When you take care of peace lilies in your home, there are quite a few things to consider. One aspect is the growing medium that you use. If you want to make your plant as happy as possible, you should not just use any old soil – aim to get one suited to it.
Peace lilies like soil that is nutrient-rich and that drains well. Because they prefer only slightly damp soil, it is essential not to allow too much moisture to build up in the soil, or you may find that the plant’s roots eventually start to rot.
Choose a quality compost for your peace lily!
What Kind Of Soil Should I Give A Peace Lily?
You should select nutrient-rich compost for a peace lily. You can usually find something suitable at your local garden center or a nursery, or you can buy some online.
When potting up a peace lily, it is a good idea to add a small handful of gravel to the bottom of the plant pot so that water can drain freely out of the bottom of the pot. This helps to reduce the risk of rotting and keeps your plant healthier.
You can also mix a bit of sand into the soil, which will improve the drainage. Some sphagnum moss will help hold onto water and make sure that it is available to the plant later, or you can use peat for the same purpose.
You might also want to add some loam to the soil, which will further improve its structure and make sure your plant stays happy. You can also include things like bark chips, which will again enhance the structure and the drainage. However, you should be aware that these will break down over time, and the structure will be lost.
You will probably need to re-pot your peace lily anyway by this stage, but it is worth noting when you decide what to include in the plant’s pot.
You should also be aware that if you add too much sand, the peace lily may end up drying out. The plants prefer to be moist (but not soggy), and you don’t want water to run directly through the pot. A small handful of sand spread throughout the container should be sufficient to improve drainage without drying the mixture out too much.
What Soil Brand Do I Need?
You can get any brand as long as the soil is of good quality.
Although you can buy potting compost specially designed for peace lilies, you don’t really need to. Often, this kind of compost is more expensive than standard compost. So instead, you can use regular compost and add perlite, gravel, or sand to improve the drainage.
What Nutrients Does A Peace Lily Need?
Peace lilies come from tropical rainforest floors and are used to having quite a lot of rotting leaves and decomposing flora around their roots. This means you should use fresh compost whenever you re-pot your peace lily and fertilize it periodically in the growing season.
Peace lilies do well with a balanced fertilizer of 20-20-20. Again, any brand of reasonable quality should be fine. Follow the instructions on the fertilizer bottle, but make sure you are diluting it enough, as excess fertilizer will burn your plant’s roots.
When you pot a peace lily up, adding things like worm castings and horticultural charcoal can be helpful. The worm castings will provide a valuable boost of nutrients and improve the soil structure, and the charcoal will absorb excess water and keep it available for the plant in the future.
You don’t have to make your potting mix this complicated, but you can experiment with it to give your plant the best chances of growing strong!
Final Words
Peace lilies are not fussy plants, and they will grow well in most compost, as long as its good quality and isn’t too heavy. Good drainage and a decent level of nutrients will see your plant happy, so add some gravel or perlite, and don’t over-water. With a top-up of fertilizer every six weeks or so during the growing season, your peace lily should do very well.
