Id put 'tapla soil' in the search box and see what comes up. He (tapla) has posted loads of great information on gweb about this kind of thing.

well, first off when it comes to "potting soil" I only use finished compost, I don't like to buy or blend or measure or worry
IALBTC

Thanks for the tip, feijoas. I'm sifting through that wealth of knowledge right now.

Thing is, it's still way too technical for someone with my limited experience to parse out immediately. I'm sure I'll eventually be able to make sense of it, but not soon enough to save my cactus (totally uprooted now) and my drowning cyclamen (needs a better draining mix). Small words and baby steps!

Ryanzone7 - I live in a small NYC apartment, so I can't keep compost. What is IALBTC?

Thanks! Please let me know if you have other suggestions.

One of the most diffcult things to get right with potted plants is drainage and fertilisation. Many of those plants have very different needs: orchids like very coarse, free-draining media. Basically no soil. I'd buy some 'orchid mix'.
Cacti like it free-draining and infertile. Since you have bought specific cactus mix, I'm assuming it's fine without fiddling about.
The other plants could all pretty much go in the proprietary potting mix.
Pot them up asap. Make sure they're well soaked first. If they're very rootbound, I'd probably trim around the very outside of the pot-shaped root system, then gently tease the roots out out. It's pretty hard on the plant, but repotting plants without freeing the roots usually ends in dead plants.
Do a bit of research on the plants different food and water needs. Most plants die because people kill them with kindness.
African violets like plenty of water, rosemary needs to be dryish, cacti very dry and so on.
Things you could take back? Well, I'd probably return the peat, maybe the perlite.
The idea of the complete mixes is to make it easier for you; so maybe stick with them for now?

it all leads back to compost

Ryan, how does that all lead back to compost? My cactus would rot if I potted it using finished compost.

The use of of a significant volume of compost in container media comes with inherent issues, none of which are good. First, the reason most give for using compost is nutrition ...... but finished compost actually has very little to offer in that regard. Second, most growers mistakenly believe that because compost is very valuable for its ability to improve the structure of most mineral soils, that compost as a significant fraction of container substrates must be something akin to plant nirvana. It's not.

Growing in containers is much closer to hydroponics than growing in the earth, so much of what works well in the garden is better left there than trying to adapt it to use in an entirely different culture. Specifically, compost is comprised of fine particles, and it holds a LOT of water between those particles. How much water inter-particulate water soils hold is directly linked to particle size, with finished compost being very fine - which is why we KNOW it holds a lot of excess water.

"I use unfinished compost and the particles are larger so it drains better" you say? What about N immobilization and heat build-up from the composting process? and what happens as those larger particles quickly break down into small particles? The soil turns soupy. The only strategy remaining is to water in small sips and suffer the effects of an accumulation of solubles in the soil from fertilizer solutions and tap water ....... and hope it doesn't rain until the planting has matured sufficiently and roots colonized the entire soil mass so the plant can use the water fast enough that it doesn't rot roots.

Now, substitute pine bark in an appropriate size for the compost. What do we have? A well aerated, free-draining soil that should satisfy the strictly organic crowd. There's little concern for root rot issues or impaired root function due to soggy soils, and the margin for grower error in the areas of watering and fertilizing is increased significantly.

If you focus on the STRUCTURE of your container soils and shoulder the burden of providing for plants' nutritional needs, instead of sacrificing soil structure on the altar of virtually nonexistent nutrition just so you can feel good about using compost, you'll fare much better in your quest for 'best' and 'easiest'.

It's almost a requirement to understand how water behaves in container media if you wish to separate yourself from the rest of the pack that believes Miracle-Gro or other similar container media based on large fractions (more than 20%) of fine ingredients like peat/compost/coir/sand/topsoil are even close to best or easiest.

I'm going to link you to a thread that has been very active since spring of '05, and has almost 2,250 posts to it. There, you will find some information that should help you understand the importance if things like soil structure, aeration, particle size, water retention, drainage, and much more. I hope you find it helpful.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: More about container media

There's a different answer for all of these plants. What is good for African violets will kill orchids and so on. I'm sorry but there's no quick fix here you just need to read up on your various different plant types. I'll save you some time, however. Tropical orchids = pine bark; no soil just pine bark!

That is entirely not so. I grow hundreds of different plants - woody plants, herbaceous blooming plants, herbaceous foliage plants, succulents, vegetables ..... in containers, and use only two different soils for all of these plants. The difference in the soil is in durability only - one lasts longer than the other, but structurally, both soils are nearly identical. I also use the same fertilizer for virtually anything I grow. I'm not just talking the talk, the many hundreds of pictures of perfectly healthy and vibrantly growing plants I've peppered the forums with over the years serves as irrefutable testimony to the assertion.

BTW - I don't grow orchids, other than a few winter-hardy terrestrials, but I have friends that DO grow orchids in the same soil/fertilizer combination I use for AVs.

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The other soil I use is in the middle:
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Al