Perfect Soil Mixture for Summer Plants

Soil is the daily bread for the hearty growth of plants. It has to be nutritious, well-drained, porous, and lightweight.

Importance of healthy potting mixture:

• • For ground gardening, soil with compost is sufficient for the healthy growth of the plants but for container gardening, lots of things need to be added to make the soil generative.

• • Plants would not grow after 2-3 months if it is planted only in normal soil. They might catch diseases, mealybugs, or any other infection due to lack of required nutrients.

• • Generally, clay soil is used and this type of soil becomes hard after giving water 3-4 times. It will become very tight after troweling and water will not go deep inside at the bottom of the pot.

• • Soil needs to be escorted with many minerals and nutrients to make it high yielding. Potting mixture has to be perfect for the crowning growth of plants.

Soil Mixture For Basic Gardening

Let’s start to prepare soil mixture for summer plants like Tulsi, Hibiscus, Pumpkin, Ridge Gourd, and many others.

1) Collect Soil From Local Surroundings

• • Collect the soil from local areas be it red, black, clay, or sandy.
  • Clean it properly and remove all the plastics, glass pieces, old roots plus stones from the soil.
  • After cleaning, keep the soil in sunlight for a day. Sunlight helps in removing ants, insects, or any fungus from it.
  • After 24 hours, when the soil is completely dry, sprinkle some water drops on it to make it damp for mixing.

2) Add Compost- to maintain the minerals and moisture level of soil

• • Compost is a big – wheel with lots of vitals and nutrients, also called black gold. It holds the water for a longer span and it will not make soil dry quickly. It also enhances and improves the texture of the soil.

• • To add minerals and nutrients, compost needs to be added. It can be any compost like vermicompost, kitchen compost, leave compost, or cow dung compost.

• • It should be half of the quantity of soil. Let’s say, if we have 20 kg of soil then 10 kg compost is needed to be added.

3) Add Cocopeat- to hold the water for a longer run

• • Coco Peat makes the soil very light and it holds the water for more time. In the scorching heat of May – June, coco peat acts as a catalyst in the growth of the plants by maintaining both the moisture and temperature of the pot.

• • After adding cocopeat, plants need not be watered again and again.

• • Cocopeat should be taken half of the quantity of compost.

4) Add Sand to make Soil Porous

• • Very often it is noticed that water stays at the top layer of the soil and it is not well drained. Plus, soil cannot absorb the water to reach the bottom roots of the plants, in that case, sand makes soil porous and does not hold water.

• • It makes the soil well-drained.

• • Sand and coco peat should be added in equal quantities.

• • Sea sand should not be used for potting mixture as it contains salt. Always use river sand, which can be gathered from any construction site.

5) Add Neem Cake Powder – to protect the roots from pests

• • Neem cake powder guards the plants against diseases, infections, or insects.

• • Good quality neem cake has a smell, so while adding it to the soil check the level of smell. Stop adding if a strong smell starts coming.
  • Approximately, in 20 kg soil, half a kg neem cake powder is enough.

6) Add fungicide to prevent fungus in plants

Fungicide counter fungus in plants. Either prepare a fine powder of cinnamon as a fungicide or use Saaf fungicide powder.

• • The quantity of fungicide should be one-half of neem cake powder.

Process:

• • Now, mix all the ingredients properly and uniformly.

• • After mixing, it can be stored in any container.

• • This soil can be used for transplanting plants and for existing plants as well.

• • For existing plants, remove the upper layer of soil and add this potting mixture.

• • This potting mixture is very light in weight, it can retain water for a longer span, it has all the nutrition plus it will keep your plant pest free.

PRECAUTION

Many people have sensitive skin, in that case gloves can be used otherwise this work can be done with hands also. Hands should be properly washed and sanitised after preparing potting mixture.

Happy Gardening !!

Keep Planting !!