A Gardeners Forum Forums General Discussion The House Plant Forum Newbies attempt Trying to make a good growing media mixture

I am new to both this site and house plants and am experimenting a little also. After reading an article written by "Al" using a posting name of "tapla" on a different site, listing a soilless mixture, I am planning on modifying the original mixture a little. I think the Coir will help keep air in the root zone and break down slower than using pine bark fines or store bought potting mix. The dolomite should take care of CA and Mag needs and the fertilizer is supposed to be a good choice.

As far a plants, I am starting with philodendrons and pothos so they should not have any unusual demands on the growing media.

I am making three substitutions to the original mixture because I think the substitutions will produce better results.

The mixture is called a 511 mixture and this was listed as a small batch:

Note the three substitutions I am making.

3 gallons of coir (coconut chips) instead of 3 gallons pine bark originally listed
1/2 gallon (sphagnum) peat moss
1/2 gallon perlite
4 tbsp dolomite instead of lime as originally listed
Dyna Gro Foliage Pro 9-3-6 added per product instructions instead of 1/4 cup Controlled Release Fertilizer

Please look over the components in the mixture I am going to be using and let me know if you see any problems. Again, I am new but feel the best way to learn is to jump in with both feet. And I am not taking credit for the mixture but modifying someone else's.

Thanks in advance for anyones comments.
Tom

If anyone reads this post, this turned out to NOT be a good mix as listed.

The difference between the use of Pine Bark fines vs the use of Coir is not only longevity of the mix but also PH of the mix. Coir is much more alkaline than the pine bark fines and on top of that I added dolomite which would make the mixture even more alkaline. After two weeks of being in this mixture, I had one leaf on each plant turn yellow. My thoughts are that I had a mixture so (sweet) alkaline that the plant could not bring in the nutrients it needed. I repotted the two small philodendrons again and removed the coir. After a week, they seem to be doing ok. Still watching.

Thank you for letting us know that it didn't work out well.