DIY potting mix

[Sarasvati]

I was doing up some mix for my seeds today and thought I'd share. You don't have to buy potting mix, you can make your own. After reading heaps this is the general mix I've come up with:

1 part organic compost (try to get a really good quality one)
1 part cocopeat (follow directions on the block... you can use peat moss but it is NOT renewable)
1/2 to 1 part vermiculite (it depends on how much drainage you want).

The vermiculite is for drainage, the cocopeat to retain moisture, and the compost is for nutrients. Straight compost is not recommended, even though it seems odd to put two opposing elements in, but really you do need them to keep the structure of the mix. I've grown veges in this mix and the same veges in organic potting mix at the same time, and the veges in my mix grew amazingly lush compared to the potting mix plants.

You can vary it for different needs too, adding sand for plants that like drier conditions etc.

That's it! If you have to buy compost it's really no cheaper than buying organic potting mix, but as I said, I was so unimpressed with the performance of the potting mix I bought that I went back to making my own. If you make your own compost then it's way cheaper!

[battlecrumpet]

Thanks for posting S. I've always just used straight compost but the productivity of my garden isn't great, so maybe that's part of the prob...?

Is the above recipe something you'd use for direct planting or just for seedlings in pots? And would you get the vermiculite and cocoa peat (neither of which I've heard of before) in a hardware / garden shop? Or somewhere else?

[Sarasvati]

If I'm putting into a garden bed I don't bother with cocopeat and vermiculite. I try to build the soil up with compost, manures, sugar cane mulch, newspaper etc. I only use the above mix in pots (I've raised seedlings successfully in a half and half mix of compost and cocopeat, but that was stuff I planned to plat out really quickly. For the ones I sowed today I added vermiculite).

Vermiculite you can get from any decent nursery, I think I've seen it at Northey St too. Bunnings and Mitre 10 have it too. Cocopeat is everywhere, it's basically just coir fibre from the outer shell of the coconut. YOu can even get it at Big W.

ETA: you don't have to use vermiculite, you could probably use bark, smallish rocks and sand instead, but I had success with vermiculite so stuck with that!