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 nutritional requirements vary from vegetable to vegetable
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 need 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. If the topsoil is very loamy or clayey, you can use sand or fine-grain chippings (€46.95) as additives to give it the necessary permeability.
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 garden because living bog areas are destroyed for the extraction. It has long been shown that the shell fibers of coconuts fulfill the functions of peat just as well.
Coconut soil 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. (7.49€) Mix the coconut soil with garden soil and compost in equal parts - the perfect potting soil for your vegetables is ready.
tips
If you are preparing the bed for your valuable strawberry plants, please leave the garden compost you have made yourself to one side. Plenty of salt and lime have accumulated as part of the rotting process, which your strawberries do not like at all. Good potting soil for strawberries consists of garden soil, leaf compost or bark humus and a few handfuls of horn meal.