How to Turn Your Home into and Indoor Jungle Part 1: Step 3: Know your Soil
Understanding the soil is very helpful. If you want a home full of lush plants becoming familiar with the basics will go a long way in helping you achieve that goal.
Technically soil is the wrong term to use here. If you want more details check LEAVE IT THE FUCK ALONE: A Plant Care Guide, but basically when talking about indoor plants the technical term for the brown stuff your plants’ roots live in is called Potting Media. But very few people call it that. Rather than to try and change the way everyone talks we can just call it soil and I think you will know what I mean.
The soil your plants come in generally will contain a lot of brown material. This is organic matter meant to hold nutrients and water.
There are two major players in this world. Peat Moss and Coco-Coir. Both go by different names, and both have different abilities to hold onto water and nutrients. Peat Moss holds on to water very well. Often too well. It also does a decent job at giving up stored nutrients to plants. To many people, it is considered ‘better quality’ of the two. The problem is, it’s not good for the environment. It’s a product that requires the destruction of natural wetlands to harvest.
Coco-Coir is made from the left-over husks from the coconut industry. It’s often touted as the more environmentally friendly alternative because it is a byproduct of another industry. Great right? Coconut husks are not able to support most plant life. They need to be processed first and this requires environmentally damaging practices that often have harmful effects on the people who process the coco-coir. They often suffer from higher rates of various respiratory illnesses.
But how do you know which one your plants come in? And what did you just buy at the store?
It takes some practice, but generally peat moss will be darker, particularly when wet. Coco-Coir will more often have the lighter color of coconut husks as well as contain more fibrous materials. While this is not a great method for distinguishing, they two it can be helpful. How they react once they have completely dried out will also be a good indication.
Peat moss becomes hydrophobic when dry, meaning it repels water and takes a long time to rewet. Water often just runs off or pool on the top when too dry. This happens far less with coco-coir.
Spend some time going around to the plant in your home and at your local store and see if you can start to notice the difference between the different ‘soils’ the plants are planted in.
What next?
Check steps 1 - Know your light and 2 - Know your space.
Want to know more?
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