How to choose a growing medium?
Quality substrates are among the basic prerequisites for a successful harvest. These are mixes made on various bases, whether it is peat or for example crushed coconut fibres . In this post you will find everything you need to know before you add a specific growing medium to your cart. You will also learn how to enrich and improve it to enhance soil properties for even higher yields.
First of all, you should clarify answers to the basic questions that should definitely precede the choice of the ideal growing medium, i.e. WHAT you will grow and WHERE you will grow it:
Do you want to grow herbs, fruit or vegetables in a growbox (indoor), in a greenhouse or in a garden bed outdoors (outdoor)?
In a grow tent, in a greenhouse, but also for example on a windowsill you will use pots or planters. The common ones intended for hand watering can be filled with soil or coco, which combines the best of hydroponics and soil cultivation. Coconut fibres can hold a lot of water while maintaining a high level of aeration.
It must be said, however, that before using a coco substrate it is better for the grower to have at least some experience, whereas soil mixes are great even for enthusiastic beginners, because they allow a certain tolerance for mistakes (in feeding, watering, etc.). At the very start of the growing cycle you also don't have to deal with nutrition, because peat mixes, often simply called soil among growers, are classified by nutrient content for the first weeks of the growing cycle as lightly (Lightmix), medium and heavily pre-fertilized substrates.
In the garden a suitable substrate helps you cultivate the growing area and creates a more favorable environment for plants or crops from seed to harvest.
If your intention is an organic harvest, use a 100% natural and certified soil mix. It contains, in an optimal ratio, first-class white and black peat together with crushed and sieved compost. An important part of these mixes is also an inert component that ensures substrate aeration - perlite, which will be discussed in a moment.
Self-watering pots, such as Flo Gro, are filled with inert clay pebbles sized 8–16 mm known as expanded clay (hydroton).
Expanded clay, like coco substrates or soil mixes, belongs to the so-called inert media, which means they contain no nutrients at all (unlike soils).
A very popular inert medium is rockwool, also known as basalt wool. This substrate provides the root system of all plant types with an ideal balance between water and air.
Its natural, 100% organic alternative are the increasingly popular Agra-Wool seedling cubes, made from earth wool (Earthwool). These, besides saving the planet, help young plants root more easily.
Houseplants and ornamental plants are best grown in a mix of light and dark peat, which contains nutrients for the first weeks of the growing cycle and humus.
Specialized mixes intended for cultivating houseplants usually have their pH adjusted with limestone.
Substrates designed for acid-loving plants contain almost no nutrients and have a neutral pH, so that a single product can cover as many commonly grown species as possible.
Substrate you can even mix yourself. But it takes experience. Industrially produced substrates, which you can easily find today in quality that meets even professional growers' needs at an affordable price, moreover provide not only significantly better results, but also a huge saving of time and energy, and above all the certainty of the purity of the final mix. That is truly important. Proven products do not contain weed seeds or pathogen spores. Your plants will therefore grow from the start in a friendly environment that suits them and they will be able to fully “focus” on developing the root system and overall growth.
TIP: For the best results, combine substrates with fertilizers, nutritional supplements and additives from the same brand!
We hope we have made your substrate choice easier. Our e-shop really has a lot to choose from, so do not hesitate to write to us anytime and our experts will gladly recommend the ideal growing medium tailored to your needs and plans. We look forward to your questions at the usual address info@higarden.cz.
- Substrates
- Agrawool Cubes
- Bionova soil mix