The balcony boxes and flower pots are replanted every spring. Then it’s important to choose the right potting soil. But with the variety of plant substrates available in stores, choosing is difficult.
Which potting soil is suitable for balcony plants?
A high-quality potting soil that contains nutrients, compost, peat, coconut fiber, perlite, wetting agents and long-term fertilizer is suitable for balcony plants. The structure of the soil should be coarse to promote good rooting and provide sufficient nutrition.
What substances does potting soil contain?
Normal potting soil should provide ornamental plants with the necessary nutrients for some time, it should not contain any harmful substances and should be as free of pests as possible. This is only the case with sterilized soil.
The soil should contain:
- Compost
- possibly peat
- Coconut fibers
- Perlite, volcanic rock for soil ventilation
- Wetting agent for better water absorption of the soil
- Fertilizers that are slowly released to the plants.
Differences in potting soils
There are a wide variety of different types of potting soil in gardening stores. Almost every plant has its own soil with special ingredients, which often have to be paid for dearly. So many different types of soil are actually not necessary if you know the needs of your plants. In principle, three different potting soil compositions are sufficient:
- A potting soil is needed to raise seedlings. It is finely crumbly, has a low nutrient content and contains little s alt. This composition stimulates the seeds to develop good roots.
- The soil for pots or balcony boxes requires more nutrients and has a coarser structure. The planted flowers immediately receive sufficient nutrition and can root well in the coarse substrate.
- If you want to plant herbs on your balcony, you should use herb soil. This is a soil composition specially tailored to herbs with more sand and lime.
Benefits of high-quality potting soil
You can observe very different qualities of potting soil. The soil from the discount store is cheap, but contains a lot of peat. This is worrying in view of the disappearance of valuable moors.
The brand manufacturer advertises nutrient-rich, high-quality soil and promises an irresistible sea of flowers on the balcony. The soil is of course much more expensive, but it actually contains significantly more nutrients than the cheap goods and has already been provided with long-term fertilizer for some time. Here you can save on fertilizers, while you have to fertilize the discounter products very soon, which in turn increases the amount of work.
The long-term fertilizer allows the flowers in the box to develop slowly and well. They actually bloom beautifully. High-quality potting soil in the balcony boxes is worth it because it means less work and more joy.
