August 05, 2020
When you want to grow indoor plants, you may think whether to choose a air grow pot or fabric grow pot first, but deciding the growing medium, I think, should be the first decision you make, because growing medium is the foundation of your garden.
It goes far in determining what nutrients you feed your plants, how and when you feed them and affects both your yield's quality and quantity.When you’re first designing your outdoor garden or indoor indoor grow tent, the growing medium is the first thing you need to start with. So let’s find the best growing medium for indoor plants.
A growing medium or grow medium is what you’re growing your indoor plants roots in, whether that substance is soil, perlite, coco coir, Rockwool, vermiculite, water, etc. Your indoor plants will thrive as long as the roots have room to grow and have consistent access to fresh water, oxygen, and the proper nutrients in proper levels.
Best Growing Mediums
When you're looking to grow organically like Ol' Mother Nature intended, soil is without a doubt the best growing medium for indoor plants. It’s very easy to get started with soil too.
You can buy pre-made soil formulated with nutrients and microorganisms that will feed your plant without you needing to do much work. This is great for beginners because you don’t have to get caught up on feeding the right ratio of nutrients every day for 3+ months.
This does take some control away.And it’s not as easy to fix nutrient issues when they happen.But as long as you buy or make soil for indoor plants, you shouldn’t run into frequent nutrient problems like you do with other grow media.
Soilless Mediums (Coco Coir & Perlite)
Composted super soil is rich with all the stuff your indoor plants loveSoilless potting mixtures that are composed of inert (non-soil) ingredients like coco coir, perlite, peat moss, Rockwool, and vermiculite can be a great choice for growing. And rockwool cubes are great choices for growers who want a reliable, uniform growing media for consistent results.
When growing in a soilless medium, you can treat your plants almost the same as if growing in soil. The main difference is you feed all their nutrients in the water. As a result of your plants getting nutrients delivered directly to their roots, you will often get quicker growth and higher yields than growing in soil (where the roots have to seek out nutrition).
Another advantage of growing in a soilless mix over soil is that you are less likely to run into problems with overwatering or bugs.
Although there are many different possible soilless ingredients, the most popular potting mixes for indoor plants contain significant amounts of coco coir and perlite. This combination seems to work especially well for growing indoor plants. As a result of coco’s growing popularity, other types of soilless mixes (especially the peat-based ones) have become far less common in indoor plants grow rooms over the years.
Even when it comes to soil mixes, you still often see both coco and perlite in the ingredient list, because they help improve the overall properties of the soil.
Lots of bubbles make indoor plants roots happy in hydroponics.When people are talking about hydroponics, they’re usually referring to growing your indoor plants with the roots sitting directly in water. The most popular style of hydroponics for indoor plants is known as Deep Water Culture (a.k.a. DWC), and it has a very popular variant known as “bubbleponics” or a top-fed Deep Water Culture (DWC) system.
Deep Water Culture is one of the few types of hydroponics that can support larger plants. Other types of hydroponics (for example NFT or Aeroponics) have a difficult time growing plants as big and nutrient-hungry as indoor plants.
Remember, all three growing mediums can grow wonderful indoor plants of all shapes and varieties. It really comes down to deciding what your limitation are, preferred growing methods.