If you continue your research here, you'll find the general consensus is that garden/topsoil is probably going to be much less than an ideal choice because of its tendency to compact, it's lack of aeration, and its high water retention when employed in container soils. What works in the garden is often best left there when it comes to soils.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: Click me if you want more details

I wouldn't use it. Al here is pretty much the expert on container gardening here and he's always polite.. I would suggest looking up some of his threads or doing a search on "soil discussion" or "turface" to get some more information on what might be better for house plants.

Generally you should avoid using any "soil" in container gardening/house plants. It simply won't provide the aeration and drainage required.

I would be surprised if there is an intro hort class/website/text anywhere on the planet that advocates garden soil in pots. If there is one, the teacher needs to be replaced.

Dan

A very long time ago, I tried using garden soil in a container... it turned into a lovely lump of clay concrete in the middle of the pot, and every watering just ran over and around it, but never saturated the pot-shaped lump. It was a complete disaster! It did teach me an important lesson, though... garden soil is just that, garden soil. It's for use in gardens, not pots!

I recommend reading Al's article on Container Soils... using Al's recipe for gritty inorganic mediums for containers has made me a much more successful gardener!

Leave the garden soil where it belongs... in the garden! :-)

To Dan, re: garden soil in containers.

Unfortunately, there are loads of websites that advocate topsoil, compost, and regular sand in containers. (Google "topsoil containers", and you'll get a bunch of those recommendations). If I remember correctly, even a previous (not sure about the current) edition of Sunset Western Garden Book suggests topsoil, sand, etc. in containers.

Bad recommendations, I think most of us would agree. One day I'll take some pics of two native bush lupine seedlings I transplanted into containers. One is in a pinebark/peat/perlite mix, the other in my native, sandy soil. The plants are 1-year old now, and the differences are PROFOUND!

Cheers!

If I remember correctly, even a previous (not sure about the current) edition of Sunset Western Garden Book suggests topsoil, sand, etc. in containers.

!

I have the last three Eds, rg, and none of them say this, fortunately. I know several of the consultants to the book personally and they would have screamed bloody murder had this entered print.

To the 'websites' point: My attempt at brevity resulted in confusion, apologies. I meant to convey 'formal introductory horticulture class' - type website.

There is no 'wisdom' button on The Internets, there is only information. This sad fact allows the spread of misinformation everywhere. One must be careful to use trusted and respected information, and use our critical thinking skills to identify 'trusted and respected'.

Dan

Thanks Dan, 'guess I "disremembered" a Sunset reference to "bad stuff" in containers!

I can not understand why there are so many people do not have common scenes, If you can grow the plant in you garden, then you can definitely use the garden soil and put in a planter and do the same thing. Those who use commercial pot soil do not know much science I believe. Now days due to the large population, trace elements deficiency is a common reason for many illness. therefore real soil for plants especially for vegetable is very important. If you keep using those bought ones literally organic media instead of real earth substances, you will get sick and no one will find out why. Thus, if for vegetables or micro-greens, just dig the soil not even bother compost, either sun dry them or microwave them before you plant the seeds, this is the only healthy way to do it. The greens may looks smaller and not as lovely as the ones using commercial pot soil, but you will see the benefits after a while.

The bottom line is pot is just like take part of your garden back into you house for protecting the plants from bad condition, that simple, so the soil in you garden will do the work will do in your pot, only need some extra work to kill the unpleasant living ones like bugs, mold etc.

After 11 years it shall rise again.

Albert: Well it so happens that there is more than ample scientific research and evidence that growing in container is not the same as growing in the ground. You will have to find that out yourself though.

Second thing is you advocate using garden soil and then microwave it kill all the organisms including the beneficial ones. If you are going to use a sterile soil - what is the point? Just plant directly in soil without going through all the trouble of "processing" garden soil.

I realize this is an 11 year old thread, but, gardening in a container is nearly as far removed from growing in the earth as hydroponics. On a scale of 1-10, with 1 being growing in the earth and 10 being hydroponics, growing in pots would be a 7 or 8 on the scale.

Using sandy/ loamy/ clay soils in pots results in severe compaction and very high levels of perched water, neither of which serve the plant well. Container media run the gamut from virtually unusable to near perfect, but even the unusable ones take a stab at providing more aeration and less water retention than the mineral soils mentioned.

Touting the chemical benefits of growing in pots using mineral soils w/o giving consideration to the physics of growing in containers is too narrow in focus. I'm not saying there aren't work-arounds experienced growers could put in place to allow them to use mineral soils in pots, but for the average grower it's far more likely to end in failure. More than 90% of the issues for which people growing in containers flock to forums in search of help are related to potting media that hold too much water and too little air, and your suggestion would be at the extreme end of those inversely linked properties.

Al