John Myers
In the vegetable garden, the right potting soil stimulates growth and guarantees a rich harvest. Pure compost is just as unsuitable for this purpose as expensive potting soil. This guide gets to the heart of the composition of good potting soil for vegetables.
The right mix makes the difference
If you ask an experienced vegetable gardener the secret of his success, he will first name the quality of his potting soil. Vegetable plants require nutrient-rich, well-drained soil chock-full of busy microorganisms. The following mixture has proven itself in the private vegetable garden:
- Garden soil, also known as topsoil
- Mature compost from our own production
- Aggregates, tailored to the local framework conditions
Valuable topsoil forms the foundation for every ornamental and vegetable garden. In most cases, the garden soil is filled up after a new building or as part of the garden design. With mature compost soil, you can enrich existing garden soil with all the important nutrients that vegetable plants want. You can give topsoil with a high loam or clay content the necessary permeability with sand or fine-grained chippings (€10.00 from Amazon*) as additives.
Coconut soil as a peat substitute
Coconut soil as a peat substitute is gaining ground as an ecologically sensible addition to vegetable soil. Good potting soil for vegetables should soak up irrigation or rainwater like a sponge. The moisture is then gradually released to the roots without waterlogging. For many decades, peat fulfilled this task as the main component of potting and plant soil.
Natural, environmentally conscious hobby gardeners have banned peat from their vegetable gardens because living bog areas are destroyed for extraction. It has long been shown that the shell fibers of coconuts fulfill the functions of peat just as well.
Coconut oil is commercially available in pressed brick form. Dissolve a humus brick in lukewarm water. Since the coconut fibers do not contain any nutrients, fertilize the water with a liquid vegetable fertilizer. (€8.00 at Amazon*) Mix the coconut soil in equal parts with garden soil and compost – the perfect potting soil for your vegetables is ready.
