@solsoils

Your cactus doesn’t want a thimble of water. 🌵💧 Sorry in advance for the novel here, but I love me some cacti. They've evolved to survive through draught with the assist of occasional torrential downpours of precipitation, which they effectively store in their bodies between rain events. We take the same approach at home. Water deeply, let the excess drain freely, then give the soil plenty of time to dry out before watering again. The key isn’t necessarily giving your cactus a lot less water than your tropicals like Aroids. It’s watering it less often. Remember, dry rot issues are a thing for arid plants as well. So when it’s time to water, give it a proper drink. I water EVERYTHING in my (maybe embarassingly large to some) collection on a schedule, and water deeply when it's time for moisture. My hack in our potting mixes: *Every Sunday (7 days) - Orchids and some tropicals that are more thirsty **Every other Sunday (14 days) - Nearly all of my tropicals/Aroids ***Every 2-3 weeks when it's warm out Spring/Summer/Fall - Most of my succulents, cacti, euphorbia, caudex plants (And I taper this subset of plants back to every 4-6 weeks as winter sets in usually once Football season gets into full-swing, if that's helful context) We will all have some outliers, like a strange rare succulent that needs more frequent waterings. I just note that when I take it home and remember to water it with a different group, but generally this schedule above in Sol Soils mixes will be like gold for simplifying your plant care routine.

We love hearing where Sol Soils ends up... especially when it’s close to home. Barb found us at an independent shop in Crystal Lake, IL, just a short trip from where our mixes are blended in northern Chicagoland. 🪴 It’s always confusing when someone asks us where we’re based. I now live in Culver City in LA, Leah is in Maple Grove in MN (near where we started in DT Minneapolis), our partner blends and packs everything near Chicago, and we warehouse and ship everything from Indiana. Thank god for remote work, amirite? Made in the Midwest. Found locally in all 50 states across over 5000 retailers. Loved by plant people. 🌱

A little blank space = room for one more. 🌵 Nestled this Astrophytum into my Chenille Plant planter, gave it a little Necessary Nutrients + Repot Recovery, and back to the collection it goes. I pot up multiple plants into the same planters because they look more interesting and natural together, and tbh I get lazy sometimes with my collection which makes watering faster hitting multiple at once. lol There are also benefits of doing this as the Sol Biotics products have microbes that help multple plants share resources and communicate under the soil. Now these two can work together. :) Sometimes the smallest repots are the most satisfying. 🌱

When your Monstera has officially run out of room... this is a clear sign your plant is due for a repot. 🌱 Root-bound plants can struggle to take up water and nutrients, slow down growth, and generally start looking a little stressed. If the roots are circling the pot like this, it’s definitely time to size up and give them some breathing room. Fresh (larger) pot. Fresh soil. More room to grow.

It never fails that I have to scroll past 85 plant pics from a recent walk or something whenever I'm looking for a specific thing to send someone. ☺️

A lot of people want to know the difference between peat-based or peat-free.. let's break it down👇 Peat moss makes sense outdoors and in greenhouses; irrigation systems, gravity, and root/fungal networks keep moisture moving and balanced. Indoors, none of that infrastructure exists, so a peat-based mix just goes wet, then dry, then wet again. Our mixes are built chunky and gritty for drainage and airflow instead. They dry at a consistent rate, keep your root ball humid rather than soaked, and take a lot of the guesswork out of watering. Peat has its place; it’s cheap and effective at scale, especially outdoors. It also comes from bogs that take centuries to regenerate, which is a real sustainability concern worth knowing about. Between that and how it behaves indoors, we’ve chosen to leave it out of every mix we make, bog blends included. As for us, we'll remain peat-free, on purpose. 🌱

Repotting can be stressful, not just for your plants! Roots get disturbed, fine root hairs break, and the plant has to spend energy recovering instead of growing. Repot Recovery is built for exactly that moment. It’s powered by amino acids, potash, humic acids, calcium, and a payload of micronutrients that act as a security blanket to get your plant back into a comfortable state ASAP. Think of it less like a fertilizer and more like what we call a “(Pl)Anti-Depressant” — giving your plant what it needs to bounce back from anything the world might throw at it. One teaspoon per gallon of water. Use it as a soil drench when you water in after repotting, or as a foliar spray directly on the leaves. You can also sprinkle a teaspoon across the surface of a plant’s soil and water it in, if desired. And like a human anti-depressant regimen, it’s gentle enough to use every month or two, year-round, on your whole collection, not just a one-time repot fix. So use it anytime your plants look like they need a pick-me-up. Now available!

