Miracle-Gro Tropical Potting Mix Review

I usually make my own potting mix- a combo of coco chips, coco coir, orchid bark, perlite, & charcoal. But when Miracle-Gro came out with a potting mix designed for tropical house plants I wanted to give it a try. I mean why not? It was affordable, easily accessible, and if it worked well then maybe it would have been a great option if I ever needed soil last minute or even to replace my current mix. However, after trying it out on a few of my plants that needed potting up, I won’t be using it again.

Here’s why:

For starters, the mix is super dense. When looking for a potting mix for House plants, most plant like something that’s light & airy with good drainage. I watered my plants after potting them up like I usually do with my homemade potting mix & it took FOREVER for the water to run through the soil and out the drainage hole. This tells me that there isn’t a lot of drainage & it’s super moisture retentive. It took a long time for the soil to dry out.

I usually wait until the soil is dry before watering my plants again, but coming from someone who used to be a chronic overwaterer and has killed many plants from overwatering & root rot, this mix would have for sure unalived my entire collection if I had used it in my overwatering days.

The other reason I didn’t Like it was that as the soil dried out it compacted. Gapping appeared around the edge between the soil and the pot which is a classic sign of compacted soil. The soil was rock hard and when I watered the plants again the water almost instantly drained out of the bottom of the pot leaving the soil still very dry.

For me and my plant parenting habits this soil is definitely a no-go. I will say that it does have potential, if the right additives are added in. I did add some coco chips in mine since I had some on hand but if you chose to use this soil I would definitely recommend adding some perlite & orchid bark to give it more drainage & airflow.

When I first started collecting house plants, and before I started making my own mix, I used Miracle-Gro Indoor Potting mix for all of my plants, and I really wanted their tropical mix to work since it IS so easily accessible & definitely more affordable than my homemade mix, but at the end of the day the price and accessibility isn’t worth my plants suffering & potentially dying from overwatering, potential underwatering &/or lack of drainage & air flow to the roots.

#houseplants #pottingmix #houseplantclub #miraclegroreview #houseplantaddict #indoorjungle