I was fortunate to have a friend 'Aseem Sharma' of Kota, who was kind enough to give me the first lessons about 10 years back to prepare the soil for the plants kept in the pots. I used the tips and got the extra ordinary results, after that I am doing it even with great failurs some times, but it has a scope, and is necessary if one is confined to pot culture. I want to invite the 'Experts' or 'Hobbyists' to share their experiences as in Books we get tips mostly for cold environments.

why don't you start by telling us what you learnt from aseem sharma......it sounds very interesting and i am eager to know the techniques that you learnt

Kindly share with us the tips that u have got from others as well as from ur personal experience so that it will help beginners like me

I think pot mix would depend on the kind of soil that you use. In my case, I mostly get soil which has been dug up to create space for a basement/new building. It is clayey, but devoid of weeds etc. I mix it up in the proportion of 60:25:15. 60 is soil, 25 is a mix of leaf compost / vermicompost/ and gobarkhad (animal manure?) and 15 is cocopeat. But if I am lucky and the soil I get is richer, I change the proportion accrodingly.

I arrived at the above method purely on experience and while most plants are doing extremly well, some arent! Suggestions to correct the above would be most welcome!

Soil mix is a complex subject, the ratio and other things are Plant specific, Place specific and Atmosphere specific, but discussions may reveal many points to come to better practices.

I think the biggest threat to most plants in pot is overwatering and the retention of this water in the soil.
To avoid the retention in the soil I always use 1 part of rethi(construction sand,seived) to red soil and manure or compost.The rethi ensures proper absorption and ditribution of water in the pot plus it ensures that excess water is drained out.
If this system is followed am sure that most plants will thrive and do well.
regards,
chandrabhan

Water retention is a problem in the places of heavy rain fall and there the soil must be kept porous to drain out the excess water, but only for those plants which do not tolerate the water logged conditions. Where as in drier areas like Rajasthan the soil should have a greater water retention capacity for the plants to be healthy, and there fore addition of leaf mould (well decayed) is very beneficial along with sand.

To prepare a good mix for pots, my suggestion is to collect different materials seperately, as sand, Farm yard manure(Pulvarised), Leaf Mould, Charcoal sand, Grit(from 1mm to 4mm of size)(specially for cacti), Wood Ash etc. and mix them as required as per the need of the particular plant.

Actually, you have to see if the soil is fertile.
A gardner's pH meter will solve the problem.
Fertile soil on the meter will show
pH between 5.5 to 6.5 it is fertile.
I do gardening the Eastern Way - No chemicals required. contact for details
B. Shah

Where can I get a Gardener's pH meter? How is it used? What is it's cost? It seems a useful thing I would like to know more about it.