How to Make Potting Mix for Home Garden? Gardening Expert Shares Secrets

An excerpt from The Better India article ‘IHow to Make Potting Mix for Home Garden? Gardening Expert Shares Secrets’ by Roshni Muthukumari dated Jul 03, 2020 

This potting mix is lighter compared to regular soil, and it is ideal for urban gardeners who are growing plants on their terrace

Did you know that the Earth is running out of fertile soil?

According to a report by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), half of the topsoil on the planet has been lost in the last 150 years. In addition to erosion, its quality is also affected by other aspects of agriculture such as the use of harmful pesticides.

In urban areas, more and more people are growing their food using different methods to ease the burden on the planet. But those methods are not exactly sustainable. Most readymade potting mixes consist of soil that is usually red soil, or river sand. This fertile soil is usually taken from agricultural fields, and sometimes illegally from river beds.

But there is a way around for urban gardeners — a soilless potting mix.

SS Radhakrishnan, a 72-year-old Chennai-based home gardener, has been making a soil substitute for his plants for the past 11 years. He says this potting mix is lighter compared to regular soil, and it is ideal for urban gardeners who are growing plants on their terrace or balcony.

These are the things you will need to make the soil substitute:

Cocopeat
Vermicompost
Neem cake powder
Lime chuna powder
Ash

Read the full article here:

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