Just in time for my wedding, I finally put a ring on it. 👑🐝🌱

The 2 best ways for getting your plants past TSA (legally) 👀 My anxiety always builds pre-flight for the process and making sure no leaf gets physically damaged along the way, but it’s always worth it. The more new plants you bring home, the more repots you need though, so we got you. :)

Quick story! 🍄 We product-swapped with our friends over at North Spore to give their grow kits a try, and we were blown away—so easy to grow, so delicious to cook. The sautéed pink oysters were so good. Thank you, @northspore 🙌

You spilled, now we react 😆 Welcome to Spill the Soil! 🪴 Where our founder, Travis, reads your reviews live and reacts in real time!

There's just tooo many pretty plants 🥹 we got distracted 😭😭 @Armstrong Garden Centers

From our hands to your home: Our small batch process is what allows you to Grow Happy Plants, and our higher-end ingredients and quality to stay consistent. 🪴☺️

Meet our Chief Operating Officer (COO)—and my good friend from our Target HQ days—Leah! From meeting and becoming fast friends while working at Target’s corporate headquarters to being my right hand (and, realistically, voice of reason lol) with Sol Soils, Leah has been an integral part of our brand’s growth! Surprise cameo by Nick @The Plant Hatch. Hi Nick! 😂

Dropping something as a plant parent.. 😅😂

Hank thought he was getting a field trip 🐈😅😂

Love seeing what’s possible when you find the right solution. 🙌 Happy plants don’t happen by accident. 🪴 Sometimes you have to experiment to find what works. And Marizel’s plants are proof. ☺️

Ever wonder what your succulent's dream soil is? Our Succulent Gritty Mix is designed to balance airflow, drainage, and moisture so these dry-weather plants get what they need without the risk of sitting in soggy soil. 🪨 Pumice, granite, and expanded clays are at the forefront to keep roots breathing 🌿 Coconut coir + husk chips for the right moisture retention and soil structure. More structure. Better drainage. Happier plants. A solid foundation makes all the difference.

1.5 years later + still thriving. 🌿 @Plants_it’savibe got a new variegated money tree when she discovered Sol Soils and never looked back. 🙌 No root rot, no drama. Simply easier plant care from here on out. 🪴

Nobody tells you this when you buy a plant. 🌿 The soil it comes in? It’s not meant to last, especially indoors. Standard nursery soil breaks down, compacts, and can start to repel water (become hydrophobic) after a few months... and when that happens, your roots start to suffocate and the risk of rot increases substantially. It’s not you. Your plant was set up to fail from the start. Nursery soil works well for growers because it’s inexpensive and lightweight for shipping, and it works well in a greenhouse setting. Your living room is likely very different (humidity, sunlight, airflow, professional watering systems, nutrient regimen) from the greenhouse it has been growing in. Our Houseplant Chunky Mix is ready to rock straight from the bag and allows you to get your new plant ready to grow in your home more readily. We source very specific, top-quality ingredients that drain fast, let roots breathe, don’t break down and condense as quickly, and forgive any watering style of watering you might have. Our goal? Design Performance Potting Mixes® that take as much guesswork out of indoor gardening as possible so you can Grow Happy Plants®!

Still smiling from the weekend. 🌿 Two full days of plant conversations, new connections, and familiar faces that make this community so special. We loved every minute of it. Sol Soils is proud to sponsor an event that brings great people + (sweet, rare) plants together. ☺️ Congrats + thank you @PlantCon International 🌱 for having us and for building such a great team! It’s truly impressive in such a short span of a couple years. We'll see you at PlantCon Houston this April 🌿

Still smiling from Tropical Plants International Expo ☺️ @FNGLA Palm Beach We headed home with awards for our Repotting Soil Scoop and the Soil Teaspoon Applicator + Soil Pick... and even better, a weekend full of great conversations and familiar faces! Ellen Wells, Sr. Editor for Grower Talks Green Profit wrote a nice story on these products winning the award in her Tropical Topics column. Huge thanks to everyone who stopped by, shared kind words, and made it a blast, per usual. Special shoutout to @mossify, @Urban Gardener, @Treleaf, @Shop GOHA, and Cowbell Co. for the laughs and neighborly love. And got to catch up with some O.G. friends @britt. 🌱, Magnolia Garden Village, @The Plant Hatch, @Riza Plants, and many others! Feeling grateful + inspired. Back to new product development! 🌱

