I was at a local garden centre not long back and overheard a couple talking while looking at the bags of potting mix.
“I’ve seen bags for half this price at the supermarket,” exclaimed he to she. “Can’t be too much difference”.
And off they happily went to said supermarket to buy their said cheap potting mix.
What could go wrong?
Lots … most likely they ended up with pots of dying or dead plants which then cost them more than the money they ‘saved’.
Like oils, potting mixes ain’t potting mixes.
To make things a little easier, there is a simple grading of standards of mixes.
If it meets the superior grade set out in the Australian Standards for potting mix, it will have a series of red ticks on the bag. This means it’s the best quality you can get and your plants will love you for it.
If it has a series of black ticks, it meets the general standards for a good all-round potting mix. This is at least the basic stuff you should buy. But it lacks slow release fertilisers, so you’ll still need to buy and add some of these.
If it has no quality ticks, it probably shouldn’t be called a potting mix – rather a ‘bag of pot filler’. To be honest, you may as well use styrofoam.
For my money, if I’m spending good coin on quality plants (from a quality local nursery), I want them to grow and perform at their best, so I’m always going to go with a premium red ticked potting mix.
To achieve the red tick premium standard, the mix must meet or exceed high standards of nutrient levels, excellent water holding capacity and effective wettability – all the things needed for healthy plant growth.
It already has the fertiliser to feed the plant for at least two months. It has a wetting agent to make sure that the mix holds water well and can be re-wet easily. And it has the right mix of different materials, components and sizes to allow the roots to grow and establish.
A premium potting mix might cost a little more, but it is almost ‘fool proofing’ the health and success of your container plant.
As the saying goes, you pay for what you get. You don’t put a $10 plant in a $1 hole and expect it to blossom. By paying that little bit extra, your precious potted plants will repay you in spades by growing healthily and happily.