What is the proper/safe soil for plants?

[coastalvibesmama]

When I initially set up my female panther chams enclosure I bought organic soil but didn't realize it still had fertilizer in it, I have now also added a male (separate enclosure) and want to repot all the plants but am so confused on the soil. I couldn't find anything without fertilizer at home depot. Is manure based soil what I'm looking for? What is the danger in leaving the soil the way it was from the plant store? How urgent is it for me to change it out?

Thanks!

Here is Bowser our new male

 

[Beman]

Hey there you just want organic soil. I have used fox farm brand without issue for years. I do have to cover the top of my soil though with rock or my veiled will eat the soil.

I always strip roots down and repot but mostly so I have better plant growth. What they come in tends to be very low quality.

 

[naterowley]

I use the Fox Farm Ocean Forest personally

 

[Beman]

I use the Fox Farm Ocean Forest personally

So here is my embarrassing story about soil picking when I was a newbie. Keep in mind I started in the forum in 2018 and there were not a lot of people sharing info then. So I knew from reading that I should use organic. I went to buy soil and in my overwhelm with options chose from, I saw fox farm happy frog... because it had a frog on the bag I figured well that has to be the right one for a cham cage.

 

[MissSkittles]

Bowser is adorable! Love that face!
As I’m currently repotting several plants that I used a rather generic organic soil with, go with a quality one. Fox farms is great. It’s not available in any local stores for me, but it can be ordered off Amazon. If you have Prime, shipping is free.

 

[coastalvibesmama]

Hey there you just want organic soil. I have used fox farm brand without issue for years. I do have to cover the top of my soil though with rock or my veiled will eat the soil.

I always strip roots down and repot but mostly so I have better plant growth. What they come in tends to be very low quality.

Hey there you just want organic soil. I have used fox farm brand without issue for years. I do have to cover the top of my soil though with rock or my veiled will eat the soil.

I always strip roots down and repot but mostly so I have better plant growth. What they come in tends to be very low quality.

First has perlite, second has compost- is one of them ok before I go hunting for fox farm brand?

 

[coastalvibesmama]

Bowser is adorable! Love that face!
As I’m currently repotting several plants that I used a rather generic organic soil with, go with a quality one. Fox farms is great. It’s not available in any local stores for me, but it can be ordered off Amazon. If you have Prime, shipping is free.

Thanks! Do you think it is safe for my cham to be housed with the current "who knows what" soil from the store for a few days until it arrives or is reporting something I need to do immediately?

 

[Beman]

So I will not use anything that has perlite in it because of impaction risk. Should they eat it you then have a risk to worry about.

I do not know what they mean by compost... Open it and see what it has in it. If you are not seeing fertilizer beads or perlite I would think it would be fine to use.

 

[MissSkittles]

Many cover the tops of the soil with washed river rocks which are way too big to be eaten. You could do that.

 

[coastalvibesmama]

Many cover the tops of the soil with washed river rocks which are way too big to be eaten. You could do that.

I'd read about the non bead fertilizers producing a gas toxic to the chams?

 

[coastalvibesmama]

Many cover the tops of the soil with washed river rocks which are way too big to be eaten. You could do that.

Would any large Sanitized rocks be ok?

 

[MissSkittles]

Would any large Sanitized rocks be ok?

I guess so.