I have decided to decided to pot up some of the irises that are arriving. I have never done this before. What kind of soil mix do you use? Proportions, etc.?

I use standard potting mix, such as Miracle Grow, for my bearded iris. Some people add sand to the mix and other such things. I don't go fancy with iris I will plant later in the year.

me, too, leslie. i usually stock up at costco in the spring. (on the bags of commercial potting mix)

When I'm not recycling whatever dirt from whichever old pots (or, for that matter, native soil dug out of the ground), I do a 50-50 mix of fine redwood mulch (pieces are dime-to-nickle size) with a planting mix from a local chain (Summerwinds), which has soil but also some amount of amendments such as chicken manure. I add fertilizer and alfalfa meal to this. (The redwood mulch is for drainage, and it breaks down to add organic material. I gather people on the east coast and in the south use pine fines for roughly the same purpose.)

Miracle Grow soils are on sale for the 4th of July.

rob have to load up on friday!

Eh... I might use Miracle Gro mixes for cuttings (hmm, maybe that is why I lose some ), but I prefer to use the Summerwinds green bag organic planting mix (mixed with the fine redwood mulch to lighten it up and add drainage) for other things. It's gotten pricey though... now up to $10 a bag. I have to get my compost and kitchen garden mulch from a different (family) nursery. (Depending on what I am planting (not food stuff), I also use the mulch my garden helpers get by the truckload. I don't know where they get it from, and I'm not sure that I want to know, but it is all natural redwood.)

It can be a bit of a pain, having to go to different places to get the materials that I need.

I have plenty of goat compost, but I think that it has not cooked as well as it might because of all the rain. And it needs to be mixed because it is so rich. The beds that suffered from soft rot this year were the ones that had been generously amended with compost last fall.

I had a problem with my newest bed this year too. Think it has too much amendments and is retaining too much water. Going to take the iris out and mix that soil with some other bed soil and replant.

Good to hear about the Miracle Grow. I need to go pick up some potting mix.

I use the Costco brand potting soil and when I run out of that I get the Miracle Grow. I use about 2/3 potting soil and add about 1/3 perlite to it.

**oopsie**

@iciris
You ever thought of using pumice instead of perlite? If you do, you can use a product called "Dry Stall". It is pumice, but it's not sold as such and it costs way less than picking up a bag of pumice, or perlite, at your local nursery. I think a 40lb. bag of Dry Stall was only $18-19. Do not get it confused with Stall Dry, you do not want to use that in your soil...it has to be "Dry Stall". You can find it at your local feed stores, but call first to make sure they have it.

I use Dry Stall in making soil for the cacti/succulents. My irises no longer stay potted long enough to use a mix like that.

I've been posting a lot of "savings" tips lately.

I didn't mean to quote that, I thought I hit edit.

I blame the heat...

Ok, I fixed it.

Rob, we have a feed store very close to us, I'll have to take a look to see if they have it.
And yes, it's very hot out there.😓

iciris said:And yes, it's very hot out there.😓