At the three-month mark, I was surprised to already see a noticeable difference in the plants. As you can see from the picture, Custom Soil Mix A (left) clearly outperformed the Miracle-Gro potting soil mix (center). But the big surprise was the Miracle-Gro Garden Soil (right). This product isn't even designed for container culture, but the plant actually held up better than the Miracle-Gro Potting Mix. Nevertheless, in terms of overall health and size, the custom mix is clearly a superior choice.
Watering HabitsThe plants were watered according to their needs, as opposed to a uniform watering schedule. As expected, I had to water the custom potting mix much more frequently—usually every other day. The others could be watered weekly or twice a week, but they were much less responsive to watering.
The lesson is clear: use a faster-draining potting mix for healthier plants, but expect to water much more frequently than with peat-based mixes.
FertilizerThe plants were all started with an initial shot of controlled-release fertilizer. However, after eight weeks, I started supplementing with a weak liquid fertilizer when I watered. As much as possible, the fertilization schedules were the same for all the plants.
The Next StepZebra plants are somewhat challenging to keep looking their best. They tend toward legginess, and there are frequently not very long-lived plants. I plan to keep these going for as long as possible, but considering the leaf drop I'm experiencing on the two Miracle-Gro potted plants, I think I'll probably have to discard them in a few months.
