so look I admittedly I am a little bit fussy and sometimes well actually quite a perfectionist if I'm really being honest I mean I'm a catch obviously but that's not the reason why I make my own DIY potty meat the biggest reason is because when it comes to your plants especially when it comes to those tropical plants the right aroid soil mix means everything to those plants now I've been growing tropical plants and really getting serious about plans for the last8 years now feels a while and I can tell you this mix that I've got hasn't happened overnight I've done a lot of trial and error I'm someone who likes to learn and try new things and I've been watching all the YouTubers across my eight years to try and find the best advice and the best mix for my arrow mix you know Sydney plant guy wildfern uh h g who else uh Crystal plants uh there's there's a few other big ones I can't even think of right now but I've gone to all of these guys and I've try to take tips that work for me as much as possible and now I've created what I'm pretty sure is the perfect aroid mix for my house plants and so today I'm going to be showing you the only arrow mix that I use because it actually it works it actually works and I want to share it with you guys cuz here's the thing your SE mix I believe is the most important part of getting your plant happy and healthy if you think about it you can have a plant with no leaves and no stems but as long as you you have healthy roots and you have a little bit of a nub sticking out that soil it will grow again but if you stuff up the roots and you have the wrong soil and your roots rot big mistake big huge so today I'm going to take you through my I'm pretty much perfect aroid mix but before we do I just want to go through a quick breakdown of what makes a really good strong aoid mix in the first place so let's start with the foundations a little bit because aroids like monsteras philodendrons myy plants poos or aums if you want to call them the right name singian they're pretty much all tropical plants and they love moisture they love high humidity or good humidity but they hate soggy Roots because arrows mainly grow from or grow in rainforests and they obviously grow up from the tropical floor that's where all of this falling debris and decaying matter is so there's fallen leaves Roots dirt animal debris animal droppings that kind of stuff so you want to try and emulate that in a way to get the best possible outcome from your plants so you need to create something that's super similar and super super chunky and irrated like that so really all aroid mixes no matter how many different components it has has three basic areas to that mix the first one is the base substrate and that's usually something that holds moisture you need it to hold enough moisture without making it too soggy and too wet so elements that will go in here could be cocoa COA Pete Moss or even just a good quality potting mix just something that's nice and light and Airy but still holds water the second component is ation so this is going to be a big important part of your aoid mix because it allows oxygen to reach the roots and that will help prevent root rot if you haven't seen my video about watering needs or overwatering please go and watch that because I do talk a lot about how important it is to get a flow and oxygen or particularly oxygen to the roots of your plant and aroids it matters more than anything that I can think of at the moment so a components are things like orchid bark pearlite pmus Coco husk or big chunky cocoa chips rice H rice holes I think rice rice husks or holes anyway something that's Big And Chunky and holds air and if that element can hold air and a little bit of moisture as well that's a double bonus and again I'll talk about that in one of my components and then the third main oh it's raining it's beautiful rain outside we haven't had rain for a while anyway the third main ingredient for a good arid mix is nutrients so this is where you want to add a little bit of organic matter perhaps or just some sort of beneficial nutrients and microbes to your mix to give the roots the right amount of nutrition so again think of things like worm castings maybe a good quality compost or even a high quality potting mix will have elements of nutrients added to it as well now there is a fourth thing if you want you can add to that mix you don't have to but a lot of vast professionist do and that's just additional enhancements to that soil so it could help filter out impurities it could help prevent bacteria could help prevent fungus Nets maybe help increase cell wall strength all that kind of stuff just small little things that really help add additional benefits to your soil so think of things like charcoal charcoal charcoal calcium people add egg chells sometimes on the top what what else am I thinking thinking of something else oh mosquito bits in Americas a lot of people put mosquito bits in there in the soil they help get rid of the eggs of the fungus now so again it's just small little additional elements but your three main components are moisture attention air ration and nutrients all right now you know what we're aiming for so let me show you exactly what is in my mix and why I swear by it so the very first potting mix I made on my own wasn't an potting mix for soil it was actually for my orchid and I watched a girl called Orchid girl I'm pretty sure she's still online she's still on YouTube she's amazing when it comes to orid and I think she's now started to expand Tropicals as well and that's when I leared about orid bark and I've pretty much used Orchid B from the beginning so this is my bag of orchid bar it's a small bag I usually buy a big bag and the Potty mix for orchids that I use from her advice is orchid bark and a little bit of spagnos so I learned a lot about orid bark and I learned the difference between buying orid bark and buying orid potting mix and in this case you don't want the potting mix you don't want the dirt type soil type stuff you want orid bark which looks like this there we go so as you can see my pieces here in this bag are really really chunky chunkies can you see that chunky chunkies so really big pieces and that's why I like this