Updated 10/6/24: Oviedo, Florida, USA Zone 10A

This is a compilation of the different potting mixes that I learned to mix and use for my seedlings, raised beds, potted fruit trees, herbs, and vegetables. I take no credit folks, I learned from my master gardeners and mentors such as from Leaph of Leaph’s Fruit Trees in West Palm Beach, Shuja Haque of Saint Port Lucie, Hoa’s Nursery in Apopka, and Nick Finan of Nick’s Edibles in St, Cloud, Florida. I cover the following recipes:

• Mama Snow’s Seedling Potting Mix Recipe
• Potting Mix Recipe #1 for my herbs and vegetables and some fruit trees
• Potting Mix Recipe #2 for my herbs and vegetables and some fruit trees
• Potting Mix Recipe #3 for my herbs and vegetables and some fruit trees
• Potting Mix Recipe #4 for my acidic loving fruit trees such as blueberries, figs, Miracle Berry, Barbados cherry, Cherry of the Rio Grande, Pitomba Cherry, and jaboticabas
• Potting Mix Recipe #5 for my longan, avocado, mango trees, bougainvillea, and desert roses
• Potting Mix Recipe #6 for citrus trees
• Potting Mix for my loquat and June Plum tree

Relevant topics I have or am working on:

• My Raised Bed Gardens (documentary work in progress)
• Raised Beds and Pots I Use

Mama Snow’s Seedling Potting Mix Recipe

to be updated

Potting Mix #1 Recipe

This potting mix recipe makes 100-gallon and I have been using this mix for all my raised beds in 2022. I used four 25-gallon pots for this recipe. I split the ingredients into the four 25-gallon pots and mix the ingredients on my driveway and scoop it back in. I have issues with Root-Knot-Nematodes in the soil so I added crushed crab/lobster shells into the potting soil mix for my vegetable beds. All my vegetables grew well.

Ingredients for Potting Mix #1:

• 6 bags of Home Depot’s Kellogg’s Potting Mix
• 32 quart Perlite
• 3 cf Peat Moss (1 bulk bag)
• 4 cf Fine Pine Mulch (2 bags)
• 1 bag Black Kow or Mushroom Compost (20 pounds)
• 4 quarts crushed crab/lobster shells
• 2 quarts worm casting
• Fertilizer of your choice (I used fish scraps, vegetables and fruit scraps)

Potting Mix #2 Recipe

This recipe makes about 50 gallons worth of potting mix that I use for my raised beds in 2023. It does not work well for starter plants or seedling pots. My vegetables and herb grew well. I used this recipe for most of my fruit trees.Adding the crushed crab and lobster shells into potting soil for edible plants that’s proned to root knot nemotodes helps with prevention. It works great for cucumbers, tomatoes, and chili pepper plants. I plant all chili pepper plants in a 15-gallon pot.

Ingredients for Potting Mix #2:

• 1.5 bags Jungle Growth Flower and Vegetable Professional Mix (3 cf)
• 20 lb or half a bag Mushroom Compost
• 2 cf Fine Pine mulch
• 20 quart Peat Moss
• 8 quart Perlite
• 4 scoops crushed crab and lobster shells
• 4 scoops Worm Casting
• 1.5 scoop Fertilome Start & Grow 19-6-12 fertilizer
• 1 scoop bone meal

Potting Mix #3 Recipe

This recipe makes 25 gallons of potting mix. This version is used for raised beds, potted herbs and vegetables, and some fruit trees.

Ingredients for Potting Mix #3:

• One 64-quart bag Lowe’s Sta-Green Potting Mix
• 1 cubic ft of Fine Pine mulch
• 20 lb or half a bag Mushroom Compost
• 8 quarts Perlite
• 4 quarts Vermiculite
• 2 quarts crushed crab and lobster shells and or egg shells
• 1 scoop of Fertilome fertilizer “Start & Grow 19-6-12”

Potting Mix #4 Recipe

Potting mix #4 is for acidic loving fruit trees such as blueberries, figs, Miracle Berry, and jaboticabas

Ingredients for Potting Mix #4:

• 2 parts peat moss
• 1 part coarse perlite
• 1 part fine pine mulch
• Berry Tone fertilizer (not for jaboticabas)

Potting Mix #5 Recipe

Potting mix #5 is for my non-acidic fruit trees such as longan, avocado and mango trees since they prefer loamy well-drained sandy soil.

Ingredients for Potting Mix #5:

• 1 bag Sta-green Potting Mix
• Mix in 30% all-purpose-sand or coarse sand (Do not use play sand)

Potting Mix #6 Recipe

I am struggling growing potted citrus trees. Hoa Nguyen of Hoa’s Nursery in Apopka, Florida suggested me to use this recipe for my citrus trees. Hoa said it works well for any vegetables and herbs too. I have not tested this potting mix out but will give it a try with one of my citrus tree to see if its health improves. (To be updated with results and review.) I will have to ask my friend Hoa again to clarify the ingredients.

Ingredients for Potting Mix #6:

• 1 bag (1 part) cow manure (Black Kow)
• 1 bag (1 part) perlite
• 1 bag (1 part) coco coir ?
• 1 quart bone meal
• 1 quart blood meal

Potting mix for loquats and June Plums

Any purchased regular bag of potting mix will do. Loquats and June Plums strive in the Florida sandy soil.

Prepping for the Raised Boxes

1. I cut a strip of the Dewitt 20-year Weed Barrier and lay it on the bottom of the raised bed. Doing so will prevent the mole and and rats burrowing a tunnel and into my raised boxes because I layer the bottom half of my raised beds with my food scraps.

2. The layers of my pot/raised beds soil starting from the bottom:

1. Fine pine mulch from Mulch for You
2. Food scraps: fruit peels, veggies, crab and lobster shells, fish scraps
3. Vegetable and fruit scraps
4. Mushroom compost
5. Potting soil mixture of perlite, Kellogg’s Potting Mix, peat moss, mushroom compost
6. Crushed crab and lobster shells, worm casting, and some more peat moss mixed in the top six inches of soil

I have done this before and noticed a big positive change and difference using this prepping method compared to just using bags of potting mix at the big box store. The bagged potting soil by itself seems to dry up so quickly. The combination above provides natural fertilizer, calcium, root knot nemotode preventative, and medium to hold in nutrients and moisture longer.