Container Planting

So what's the best tried and tested potting soil mix?

The simplest soil mix consists of:
-one part garden soil (should be loam)
-one part sand (should be river sand since sea sand is high in salt)
-one part sifted fully decomposed compost. or chicken manure
This mix may easily encounter disease, so you will need to sterilize it, either cook the soil, pour hot water on it, or burn leaves ontop of the mixed soil.

*This is an important step I've left out in starting my seedlings and may be the root source of some of my problems.

Soilless mixes used in the Philippines:
-two parts Rice hull charcoal, one part compost
-equal parts of rice hull, compost and coconut coir dust
-equal parts of sand, rice hull and coir dust
These are free of disease but you must take care not to contaminate it later.

Caution: DO NOT put earthworms into your pot to help aerate your soil, they will eat your plants...hehe That's the advice of a guy I met in Davao who is successfully growing herbs and vegetables in containers.

Harbest Agribusiness carries a good book on container gardening "A Guide to the exciting and rewarding pursuits of Growing Vegetables and Other Edibles in Containers". The above mixes are quoted from that book pg.48.