Soil for indoor plants
The easiest way is to collect land from the garden or purchase a ready-made earth mix in the store. But it's easier - not always better, especially when it comes to garden land. In the store, you can get advice from the vendors, which mixture is suitable for, in extreme cases, the package will indicate the main properties, such as acidity and approximate composition( recently in the instructions are increasingly given lists of plants for which this zemlesmes is designed).On sale you can find the so-called "single garden mix", specialized "universal earth mixtures" for different plant groups, peat-mineral mixtures, artificial substrates.
But the usual garden land( especially taken not on its site, the quality of the soil which is notoriously well known, and typed where necessary) is difficult to control by acidity, soiling and other qualities. In addition, in indoor conditions, flowers are most often grown not from among the representatives of native flora that has adapted to the soil of your soil and climate zone. So even proven, good garden land in its pure form is undesirable, although it can serve as a basis for the land mixture.
It should not be forgotten that plant species, cultivated for many decades artificially, in specially created conditions for them, as a rule, are more pampered and finicky than open-ground plants, and the traditional microflora for this area may be fatal for them because oflack of immunity.
A man-made land mixture that can be properly formulated taking into account the features of a plant can sometimes prove to be even better than the purchased one, the number of variants of its composition is not unlimited.
The earth mixture must be prepared a few days before application. Most often it is mixed with sand, peat or simply enriched with fertilizers.
Mixtures can be light, medium and heavy.
Light earth mixtures consist of peat, deciduous, heather, humus, sand. The ratio of components is 3: 1: 1: 1.
Medium earth mixtures: turf ground - 2: humus - 2: peat - 1: sand - 1.
Heavy earth mixtures: clay-turf earth - 3: humus - 1: sand - 1.
Often prepare less "specialized"zemlesmes from garden( garden) soil, sand and peat in the ratio 1: 1: 1.
Most houseplants prefer a light earth mix.
Some components can be prepared on their own, however the process is complex and often very long( like cooking humus and deciduous land, which usually takes two years), heathland can be obtained far from everywhere, and peatlands often have to be searched for. However, all or nearly all of these components can be purchased separately in the store or in the markets.
A common misconception is that indoor plants can grow in peat. Those of them that are able to withstand the existence of such a substrate are rather an exception to the rules than a rule( for example, a fern that does not apply at all, from a botanical point of view, to flowering plants).Often peat is in flower pots, with which you buy a plant in a store or on the market. It is good for growing seeds and propagating cuttings, but it is better to transplant plants in a short time to another soil, and use peat as a component for a new earth mixture.
Any prepared mixture must have a structure acceptable to the plant. To be sure of its correctness from this point of view, try to roll a sample of soil into a ball. When the structure of the mixture is suitable for most plants, it must disintegrate when touched, if not, the mixture is too clayey. Not rolling down or instantly crumbling too sandy zemlezmesest can be used only for succulents.
In some books, the cooked mixture is advised to be heated in the oven to disinfect it. This is a double-edged sword. Of pathogens, of course, so you can get rid of, but after all, useful for the plant microflora, too, will die.
A very significant difference between indoor plants and open-ground plants( and often greenhouses) is that the soil in which they grow is not a natural part of the earth's surface, and many normal processes have to be regulated by their interference.
In no case can the plant be planted in a pot without a hole - from the accumulated below the moisture roots will rot( in the natural environment, excess moisture seeps into the lower horizons).
It's better if the pot is ceramic, because its walls let air and moisture pass.
The pot should not be too large. As they say, "the place is not empty is empty": in the soil not used by roots, it is easy to plant fungi, which can cause the disease. It should not be too small - it's bad if the roots are too crowded. Since all the flowers grow and increase in size, this leads to the need for transplants.
Although the topic of irrigation and humidity will be devoted to a separate section, we can not fail to mention the effect of water quality on the soil. Use of tap water is the most common cause of soil salinization. In addition, tap water reduces acidity( and among indoor plants lovers of weakly acid reaction of soil solution is still not so little).The probability of salinization will decrease when using boiled or well-run water and will be minimal when using rain or melted water. But if the trouble happened( especially if there were noticeable salt effusions - "salt spots" on the walls of ceramic pots), reclamation techniques can be applied, for example, add a gypsum solution in terms of the pot volume( 2 to 3 grams per liter).