organic matter, fertile, and loose, such as mountain soil and pond mud. However, such soil is rare in cities, and it's not advisable to simply use any soil found or dig a hole in the yard to plant flowers. What to do? In fact, there's no need to worry about soil for growing flowers in urban homes. You can make homemade general potting soil or improve the soil locally without the need for additional base fertilizer. There are many ways to do this; here are some examples:
Firstly, you can mix fly ash from coal-fired power plants, coal ash slag, or soot (collectively known as coal ash) with half garden soil to grow flowers. This not only improves the powdery soil but can also completely replace the general potting soil when combined with nitrogen fertilizer application. Remove the large chunks and use the ones the size of soybeans as a drainage layer at the bottom, which works very well. Coal ash contains nutrients such as phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium, copper, manganese, zinc, etc.
Secondly, collect soil堆积ed on the roadside, on the ridges of rooftops, or on the leeward side of buildings, mix it with 20% coal ash and 10-20% sawdust, and then add some finely chopped eggshells, soybean skins, fruit peels, hair, bone meal, etc. Keep the mixture moist and pile it up for a period, or seal it in a plastic bag to make good-quality general potting soil.
Thirdly, mix 80% of vermiculite from a building materials store (C-S) with 20% of well-rotted donkey or horse manure to make general potting soil.
Different types of flowers have different requirements for soil type and pH level. Therefore, general potting soil is only suitable for growing herbaceous flowers that require good drainage and aeration, such as chrysanthemums and dahlias. When growing other flowers, additional measures need to be taken in addition to using general potting soil. For example, when growing roses and hibiscus, add 20% weathered river mud; when growing camellias, gardenias, milanas, and azaleas that prefer acidic soil, add 0.2% sulfur powder; when growing cymbidiums, orchids, and bird-of-paradise flowers, add 30% decomposed leaf soil from the forests of Northeast China; when growing orchids, add 70% mountain soil from Jiangsu and Zhejiang; when planting cacti to make the spines shiny and the flowers bright, add 10% wall skin soil or lime powder that has peeled off from lime walls, with golden dew adding 30% coarse sand, and cut-leaf hibiscus requiring an increased amount of decomposed leaf soil.
This article shares the specific introduction of the method for making homemade general potting soil, hoping everyone will like it!