type of Orab okay so let's start the mix I've got a tub here got a brand new tub I do have another tub back in the garage but it's too small so I've decided to do this video with a really big one this is just an Ikea tub nice and simple uh it clicks on nicely it's nice and cheap nice and simple there we go clicks on nicely but it's still not airtight so that way it my mix does breathe a little bit and I don't have like mold or rot or anything in my soil mix unless is a really really dank day or whatever actually no I still don't have more mold on anything okay so we're going to use this I'm going to put it on the floor sorry uh but I will show you as we go right so the first one I'm going to put in now I did say the first element is usually moisture attention but I'm going to put in the airation element first and the reason why I'm putting my orid bark first my orid bark is usually about 25 30% of the mix and I put it in first because I find that the first thing I put in the tub I usually overload because I think I've got so much space and by the time I'm putting the last thing in the tub I'm getting a bit too full so I put in my irration part first because it's much more important to have irration than if you have too much moisture attention product in this soil mix then that's where you get into trouble right so 30% going in that's so satisfying okay 30% now the reason why I use orid bar there several reasons it kind of mimics what a lot of aroids have out there in nature and many plants like fendron syoni monsteras they attach themselves to other trees or walls or trellises and they climb up so I'm almost emulating the bark that it's climbing up a tree and it just gives a nice chunky similar structure to it it's also a really good airation element it helps keep oxygen and air pockets within that soil but it can also hold a little bit of moisture as well which is a double bonus so it helps to keep the roots breathing but still brings in moisture and air as well then on top of that orchid bark while really natural actually doesn't break down very fast when you go into saw that's 2 or 3 years old you'll still see especially the bigger chunks so it's still natural but it still breaks down a lot slower than you would think so it's a really good irration type of mix and I got orid bar from orid girl so thank you very much orid girl and thank you very much Orchid girl for pretty much getting me into plants full time I would say she was the one that I started watching right at the beginning what's the next thing I use so this is where I might add some controversy to it a little bit I use potting mix here we go my potting mix this is Scott's brand it's called osmo coat I use this pretty much all the time there is an orange version of this as well but it is just a really good high quality potting this I've never had any trouble I've never had any mold but I know a lot of good YouTubers out there swear by cocooi I think it's Harley G said it k lean set it pretty in green set it I think as well I hope that's right they all use cocoa COA and they swear by it so why do I use a potting mix other than Coco KOA firstly it already contains nutrients so unlike Coco Coya which is inert potting mix actually has built- in organic matter for feeding plants a little bit of nutrients already popped in there it also is less prep work you don't need to grab a cocoa brick and put it in and put water in it's just and go you just grab the bag and you pop it in maybe it's because I just use potting mix and I'm used to it or maybe I don't know whatever it is I just prefer potting mix CU it just adds that little bit of extra nutrients and a little bit of extra chunkiness but also holding moisture to me Coco COA just hasn't worked it holds too much water for me and I just don't trust it anymore go with Coco COA if you like it maybe it's easier for you but personally I just go with potty me one and done nice and easy and in my mix it's about 25% 30% no more than 30% mix on potting mix at the end of this video my mix is going to be 70 or even 80% chunkiness and 20 to 30% moisture retention so pting mix is important it goes in next so it would be the same amount or a little bit less than the Orchid bar where's my scissors there we are right let's do this right not breathing it in here we go now when it comes to potting MI make sure all the the moisture attention you can always add more but it's really hard to take it out so if you're not quite sure on the amount always IR on the side of caution and put in a little bit less you can always as I said add more right at the end yes I prefer potty mix as well as orid bu they're the two big main ones and then my third big main element is pmus now I love pmus and I know Sydney plant guy swears by it I can't remember whether he's the one who got me into it or maybe he just solidified me when I was tring it but I remember learning about Thomas because this product is I think it's volcanic ash now it is a little bit hard to find especially this chunky stuff but this has an amazing um advantage of holding a lot of air as well as a lot of moisture it's kind of like a hard sponge so it's not like rock hard but it is quite hard holds its shape and stability but still hold holds a lot of water but again because it's like a sponge it's got so many little air pockets in it it holds a lot of air it's just a beautiful amazing substrate which I absolutely love the problem with pmus for me though is it's hard to find good stuff in Australia you can definitely buy pmus in Australia it can be a little bit expensive but half the time I find when I buy pmus especially the big chunky ones it comes half pmus and half just plain rocks and I'm one of those pantic people as I said right at the front that will pick out the rocks and then the pmus and then the rocks and then the pmus so I have pure pmus so it does take me a lot of time that's probably why I use potting mix because I couldn't be bothered doing all of this fact twice but right now I'll be honest I am trying to look for another job and money is very tight so even though I prefer pmus I actually going to use perlite in this case perlite is secondary it is a lot cheaper uh but is my optional choice if I had a little bit of pmus