Why does every container gardening soil recipe have 10 ingredients?

[u/SashaNatureNomad]

Am I the only one who thinks most container gardening advice overcomplicates soil?

I've been growing vegetables in containers for a few years now and every spring I see people recommending these crazy mixes with 8-10 ingredients.

Meanwhile some of the healthiest tomato and pepper plants I've grown were in plain potting mix with extra perlite mixed in.

What actually made the biggest difference for me wasn't fertilizer schedules or fancy amendments. It was stopping the use of garden soil in pots.

The year I figured that out was the year everything suddenly started growing normally lol.

Curious what everyone here uses. Do you buy bagged mix, make your own, or just use whatever is cheapest and available?

And has anyone actually compared the results side-by-side?

[u/evening_crow]

Wife and use "specialty" mixed aroid soil for houseplants, succulent mix for succulents, palm/citrus mix for our potted palms/citrus/fig/persimmon/cherry/mulberry, and FF Strawberry Fields for our strawberry towers. The only things I amended (other than extra perlite/vermiculite) has been blue, black, goose, and raspberries due to the need of acidic soil (Strawberry Fields, acidifier, pine bark, perlite, peet moss). Other than that, it's just primarily some slow release fertilizer and worm castings. We have another vertical planter filled mostly with FF Ocean Forest.

All our raised beds and grow bags are, despite the bad rep... Miracle Grow cuz it's affordable. It retains moisture well for us in the Mojave Desert and plants love it on transplant. We just fertilize periodically to keep them happy. Also, we've broken up used mushroom growing blocks into it a couple times. We have a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, pumpkins, squash, pickles, garlic, and onions thriving. It actually made growing easier than we thought considering it's our first try.

Next year I'll probably just amend with some compost and call it a day. It's worked fine for us so far.