Best soil for anthurium – [How to make potting soil]

Anthuriums are a group of almost 800 species of plants among which can be found deciduous, herbaceous or woody, erect, creeping or climbing. Without a doubt, the most striking element of these plants are their beautiful inflorescences, which is why they are one of the most sought-after indoor plants. In order to grow them and achieve a good flowering there are certain cares that you must carry out, this time we will take care of analyzing which is the best soil for anthurium. If you use the wrong soil, your anthuriums will grow slower, have poor flowering, or may even die.

1. What do anthuriums need from the ground?

Before being able to define what are the needs of anthuriums with respect to the soil, it is good that we mention some characteristics of this plant. Anthuriums are epiphytic plants and one wonders what is that about epiphytes. Simple, this type of plant has the ability to climb other plants or rocks. This is how its roots tend to spread outdoors.

This characteristic of having the roots in the open air makes anthuriums do not adapt well to dense soils. They need loose soil with lots of air pockets inside. Compact soils tend to accumulate a lot of water, something that these types of plants do not like at all.

Anthuriums do not need the traditional soils of garden plants, with good structure and lots of organic matter and nutrients. The further you have the anthuriums from this type of soil, the better.

Although anthuriums like moisture, the same does not happen with their roots. If you give it a dense soil with great water retention capacity, this will end up causing the appearance of fungi, root rot and finally it can kill this precious indoor plant.

2. What is the best soil for anthurium?

We have already talked about some keys regarding the best characteristics that the soil for anthuriums should have. In this section we will delve into this topic, we will find the soil mixture that covers all the needs for the best growth and flowering.

I’ll give you two options, the first is to find a ready-made commercial potting mix, and the second is to make the mix yourself. In my case, I recommend the second option, since it is much closer to the ideal type of soil for anthuriums.

2.1 Commercial potting mix for anthurium

Not all gardeners like to take the time to prepare a soil mix. It is something that can be somewhat boring.

What these types of people have to do is buy a ready-to-use soil mix. In this case, the orchid mix is best suited for growing anthuriums.

In general, orchid mixtures retain more moisture than necessary, so if you use it, it is best not to overdo it with watering. You must apply regular irrigations but in small quantities.

2.2 How to make potting soil for anthurium?

If you feel like taking the time to make the ideal potting mix for anthuriums, I’ll give you two options. The first will be for those gardeners who tend to overdo it with watering, and the second for the opposite case, gardeners who tend to stick around and water little.

2.2.1 Mix over water

For those gardeners who like to water a lot (I know a lot of people like that;)) we will use a mixture composed mostly of “thick” materials. What we are looking for is that the mixture has low water retention capacity.

The ingredients that we will use for this mixture will be the following:

• Perlite or pumice: both perlite and pumice are thick materials widely used for potting mixes. Unlike any stone, these have the ability to absorb moisture.
• Compost or vermicompost: both with compost and with vermicompost, what we are going to provide are nutrients. Although you don’t need them in large amounts, all plants need nutrients to grow.
• Peat or coconut fiber: both peat and coconut fiber is a material that provides very few nutrients but that retains moisture very well. We need material to retain some water, we do not want your anthuriums to end up dying of thirst.
• Thick vegetable bark: this material will not retain much water, and because it is thick it will generate many holes so that the mixture is well porous.

With these ingredients in hand, prepare the mixture in the following proportions: 20% vermicompost or compost, 20% peat or coconut fiber, 30% thick vegetable bark and 30% pumice or perlite.

Make sure to mix the ingredients well before placing it in the pot to plant your anthurium.

2.2.2 Low watering mix

In this second mix we will use almost the same ingredients as in the previous one. But we will add two new ingredients, with which we will seek to increase water retention.

Thus we will prepare the mixture with the following proportion; 30% potting soil, 30% orchid potting mix, 20% peat or coconut fiber, and 20% perlite. Having a good amount of potting soil will ensure that it holds much more water than the old mix.

Remember to remix properly before placing the anthurium soil mixture in the pot. And only use this mixture if you tend to water your plants little.

3. Can i use cactus soil for anthurium?

There are many occasions in which when talking about soil for anthuriums the following question arises; Is it possible to use a mixture of cactus soil in my anthuriums? To solve this query is that we will dedicate this brief section.

As you well know, cacti grow very well in soils with a low amount of nutrients, but with very good drainage capacity. If you consult various sources, you will find that they recommend the use of mixtures such as the following (or similar):

• 50% compost or black earth.
• 30% peat.
• 15% perlite.
• 5% sand.

The proportions and ingredients can vary but not too much. As you may have noticed, there are no major differences between the soil mix I just mentioned and the one we recommend for anthuriums.

So, in order not to go around and answer the question, yes, you can use a cactus soil mix in your anthuriums. And this is because both types of plants have quite similar needs with respect to the soil.

Not only are soil mixtures for cacti useful in anthuriums, so are mixtures for succulents. If you read our article on the best soil for jade plant you will be able to verify it.

4. How to improve the soil with fertilizers

Although we have said on several occasions that anthuriums do not need large amounts of nutrients to live, the truth is that a certain amount is usually beneficial. Helps faster and stronger growth and improves flowering.

That is why it is sometimes good to apply some fertilizers to provide extra nutrients. We could dedicate an entire article to explaining how anthuriums should be fertilized. But we have already done it very completely in this article, so I recommend that you visit it. 😉

More information:

• Manual for growing potted Anthuriums – floricultura.com.
• Anthuriums care information – olivehill.net.
• Caring For Anthurium – gardeningknowhow.com