and a little bit of PE I will mix them both but whatever the mix is I will usually put another 25 to 30% of pomus or perlite or both into my mix so so far it's 25 to 30% orchid bark it's about 25% potty mix and it's about 25 to 30% pmus or pillot as I said so we only got a little bit of pomus left so I'm going to use this stuff and put it all in oh love pus definitely got to buy more so a little bit of dust there that's fine now with peite I usually do this outside I'll be honest but with peite it is very bad to breathe in so you do not want to breathe it all in so you got to be really really careful let the dust settle a little bit as well but I am putting quite a lot in it needs to be about the same amount as orid bar or py M right and then I'm just going to click it check these out by the way how cool are they they are Oxo Clips I think they're food Clips but man they work well for big bags of potty mix I'll leave a link below if you want to see them they are see how that dust you don't want to breed that in so that is the one thing about peight that I'm actually not the biggest fan of actually there's two things I don't like peight for that reason and perlight also doesn't hold into the moist the soil mix very well it rises to the top a little bit which is much more why if I've got pmus I prefer pmus so thank you Sydney plant guy and actually thank you to the next ureum I'm going to mention cuz I got a lot of my base mix from an amazing YouTuber called Ken Ken I can't remember her surname she's been in the plant game for ages she had a huge amazing shop in the UK she says what's on her mind which I actually really like and she has the most amazing rare and beautiful plants coming past her way so I'm very jealous but she is the one that I leared a lot from in the beginning right the next element I'm going to add in as you can see it's a very small bag another one of this cool clips of them is charcoal charcoal charcoal but it's not charcoal from like leftover like charcoal chunks from your barbecue it's Horticultural charcoal now the reason why I use this and I learned this from Cen is it actually helps keep the soil fresh and it helps keep the it's like an antifungal it helps to keep the fungus and like the bad stuff away a little bit but still maintains the good stuff in the soil so we're going to add and make it about 10% this is a big bucket Horticultural charcoal it also helps absorb a little bit of moisture as well and actually helps take away a little bit of the toxins if there's any bad toxins not a lot but just a little bit unusual really weird but beneficial stuff says he assists drainage for plants and plant pots as well so it's just a really good thing I never really knew about it until Ken but I've added it in and I've never again really had any fungus or mold problems with this mix either so I love it for that reason and then the final element for me was pretty much a game changer and this is another I learned from Ken so thank you very much she's the one that got me onto it but I have heard of other really good YouTubers use this and I swear by this stuff and I think it made my plants really like grow quite a bit and that is worm castings so I D my own compost I don't have a very big backyard and I don't want to get like rats and things around I know that isn't always the case but if I keep it outside it can attract flies and everything and in Australia that's not a good thing I don't think which is actually I want one of those internal big machines that create a creative for you anyway I'm going off on a tangent my point is worm castings are amazing they are so natural they are so soft and gentle on your plants and yet they give so much nutrients to the soil and also a little bit of water retention as well so it's an amazing product I add about 10% to it I've got it here it just looks like dirt probably because it is dirt in a way but it is packed with natural nutrients so again another 10% to my mix there we go beautiful and that I absolutely love love love love love love worm casting I cannot recommend them enough if you don't add any nutrients yet if you just use your potting mix try a little bit of worm castings you can get them on ETS your Facebook Marketplace a lot of people have them and grow up from their backyard and give it away because it is literally compost from worms eating all compost and becoming worm castings it's also called vermicast v r m i c a s t vermicast or worm castings just beautiful so as I said why do I use worm castings it's slow release it will provide nutrients in the soil it won't bur The Roots as I said it's nice and soft it actually helps boost the really small microbes that you can't see it just improves the soil ridiculously well and enhances root growth like you wouldn't believe if you've seen some of my videos when I've got the right soil mix in ation and when I put worm castings in my soil my roots are chunky chunky chunky I absolutely love it so if there's one thing that hopefully I might teach you about today or help you get started with try worm casting only a little bit you only need about 10% added to your potting mix but worm castings was just a huge game changer for me as you can hear it in my voice I completely recommend worm castings you got to try it now there is one optional extra that I might mix in as well sometimes I add in Cocoa chunks so big like coconut chunky stuff only plants love his channel he trials and propagation all the time absolutely love Channel and he taught me about cocoa chunks I also tried to find rice husks from him as well but you can't really get that over here but I would definitely add that in if it was me but I love his channel and he has the most amazing plants but just I love the cocoa chunks because of the added texture and I just think it helps the Iration even more so if I've got the cash and feeling good and healthy I'll add in Cocoa chunks especially if I don't have Big orid B pieces or big pmus pieces the Coco chunks add a really big chunkiness to it as well if that makes sense and then if anybody knows in here in a Australia I would love to actually try mosquito bits I've heard it mainly for fungus Nets and I am an underwater if anything not an overwater so I don't really