I mix my own soil, I am only sharing a few tricks because my soil is my secret recipe. This recipe calls for just one pot to fill.
1. First you will need to fill your pot 3/4 of the way with soil.
2. Then add a soil additive to increase air flow. I am using silica, some people use perlite.
3. Pour in 4 cups of silica on top of soil
4. Mix by hand
5. Soil should look like thisonce you have mixed it
6. Next add a root inoculant. This helps the roots during the transplant encourages new growth and for the roots to spread. This helps with the fungal layer that grows around your roots. Your roots should be alive with microbial life.
7. Add 1 tsp of inoculant on top of soil.
8. Next I am adding 1 heaping table spoon of a soil additive that consists of bat guano and mycorrhizae, among other things to help feed the plant and enourage growth in the soil, I am using Rainbow Grow mix. All of these additives help the NPK mix in the plant. Nitrogen, Phosophorous and Potassium levels are critical to a plants grow strong.
9. Once you add both additives the top of your soil should look like this.
10. Now with your hands mix the additives thoroughly throughout the soil.
11. Take plant, (mine is a basil plant) and flip it upside down and check to see if it needs to be transplanted. You check my examining the roots. If they are growing out of the pot its in, it means they are healthy and are ready for a bigger pot to grow in.
12. Remove pot by squeezing the outsides of the pot and gently pulling on the stems down. (Soil in pot should be dry when transplanting. If it's wet is may fall apart.)
13. Look at the roots again, you can see if the plant is root bound or not. If it is root bound, the roots will be brown at the tips, which means the plant is in dire need of a new home! To encourage new growth root bound or not, you are going to want to squeeze the roots and allow them to separate a little.
14. Once roots are squeezed and separated, Place plant on top of soil, you will notice that you need more soil to fill in the rest of the pot.
15. Top off the pot with more soil and silica mix around the plant. Add a layer of worm castings for a bonus!
16. You are going to want to water your plant but before you do make sure you check the chlorine levels in your water. Chlorine will kill the microbial life at the roots that you really want to keep alive. So let your water sit over night and water the next day.
17. To encourage new growth and help make the plant grow the way I want (several buds per stem instead of one bud per stem) I pinch the plants. Pinching is easy and stimulates to heads to form instead of one. All you do is pinch off the top of the plant where you see the newest growth. Usually these are small leaves. Once you pinch off the tops, two sets of leaves will form where one once was.
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| Pinch the little leaves off on the top |
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| Pinching little leaves off |
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| What plant should look like after you pinch the small leaves off |
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| After a few days you will notice new growth of two sets of leaves instead of one! |
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| What it should look like as a result of pinching- 2 sets of leaves growing |
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