Best Soil for Dracaena Marginata - Garden Gear Shop
Choosing the best soil for Dracaena Marginata is the first step to ensuring your Dragon Tree has a healthy root system. A high-quality potting soil will also keep your Dracaena Marginata tree healthy and disease-free since it will have a balanced blend of nutrients that support optimal growth and development.
If you’re in a rush and you just want to know our top pick we recommend Bioforce – Soil Mix PRO (Buy Online). Otherwise, keep reading this article if you want to learn more about Dracaena Marginata soil requirements.
Also further down this page, you can find instructions on how to mix your own potting-soil, along with step-by-step Dracaena Marginata repotting instructions.
Dracaena Marginata Soil Requirements
Dracaena Marginata Soil
Bioforce – Soil Mix PRO 12QT – Potting Soil
Dr. Earth Gold Premium Potting Soil, 8 Quart
Black Gold-Quart All Organic Potting Soil
FoxFarm FX14054 Happy Frog Nutrient Rich Potting Soil Mix
Minute Soil – Compressed Coco Coir Fiber Grow Medium – 100 MM Discs – 10 Pack
Dracaena Marginata Repotting
How To Repot an Overgrown Dracaena Marginata Plant
How To Make Your Own Dracaena Marginata Soil Mix
Dracaena Marginata Soil Mix
Dracaena Marginata Mixture – 4qt
Dracaena Marginata prefers a loose rich soil since they are native to Madagascar where they grow in fertile volcanic soils. Dragon Trees also need to be planted in soil with a pH between 6 and 7, which will help ensure proper nutrient absorption.
Peat-moss or sphagnum-moss both serve as a good base for a Dracaena Marginata soil mix since they are both naturally acidic. However, you can also use Coco coir if you want to avoid using peat-moss for environmental reasons.
The best soil for a Dracaena Marginata (Buy Online) tree should also contain vital nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium, and it should also contain plenty of organic carbon since Dragon Trees need to grow in very rich bioactive soil.
Organic soil for Dracaena Marginata should contain compost, Biochar, or worm castings. These additives will help promote robust growth when used alongside a good Dracaena Marginata fertilizer
Dracaena Marginata also won’t do well in waterlogged soil since this can lead to root rot and other fungal problems. The best way to ensure you have loose well-drained soil is to add some Perlite, or Horticultural Charcoal (Buy Online). Both of these amendments will improve aeration and drainage, and charcoal will add much-needed carbon to the soil.
Learn More: Dracaena Varieties
Bioforce – Soil Mix PRO (Buy Online) is the best soil for Dracaena Marginata trees since it contains a special blend of Coco Coir, Perlite, Bat Guano, Fish Bone Meal, and Biochar.
The Biochar in this soil mix sets it apart from most commercially available potting-soils. Biochar helps increase soil fertility by enhancing nutrient retention, and by harboring and feeding beneficial bacteria that will help release nutrients back into the soil. In addition, Biochar is also an excellent source of carbon, which makes Bioforce one of the richest prepackaged soils.
The Bat Guano and Fish Bone Meal in this soil will also provide a good amount of nutrients for your Dracaena Marginata tree. The Coco Coir in this soil mix also allows it to retain 35% more water than traditional potting soil, and the added perlite helps improve drainage and aeration.
Dr. Earth Gold Premium Potting Soil (Buy Online) is formulated for both indoor and outdoor container-grown plants. This rich organic soil contains fir bark, perlite, peat moss, alfalfa meal, fishbone meal, bone meal, kelp, dolomite lime, and gypsum.
Dr. Earth Gold Premium Potting Soil also contains aloe derived wetting agents that aid in moisture transport and retention. This will help keep the soil from drying out between regular watering, and it will also keep moisture evenly distributed throughout the soil.
Dr. Earth Gold Premium Potting Soil also contains a special blend of TruBiotic soil microbes along with ecto and endo mycorrhizae fungi. These beneficial bacteria and fungi help breakdown complex organic compounds and turn them into nutrients that are easier for a plant’s roots to absorb and utilize.
Black Gold All Organic Potting Soil (Buy Online) is an excellent all-natural organic potting soil. This potting-soil mix contains sphagnum-moss, peat moss, composted bark, earthworm castings, perlite, pumice, and granulated organic fertilizer
Black Gold All Organic Potting Soil also contains RESiLIENCE, which is SunGrows silicon-based growth enhancer. Plants grown in soil containing RESiLIENCE produce healthier roots and thicker stems. RESiLIENCE can also help protect houseplants from wilting if you ever forget to water them.
