so if you don't want to use a pre-made one
you could always make your own soil mix
it's really just a matter of preference
there's no right or wrong way to do it
and the ingredients I used are just the ones i currently have are the ones that i want to try out
as long as you have a soil amendment
for the drainage and you have a soil amendment for retaining moisture
and maybe some nutrients like earthworm casting or any slow release fertilizer
then you're pretty good
it's up to you to play with the ratio
with me i'm not using any nutrients today because i don't have any earthworm castings
but i do have several materials with me like this this one is peat moss that already pre-moistened
the thing with peat moss is you buy them dry at least when i did i bought this in
bulk last year for my outdoor garden and it's dry
and it's very difficult to get wet and of course it's not the most sustainable option
this one is coco coir and coco husk i got this from costco
this is actually supposed to be mulch but i think i could use it for my soil mix as well
over here i have some perlite
again there's a debate whether
lights is sustainable or not so it's up to you whether you want to use it
and there's also vermiculite
this is my first time trying this one this one probably costs as much as perlite
so if you don't want to use perlite you could try this one as well
some orchid bark right over here
and this one's orchid part mix that's also mixed with some pumice and some horticultural coal
so like i said when making your own soil mix it's
really up to you what the ratio you would like to be
if you just stick to a 50 50 ratio or one is to one ratio you're pretty good
but if you have multiple ingredients like this
where you want one part of your soil mix or a half of your soil mix
will be the one that retains moisture and the other half that provides aeration and drainage
so with this one since the only material that i have for retaining moisture is peat moss
this was going to be like 50 of it or maybe 40 30 and the rest would be
the other amendments that i have
the coco husk is a 50 50. it does provide aeration but it also could
hold moisture so it's kind of like a sphagnum moss that way
take
this for now
sometimes the orchid bark comes with large pieces i either break them down or just get rid of them
because they're too big for my houseplants
and a little bit of perlite
oops a lot of pearlite
so as you can see with the ratio of this one
vermiculite pearlite orchid bark peat moss and coco bark slash coco husk
it's kind of like a 50 50 proportion
i would add a little bit more peat moss so this one is
so this one with this makes it kind of a little bit more like my aroid soil mix
but if you wanted to make it a little bit more of a tropical mix
that retains a little bit more moisture
then add a little bit more peat moss
and i'm gonna sprinkle a little bit of epsom salt so this is the
only plant nutrients that i'm adding to this
i'm gonna sprinkle some epsom salt which will be like the only
nutrient that i'm gonna add into this
so this will provide like magnesium
and just mix them all up
and there you go that's my soil mix and because
the peat moss is pre-moistened i don't feel the need to re-moisten this
but if i'm going to re-moisten this one i'm gonna use a nutrient water
or water that has liquid fertilizer in it
since i don't have any nutrients in here except for the epsom salt but that's pretty much it
and i can use it to plant any houseplant that i want
so here's another one that i need to repot
my rhaphidophra tetrasperma
it has been rehabbing in the sphagnum moss because it did experience root rot back in december
so now it is ready to be repotted into its permanent home
which is the six inch terracotta pot
so since this one is kind of like with the anthurium it has been in sphagnum moss rehabbing
so this is more of a transplant than a repotting but it's all the same and it's all good
and just be careful with taking out the moss
moss can be reused as long as you treat them i guess
like make sure like treat them with boiling water
just to make sure there's no pests in it and whatnot
but kind of like we did anthurium if you have a
hard time getting the moss off the roots then don't force it
because you don't want damaged roots it's okay and since it's going to be in a terracotta pot
i don't mind it having sphagnum moss that will help it retain moisture a little bit
especially now we're heading into the growing season
so i think this is good enough for me because like i said i don't want to damage the roots
this one because the drainage hole is too big
i would want to put something underneath to help the soil not escape that drainage hole
so i'm going to put a layer of the sphagnum moss back at the bottom
that will help it with retaining some moisture as well
and i'm going to put a little bit at the bottom and then put this one here
so as you can see this already came with the moss pole so i'm just going to
do that like that and then
back fill it
and then i would shake it down just so i know every crook and craddy is being filled with soil
and as to also properly anchor the plant
up so with terracotta pot it's a good thing it has
like a line so you kind of know where you should fill it up to
and you don't have to like guess
but
so
and tie this one up so that it's properly anchored in the moss pole
there you go
and then here's the super thrive again
i'm just gonna put a drop in this water
and then water the plant very slowly so that the water don't so that the soil
don't erode or overflow out of the pot
and it's draining out so that is good
so even though i kept a lot of the moss in there
you can see that it is still very much well draining
and it's in a terracotta pot so that is a good thing