think I have a problem with that so I don't really know why I want to try it I just want to try it I guess I'm winning either way um and now I use a product called SNS which I really like in my fertilizer and that is just Rosemary extract helps go into the stems and leaves and makes them stronger and less yummy for pests so either way I'm winning I guess but if anybody knows if you can get mosquito bits here in Australia let me know in the comments below tell me if you can buy them and I'm going to see if they work maybe in something like for Calas where I do have a little bit more of the moisture attention so now I'm going to mix my soil and I'm going to see what it looks like and this is where I want to find that 75% chunkiness 25% moisture that's what I want to kind of see in my mix so you got to mix it thoroughly oh my gosh again remember the the peite has like dust and everything so don't breathe it in or have a mask or something it looks nice with all those Cid in there but if you have a look at it close up can you see close up to me there we go to me that looks a little bit like too much soil I think I would probably say that's maybe 35% potting mix and not enough chunkiness so I'm going to add a little bit more chunkiness and I'm going to see if I've got some cocoa husks around so give me 2 seconds as I said this is optional you don't need it okay I still want to add some orar to it so new tub size for me let's have a look let's see how this looks that's looking good can you see what I did there I just added extra just looks that little bit more chunky can you see you see the difference I'll try and put the two side side oops I'm getting dirt everywhere CU I'm this inside beautiful okay very happy with that so when you've got the right soil mix you definitely want to keep an eye on it like literally put your eye into it because you want it light and fluffy and well draining it should never feel like regular potting mix it should definitely feel like chunkiness in your hand a really good test is to squeeze it and it should go back to its chunkiness it should not hold into a clump so it should barely hold together when you're clumping it together with your hand and if you really want to double test it you can pour water through it it should drain through really really fast shouldn't be too dense and if it is just add more bark or more pmus or more cocoa hunks or cocoa chips if it's too dry adjust with a little touch more potty mix a little bit more coca cor if that's what you want to use but ultimately just give it a little bit of a water test if you're not quite sure honestly Since switching to this mix my plants have just been growing like crazy even in Winter there's no stagnant growth they just seem happy and they're actually growing faster than I can keep up with because now I have half of my plots outside and don't know where to put them in my house they are growing big leaves huge growth it's amazing so this Arrow mix honestly I can't I swear by it I can't recommend it enough and I'll make sure not only do you see it today but I'll leave the percentages and the mixes and stuff all in the description below for you so you have it to refer to later on so when it comes to my potting mix I definitely recommend pmus over perlite obviously I've used perlite today because it's cheaper and I can't find pomus easily but I totally recommend pomus because it holds a lot more air peite can just very easily float to the top of the mix especially when you're watering it but it's up to you whichever one you want to use whichever is easiest to find secondly I use potting mix I just find Cocoa is a dull kind of Base I know people swear by it I'm sure if you want to try it go for it I don't stop you from doing it just make sure that if you do use the coconut KO to hold the moisture just don't use too much take it from me a little bit holds a lot of water the ptty mix for me is just easy it's in a bag it's ready to go it's good quality and it adds a little bit of extra nutrients and a little bit of extra chunkiness so why not I say potting mix definitely for me and then finally just add worm castings I love worm castings as I've said they are the absolute bomb and then right at the end if you want to add any kind of cocoa chunk or cocoa chips it's optional extra few I've only been adding it in the last six months but I do like it as an added addition again all of these elements I'll leave the percentages in the bottom below I'll give you a rough combination try what works for you but my mix I absolutely swear by this I think it's the absolute perfect mix and I've gone by a whole lot of different YouTubers out there I can tell you I've watched them all and this is the mix that I've come up with so I love this mix because it does really have a really good balance of moisture retention airation nutrients and it also helps eliminate issues like overwatering it prevents root rot while still holding enough moisture to keep things damp for your arrows and it is low maintenance for me once I make a big batch it lasts a long time things don't break down I've still got this kind of potting mix implants that I've had in the same pot for three years or so the only reason I need to repot them is because the plants are growing so well it's not because the soil is going bad so I love this mix I absolutely recommend it um please let me know if you have any questions add them in the comments below but yeah this is my perfect Arro mix I'm biased but it's I think it's pretty perfect actually so if this today has been valuable for you if it's helped you feel that little bit more plant confident with a really good aoid mix please hit that like button ask me any questions in the comments give me a love in the comments to I love hearing stories from you guys thank you for all the engagement so far I've so enjoyed talking to you keep it coming keep it coming and if you haven't yet watched my video about overwatering please do go to that video here thank you very much for joining me today as always have a week full of leaves love and lots of laughter I hope you have a fun week and I'll see you in the next video see you later bye where is it I lost it probably behind me I had it out oh there it is right