Josie70@att.net

Hi my name is Josie and I’m new to this Banana chat. My question is i’m trying to figure out what well draining soil is best to start off small Musa plants in an indoor greenhouse. I don’t have the option of planting them in the ground so they will work their way up in Pot size. I have been playing with soils but I can’t seem to find a good combination for drainage and aeration. I’m in the Chicago area any help would be greatly appreciate thank you Josie

subsonicdrone

i use pro mix BX ($30 cad incl tax here)
and the next biggest ingredient being worm castings
i water frequently and fairly heavily when they are outdoors and infrequently indoors
i monitor each pot for how wet it is before watering and adjust how much i give them(if any)
it is not a particularly fast draining mix and is on the soggy side but i like it

Christine1950

I have always used Miracle Grow potting soil with equal parts of perlite, which helps with air ration and drainage, with winter coming up I just wanted to mention to be careful with watering over the winter so that you don't wind up with root rot.


Welcome to the forums, I have learned so much from the folks here over the years, you've come to the right place

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Sundra

I use this combination too(all in pots) So far working great

Yug

I would never use 'miracle grow' anything. I think it is all overhyped. I purchased some 'miracle (if it grows)' potting mix for orchids. Unlike many types of potting mix that have at least part of the plastic bag as clear plastic so you can see what is really inside, this one was not clear anywhere. This should have been a red flag. Well, when I opened it, it was mostly shredded pieces of wood (maybe leftovers from a landscaper / tree remover) and shredded (not chunks of) bark - possibly useful for cymbidiums, zygopetalums or semi-terrestrial type orchids that like lots of moisture retention, but for most type of common orchids (oncidium / dendrobium / cattleya) it was a total waste. Burn me concerning orchids, lose me as a customer forever.

Their fertilizer is also mostly waste because it contains high amounts of useless 'filler' material, and very little actual fertilizer. Also, it would not be useful on orchids due to the nitrogen (first number in a 10-10-10 ) being mostly urea or ammonia, and very little actual nitrate or nitrous form which would be readily usable by most plants. Urea takes time to break down into Ammonia which takes more time to break down into actual useful nitrates. But urea is very cheap to obtain for the company so it maximizes their profits at the expense of expectant / duped customers. No thank you.