How to Create a Potting Mix for Self-Watering Containers

Self-watering plant containers have a dual-pot design where one sits inside the other. The bottom pot contains water, which soaks up into the bottom of the inner pot via a fiber wick. The pots keep the soil in the inner pot constantly moist, thus creating healthier plants and lessening the need for supplemental watering. Because absorbing moisture upward is important, these pots require special soil mixes, which you can make yourself.

Wheelbarrow
5 gallons ground sphagnum moss
5 gallons vermiculite or perlite
2 gallons compost
1 cup granular all-purpose fertilizer
Shovel or pitch fork
Mycorrhizal fungi

Instructions

- 1
  Dump 5 gallons of chopped sphagnum moss into a wheelbarrow. Add 5 gallons of either perlite or vermiculite on top of the moss.
- 2
  Add 2 gallons of compost to the wheelbarrow and mix all of the ingredients up using a shovel or a pitch fork until combined.
- 3
  Open a package of granular, all-purpose fertilizer, such as 10-10-10 nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium, and sprinkle 1 cup over the surface of the wheelbarrow mixture. Mix the contents again with the shovel or pitchfork to thoroughly incorporate the fertilizer.
- 4
  Open a bottle of mycorrhizal fungi, available at garden centers. Read the bottle and determine the amount needed and add it to the wheelbarrow. Remix the contents of the wheelbarrow a final time to work the mycorrhizal fungi into the soil mixture. This fungus prevents mildew and mold from forming, which is sometimes a problem with self-watering pots.

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