Often, it’s decided when growing plants, which type of medium to grow them in. I bring this up, because it’s not always the case that you should use soil or soil varieties to grow plants. It’s true that plants can grow in a variety of settings, including without any type of media.
I can attest to using a variety of soils, and other mediums to grow plants. I can also attest to the ones I haven’t used yet, but may in the future. I’ll discuss this in better detail.
For most of my plants, the standard regular plants, they often are planted in peat moss, often referred to as sphagnum peat moss. It is made from sphagnum moss, but I can’t explain the procedure other than allowing it to decompose, and it’s basically reused as soil, which is what I’m using for most of my plants. It seems to be quite similar to regular soil you would have trees and plants growing outdoors, which is why many are good in this medium.
I have had some failures due to external factors, some of which may involve premature or constant transferring of plants from one setting to the next, but other than that, they have worked well in peat moss.
For other plants, you have a mix of mediums, and we do know of others, that aren’t often used by themselves. There are reasons for that. It’s not to say that it can’t happen, because there are some people that can prove that certain mediums can be used separately. Perlite, often is mixed, because of its light texture. It’s as light as Styrofoam, but is often mixed with heavier mediums like peat moss and sphagnum moss. You may have to experiment with perlite, but just know how light it is.
NOTE: When preparing perlite, wear some type of protection over your mouth and nose, because the sediment can get into your lungs quite fast.
It’s not good breathing this stuff in, so be careful, and should you decide to use perlite, get masked up, for using this even for light and short term uses.
Perlite is known for aiding in proper drainage, to most plants, when especially mixed with other mediums like peat moss.
Various mixes of mediums, can have bits and pieces of lava rock, and when using rocks like lava rock, in much bigger sizes, they can be used for providing a spot for plants to have roots grip and grow onto them. The bigger pieces are used more for decorative purposes, but it’s ability to have plants attach themselves to these rocks, are beneficial to an extent. This is best to have them in terrariums because of the moisture and humidity inside. With the pieces, which are often as small as pebbles and gravel, to dust, these mixed with other mediums provide the ability to have better drainage, compared to those other mediums alone.
Let’s look at sphagnum moss, and how it’s often used. In this journal, I’m referring to the dried tan colored variety sold in many different stores, often long fibered. You will see them in pet stores as well, either in tan or green. This is most commonly used for lots of tropical and carnivorous plants. Many recommend using this because of its ability to hold water, and keep the plants hydrated for longer periods, compared to other types of media. It’s not good for all types of plants, and you may have to ask an expert, and do your own research of how not to use sphagnum moss, in this manner.
I did discuss rocks, lava rocks previously, but when it comes to a planting medium, small rocks can provide a good way to keep plants stable, if they have difficulty to stand on their own, after growing tall. Notice with other mediums, you may see these plants droop because the leaves are heavy, but the stems are light. In many instances, you have to add some rocks to keep them upright, or have them lean against something like a bamboo skewer, or if it’s sharing space with other more sturdy plants, use them to balance the plant until they grow strong enough to be on their own.
For the former, having them surrounded by rocks, will help, and it can also help with having less water, to prevent over watering. I currently have two “lucky bamboo” plants in individual containers, with rocks and water only. The roots are fine, they aren’t so much that the roots are all over the place, but, it’s doing well enough for the bamboo plants to grow leaves. Maybe over time, if the conditions are good enough, I might see some flowers.
Fingers crossed!
Special mixes, often are sold for a certain price, depending on where you choose to go. Personally, I recommend for the better price, some hardware stores, compared to plant stores, may sell them for a lesser price. Some may go as much as half the cost. This is just from shopping around. You may get a good set for example, for around $7, where in some plant stores, and even other hardware stores, you might pay near double that, or three or four dollars more.
With that said, make your choices wisely. I use a tropical mix, for my terrarium plants in, “the tank”. I use a good enough set, where the plants and their roots can spread enough to be satisfied with the settings. That mix, has the lava rock pieces that I mentioned previously, throughout the entire mix. I use this mix with other plants, but I try to keep this mix away from my carnivorous plants.
For the carnivorous plants, I may alternate from time to time, between sphagnum moss only, peat moss only, or a mix of peat moss and perlite. I do know that many carnivorous plants sold, will often be on displayed for sale, and are often covering the roots with soil, usually peat moss wrapped and covered with a light paper covering, and the rest being sphagnum moss. Growing them at home, it’s actually the reverse, but without the light paper covering. This can result in the plant getting more water and moisture. This is one of the methods I used previously, when keeping most of these carnivorous plants, VFTs especially, in smaller terrariums.
Air plants of course, are plants that need water, but no mediums, because they have no roots. I don’t know of other plants, that don’t need plant mediums of any kind; not yet anyway.
To add to this, you can grow some plants with simply immersing them in water. I’ve seen this done, and for some it works just fine. My mother had a very viney plant that grew in a big bowl of water, and it kept growing until the water evaporated, and eventually the plant died, due to our absence from the residence. Otherwise, no type of medium was needed for stability of any kind. In fact, water is often a good source for propagating leaf cuttings, which is also why this is good all on its own for maintaining most (if not all) plants.
Just like with rocks, you do have options such as leca, which can be used similarly to how I used the pepples and gravel for my “lucky bamboo” plants. They are generally lighter, because they are clay pebbles, which may not work for all types, but for the ones that do, the success rate may be quite high. I haven’t used this just yet, but I hear them recommended regularly, from plant vendors and online recommendations. At some point, I may check this option out, and then I’ll follow-up.
You have also coco peat, which I haven’t pursued yet, but if I do get some, I’ll use it and document my findings.
There’s also sand. Many say that it’s not a good medium, or substrate to grow plants. Yet, it’s good to mix with peat moss and other types of media, for better drainage. There are a variety of sources that show plants successfully growing in sand. Wait! How can they say that’s not possible, when we tend to see some plants growing at the beach? One day, I will try that for myself, just to see it be possible, with my own eyes.
There are much more, and I could not add anymore to this list. Over time, that will change.