Our Hoya has... DISAPPEARED into this air, and we have questions... 🧐 The planter was about 10” around and had a trellis and was flowing all over the place, so it was big. The reference photo was taken months ago. The only reasonable theories I can come up with: • Straight up stolen by the cat sitter (but, how bold?) • Lost to the Santa Ana winds over the balcony (#rip) • Stolen in a very bold (ladder required) plant heist What’s your vote? Or tell us what we’re missing 👇

From Target spreadsheets to (more or less) accidentally starting a disruptive soil brand.🪴 When Sol Soils started, we were hand-sticking five labels on coffee bags just to get orders out the door. Then one post-brunch visit from a former boss changed everything. What started with storage totes mixed in our apartments in Minneapolis turned into a life altering moment! Grateful for our friends over @Ultra_Creative for designing a brand that communicated our vision 🙌 We’re on a mission to build a brand that makes plant care easier for everyone. No guesswork, no complicated instructions. Because houseplants shouldn’t be hard. With Sol Soils, anyone can Grow Happy Plants! ☺️

New Bag Alert 🙌 Our new bigger 10 Quart/2.5 Gallon bag is here (that’s 2.5x our original “large” 👀) with a few meaningful upgrades: ✨ New resealable Velcro closure (I know, how bouj 💅) 🌿 Updated branding to the logo to make the use-case more clear for retail ♻️ Made with post-consumer recycled materials 🛠️ Still mixed + packed by hand, in small batches (1 yard at a time!!), for max quality control Big repotting projects? Covered. Now available for our: -Houseplant Chunky Mix -Succulent Gritty Mix, and -LECA Balls

Hank said, "Let this be the year of thriving plants." 🪴(Or something like that. Probably.) ...and we all know, it starts with a performance potting mix 🙌 Manifesting healthy roots, happy leaves + zero stress in 2026 🎉 PSA: Don't get frustrated over the next couple months as late winter consistently brings us our most annoying plant struggles. Just remember they were never evolved to live in your kitchen, but there are a lot of simple things you can do to make them happy in any setting!

Want to know the secret to keeping your orchids healthy all year long? Orchid care isn’t as complicated as you’ve heard 🪷 Here’s how to set yours up for success: • Repot out of the sphagnum moss (or whatever) they arrive in • Deeply water once a week, no ice cubes needed (that’s just an old myth) • Use a chunky, breathable mix that supports airflow and healthy roots (like ours 👀) as they don’t typically grow in the ground in nature Higher quality potting mix = less stress (for you and the plant) ☺️🪴

Repotting tip: Try using an orchid pot. 🪴 They’re not just for orchids! The built-in airflow helps roots breathe, makes it easier to keep tabs on root health, and allows you to keep an eye on which plants in your collection are getting root-bound. They also work great as an insert to a cache pot - decorative pot that doesn’t have proper drainge at the bottom. One note: exposure to direct light will encourage certain micrboes to thrive, like green algea. Not harmful to the plant, but sometimes freaks people out. :) It’s a simple switch that can make a big difference for your plant’s long-term health. 🌿 Future planning: we look to create our own that are plastic-free, flexible, and plant-based orchid pots that have a unique Sol Soils flair! More to come on that soon...

Our take on a garden classic 😌 Our newly designed “Sol Biotics Applicator and Soil Pick” (I know, the name is absurdly long-winded, don’t @ me) features a longer handle for knocking old soil off during a repot, loosening roots from the side of an existing pot, and scooping + applying Sol Biotics with more... flair. Simple. Functional. Designed for easier, less messy, hands-on plant care ✨

Giving this plant a fresh start 🌿 P.S. Our Black Friday Sale is LIVE Get your Sol Soils faves 25% OFF now thru 12/2 ☺️ This ficus elastica tineke was ready for a new home, so we gave it the full Sol Soils treatment: • Our peat-free Sol Soils Houseplant Chunky Mix for a healthy base • A blend of each of our four Sol Biotics additive products to support root health during the transition and beyond • Our go-to tools, like our vegan leather repotting mat (coming soon), soil scoop, and soil pick, that help keep things nice and tidy