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What's wrong about using soil in pots?
one
thing people often forget is that nature never intended plants to grow in
pots and other man-made containers. Growing a plant in a pot means cramping its roots and limiting
the plants' food and water supply. Container gardening is a human
invention -- and it takes some human intervention to make sure potted
plants get the best growing environment possible. When GreenHearts first began as a garden shop in 1999, it also went through its first attempts at propagating its own plants. What they quickly discovered was that no matter how healthy and lush the mother plants that they purchased from big nurseries, many of the plants soon weakened, got sick or even died when they were transplanted into new containers. After a painful period of learning, they realized that it wasn't just the water, sunlight and fertilizers that mattered greatly -- but even the potting soil into which they transferred the plants! They discovered that nurseries did not use garden soil as the growing medium for their plants. Instead, they used their own special formulations of soil-less mixes using mainly coir or coconut dust mixed with a variety of additives to improve aeration, water retention, ph levels and nutrient content. In certain cases when the nurseries still used soil, they literally cooked the soil first to destroy soil-borne diseases, harmful organisms and weed seeds. With this newfound knowledge, GreenHearts began using the potting mix formulations of other suppliers for its plants. But they soon grew dissatisfied with the mixes they were using and so they set out to develop their own original formulations which they made available to their customers in their shop in Quezon City. In no time at all, customers were clamoring for GreenHearts' soil-less mixes to be made more widely available -- particularly customers who had to travel from Alabang or Makati just to purchase a few bags. With that, the line of popular soil-less mixes of GreenHearts soon found its way into the shelves of lawn and garden sections of leading do-it-yourself shops like Ace Hardware and Handyman. What's bad about soil? Ordinary garden soil is generally made up of loam, clay, silt, stones, organic matter and a multitude of organisms (both good and bad), soil-borne diseases, weed-seeds and even bits of trash. Potted plants will have to deal with the diseases, pests and weeds that come with the soil -- the effects of which are aggravated in the confines of a pot. In addition, when plain garden soil is used in pots, it gets hard or compacted over time and both water and air find it difficult to get to the plant roots. As for the humans who need to handle the soil, there's a plethora of bad stuff hidden in the soil most gardeners would really rather not get in contact with; anything from horse manure to a wriggly worm or even the tetanus virus! What's good about going soil-less? Good quality soil-less potting mixes are made up of
varying pro The absence of dirt and mud
in soil-less mixes is also of extra benefit to the urban gardener. Garden
with a soil-less mix and you'll spend a fraction of the time washing your
hands afterwards -- no cloying mud clinging to your skin and under your
fingernails. Not only are soil-less potting mixes cleaner, they’re also
lighter –- making it easier to move pots in and out of the house. |
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Copyright 2007 GreenHearts The Garden Shop |
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portions of organic matter and other naturally-occurring
materials that have been pre-measured to give the perfect levels of
aeration, drainage and moisture-retention for maximum plant performance.
If you've ever purchased a potted plant from a professional grower or a
plant nursery, you will notice that a special mix was used as the growing
medium, not ordinary soil. Any soil used by nurseries for pots is also
sterilized to remove harmful soil-borne bacteria, pests and weed seeds
before it is mixed in with other ingredients. The mixture changes
depending on the plant.