FoxFarm Happy Frog Nutrient Rich Potting Soil (Buy Online) is one of the best soils for a Dracaena Marginata tree since it is a very rich organic potting soil. This soil mix is made for both indoor and outdoor use, and it contains composted bark, earthworm castings, and bat guano.
FoxFarm Happy Frog Nutrient Rich Potting Soil has been amended with mycorrhizal fungi that aid in nutrient transport and absorption. These beneficial fungi can protect a plant’s root system from fungal diseases like the Phytophthora water mold, which is the main cause of root rot in most houseplants.
FoxFarm Happy Frog Nutrient Rich Potting Soil has been pH balanced to ensure proper nutrient absorption. This soil mix also has a very friable texture with good drainage, which will keep your Dragon Tree’s roots healthy and well aerated, and the loose texture will ensure that your houseplants are never growing in water-logged soil.
Miracle-Gro Houseplant Potting Mix (Buy Online) is a good general-purpose potting soil for houseplants. This potting mix contains sphagnum-moss, coco coir, perlite, wetting agent, and Miracle-Gro Fertilizer.
A four-quart bag of Miracle-Gro Houseplant Potting Mix will fill an 8-inch container. It also has enough Miracle-Gro Plant Food to last for 30 days before you need to begin regular feedings with a liquid fertilizer. Overall, Miracle-Gro Houseplant Potting Mix is a good choice if you want an affordable potting-soil mix that takes the guesswork out of repotting a Dracaena Marginata
Minute Soil – Compressed Coco Coir Fiber (Buy Online) makes it easy to ship and deliver a large amount of potting-soil. Then when you’re ready to use this compressed potting-soil mix it will expand to 7 times its size once it is fully saturated with water. Best of all this compressed soil is made from OMRI listed organic coconut coir that retains 50% more water than regular potting-soil.
Dragon trees make great houseplants since they don’t need a lot of attention, but they will need to be transferred into a larger pot every 2 to 3 years. This will ensure your Dracaena Marginata tree doesn’t become root-bound and have its growth stunted.
If you have a large Dragon Tree that’s starting to get too big for its current pot then you’ll need to transplant it as soon as possible if you want it to keep growing.
Here are some simple Dracaena Marginata repotting steps you can follow if this is your first time transplanting a Dragon Tree:
Make sure you water your Dracaena Marginata plant thoroughly and let the plant sit for an hour to let the water drain out before you start the repotting process.
Next, you can add a layer of fresh potting soil to the base of the larger pot that you will be using to transplant your Dracaena Marginata tree.
You should use a rich organic potting soil like Dr. Earth Gold Premium Potting Soil (Buy Online), or you can mix your own homemade potting soil.
In order to improve drainage, you can add some perlite to the base of the pot, and you can also mix a little perlite into the soil.
Now add enough soil to the larger pot so that the root ball of your Dragon Tree will sit 1-inch below the rim of the new pot.
Now it’s time to remove your Dracaena Marginata plant from the old pot. It’s best to hold the pot with one hand, and then loosen the soil until the root ball easily slides out.
Next, gently pull the Dragon Tree straight up firmly while grabbing the base of the plant and carefully pull the root ball out of the pot.
Place the root ball into the center of the new pot, and fill the space around the root ball with fresh potting soil.
You can tamp down the soil as you work to help support the plant, but don’t compress the soil too much.
Water the Dragon Tree and check how much soil has settled.
If a lot of settling has occurred then you’ll need to add more soil to fill in the gaps.
Now that you’re done you can put your Dragon Tree back in a nice sunny location that’s large enough to accommodate the bigger pot.
If you want to make your own Dracaena Marginata soil you can get all the ingredients separately online or at your local garden center.
This will allow you to have more control over the finished product, and it will make it easier to add amendments to the soil.
The following list of ingredients will serve as a good base if you want to make the best soil for Dracaena Marginata plants:
Coco Coir (Buy Online) is similar to peat moss since it retains moisture well, and it’s also a more sustainable soil substitute. Coco Coir also has a neutral pH, so it won’t make your soil mix too acidic or basic.
Horticultural Charcoal (Buy Online) is a great way to improve the drainage of your soil mix, and charcoal also stores nutrients and makes them easier for a plant’s roots to absorb. Charcoal will also add carbon to the soil, which is important for a Dragon Tree since they prefer to grow in very rich soil. The charcoal will also serve as a home for beneficial bacteria since it has a very porous structure.
Scent Free Organic Compost (Buy Online) is an excellent way to add nutrients to a soil mix for a Dracaena Marginata tree. This odor-free compost contains all the nutrients a Dragon Tree needs to get off to a good start. It also will help feed beneficial microorganisms and it’s a very good source of organic carbon.
1/8 Horticultural Charcoal
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