Anyone try Peppers and Tomatoes in Gritty Mix?
ideal2545
12 years ago
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TheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDWD2
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoRelated Discussions
Air-pot and 511 mix, anyone try?
Comments (6)Drew, my question wasn't about money, I know they're more money than the fabric pots, which I already use, I have conditions and reasons that are bringing about my change in pots. Air-pots are a compromise since I don't want to use solid pots for my veggies. Besides, I'm only going to start off with maybe twenty to test the first season, if I like them it's an investment, if I don't it's a donation to the community garden. Jay, evaporation is one of the reasons for my switch, the wind blows everyday here and water loss is big, but along with evaporation I have dogs pissing on the bags, gophers and rats chewing through them and a few other reasons to ditch the fabric pots. I have just had so much success with gritty and 511 mix I don't want to go back to using such a fine mix, which is what they recommend for their pots. I may just have to play around with it and see what happens....See MoreFor Jessica and anyone else that is interested 1.1.1 gritty mix.
Comments (42)Soil-less is hydroponics. Organics is a scam. Chemical fert is salts. Organics need to be broken down to the same salts that chemical fertilizer is made of before plants will absorb them. i have no problem with organics but it's not better than chemicals. Urine is organic feces is organic dead rotting animals is organic household ammonia is organic anything grown with artificial light, even just sprouted seeds, is not organic. Organic trees can be non organic trees fed organics only for a year. So something like grapefruit that takes 15 months to grow can start growing on chemicals, switched over, and be sold as organic....See Moremixed 6 pack seedlings tomatoes/peppers
Comments (34)Those are actually tomatoes, not peppers! I grew them in 7-gallon nursery containers, hand-mixing dirt, potting mix, leaves (green and brown) and finished compost, along with Tomato-tone fertilizer. (And got into a huge debate in the container growing section over my methods). The containers were buried in the ground which helped keep them from drying out. I staked them when they were smaller and then wove string around those metal poles. Now to come clean: I got very few ripe toms - but I learned more in six months than I had in 50 years! 1) - No matter what you hope and anticipate, Cincinnati is going to experience a drought of sunlight from mid-December to mid-February. I had a two-week period that had a total of four hours (probably less) of sunlight. Makes for some leggy plants. 2) - Unless you plan on babysitting the GH all day, every day, be sure to install an automatic vent. One day in either very late winter or very early spring, the weather forecast called for mostly cloudy skies and high temps of 48. It was 42 when I left and though I turned the heaters off, I did not open the door. The weather turned out to be very sunny with a high near 60. When I left I had hundreds of blooms and dozens of very small (pea to marble size) fruits. When I returned, I had a couple dozen blooms and dozens of fried, brown tomatoes. When I left, it was 55 in the GH, when I returned it was 125 - and that was at a foot off the ground. At the top of the plants, probably 5-10 degrees warmer. 3 - don't underestimate the way whiteflies can proliferate in a GH lacking natural predators. A few bugs here and there can turn into hundreds of thousands that are almost impossible to eradicate unless one wants to use chemicals that means the fruit will not be edible. That said, if I can afford to replace the plastic roof with twin-wall GH panels and upgrade the wiring, I will give it another try next fall/winter. Use lights to replace the sun, but run them mostly at night to also provide heat. Plus, by using the panels, I'll be able to cover them and the windows with bubble wrap - an excellent way to prevent heat loss. I'll also install an automatic, hydraulically-operated vent. I can fit maybe 70 plants inside, using either a drip or DWC hydro system (or if I get real ambitious this summer, super amend the ground and grow them directly in dirt). That's potentially 1500 pounds of maters I could sell at $3/lb. Mike...See MoreIs Al's gritty mix or 5-1-1 mix really any better than other mixes?
Comments (32)@Nil13 made reference to the Whitcomb 311 mix, which is an earlier historical attempt to create a more coarse potting soil for container plants. I think it is extremely helpful to read a document written by Carl Whitcomb that explains how he came on this formula by accident. Essentially what happened is he accidentally left nine test pots under a bench and everyone forgot they were there. They had successfully nearly killed all of their test plants by watering in a normal potting soil mix and the unwatered plants started to do very well. What I have started to realize is that any plant can do well in many different soil mixes, if you are able to carefully control the watering. This explains why so many people on this forum claim gritty mix is not as good for their succulents as their (fill in some random horrible soil with lots of small particles) mix. Inevitably those people are growing their plants indoors. They have enormous experience with their plant type and they know exactly when to water the plant. So that is the case of a very skilled gardener compensating for a very bad soil. What gritty mix does for me is let me grow succulents outside in very abusive weather conditions, without the plant dying. A plant can get a week of rain and it will still drain well. During Summer, gritty mix will tolerate a bit of overwatering, although you still really need to pay attention to not overwatering. Whether you make your 511 mix with perlite/peat, or with two parts Turface, or with lava and pumice, is probably in the big picture not going to be the deciding factor in whether your plants grow well or not. Success can be add with any of those mixes because the size of the particles allows the roots to breathe and prevents capillary action of water from bring the perched water table to the top of the pot and drowning the roots. Fine-tuning how you make 511 is a question of matching the plant type to the moisture retention of the soil and to the watering habit and climate exposure. Any 511 variant is going to do better than almost any commercial potting soil because of the larger particles used in the majority of the mix....See MoreTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDWD2
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years ago4hleader
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12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agorina_Ontario,Canada 5a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agogreenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agorina_Ontario,Canada 5a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDaMonkey007
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDWD2
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoSpaceman21
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDWD2
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoTheMasterGardener1
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agofortyonenorth
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDaMonkey007
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agokathycakes
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agokathycakes
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agokathycakes
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agogreenman28 NorCal 7b/8a
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agofortyonenorth
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agokathycakes
12 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDWD2
11 years agolast modified: 9 years agoDaMonkey007
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