"Did you later start using the gritty mix and abandon the basic mix?" No. I use the gritty mix for plants that will be in the same soil for more than a single growth cycle. I use the 5:1:1 mix for all my veggies and display containers for the decks & gardens. I usually turn the 5:1:1 mix into the gardens, beds, or the compost pile at the end of the season. You got the gritty mix right, but The 5:1:1 mix is 5 parts partially composted pine bark fines 1 part sphagnum peat 1 part perlite garden lime The granite for the gritty mix is usually found at rural elevators/feed stores under the name "Gran-I-Grit" (grower size) or Cherry Stone (#2 size). Al

Yup - it applies to peppers & mater, too. I put the word 'ideal' in between the apostrophes (above) because it's something that's often said, and I'm guilty of repeating it as well, but lots of people with lots of letters after their name have said what I'm about to try to explain. "Why would containers need different pH requirements than in the ground." First, they don't NEED a different media pH, which is much less important in container culture than it is in the garden. I've puzzled over how to answer the question in a way that's easy to understand, because it's a complicated question. First, pH affects mostly the solubility of essential micro-nutrients and other nonessential elements that can become toxic, once certain pH levels are reached. Basically, in mineral (garden) soils, the micro-nutrients are already IN the soil, and the ideal pH is a happy medium where all the elements are in a favorable part of their availability range. Too much deviation either upward or downward in the pH level can have a significant impact on availability and toxicities. In container media, the organic components contain only very small amounts of micro-nutrients, locked securely in the hydrocarbon chains of the medium. So, raising or lowering the pH of the medium or the soil solution has little impact on the availability of these nutrients. If you point to a pH induced Fe deficiency and say Hey, look here - a pH induced deficiency", I'll point to the fact that technically it's not a function of the pH, but of the presence of high concentrations of Ca, Mg, Na, or bicarbonates, with the increase in pH being only the symptom. If you could use a medium that is devoid of potential toxicities, and has all the essential nutrients in the right ratio, you can grow most plants very well (in container media) at pH ranges from 3.0 to about 8.5. Here, you'll see the standard pH chart for mineral soils, depicting availability throughout the pH range. You can see that 6.5 to 7.0 is pretty favorable: This is a pH chart, also pretty standard, showing a different picture for container media: Al

i am going to grow some vegetables, flowers, and herbs this spring in containers. I have grown stuff in containers and had good luck with tomatoes and peppers in miracle gro mix. I had excellent results with a Much Nacho jalapeno plant filled with metro mix. I switched to a large in ground garden for the last 5 years. i start a ton of plants from seed every year under flo. tubes. starting seeds last year was the only time i saw the mix in the bottom of the styrofoam cups very compacted. the roots were all growing right above the compacted mix. they wouldnt touch the compacted crap. This happened, i think, because i started the plants a little earlier than the previous years. I have been wondering how to avoid this and why it happened. i figured it out by reading post in this forum. I have no way of gathering the components to Al's mix where i live. I guess i am stuck with metro mix 300, fafard premium, jungle growth, pro-mix, and all the other brands lowes sells. Out of these brands listed, which is the best to go with for plants that will be in the containers for 3-4 months? thanks.

The gritty mix is so well aerated and water runs through it so quickly you might think the water doesn't pause to hang around, but it does. The Turface soaks up water very quickly, then water diffuses from the Turface into the bark, so you're left with a damp medium instead of a soggy one. Plants and cuttings don't drink water in gulps or drops, they absorb it a molecule at a time from the thin film left on colloidal surfaces and from vapor in the spaces between particles in the soil - so damp is much preferred to wet by plants. Also, because the very top of the soil dries fairly quickly, you can't help but wonder if the rest of the soil mass is the same .... until you get used to it. It just takes a little practice. Did you try using a sharpened wood dowel/chopstick/skewer to check for soil moisture? Stick it in the soil; if it comes out wet or cool on the inside of your wrist, you probably don't need to water. It's difficult to over-water the gritty mix, but it can be done - especially if you didn't screen something or you thought that adding some peat or other fine ingredient for 'extra water retention' was a good idea. Part of the beauty of the gritty mix is how the Turface soaks up water and allows it to diffuse into the bark. This helps to prevent saturation. If you water too often, the bark too will be saturated and you'll have more than the ideal amount of water retention. Take heart though, over-watering the gritty mix is no where near as damaging as over-watering mixes made with finer particles, like peat/coir/compost/topsoil/sand ..... Still, it pays to allow the plant to get as dry as possible w/o inducing drought stress between waterings. You should always have holes in the container at the lowest point(s) water can collect. Clear bottles need extra care because soil temperatures can skyrocket in clear containers exposed to sun. Temps 40-50* hotter are possible in clear vs opaque containers, so keep that in mind. It can kill quickly and you may not even know what happened - even during cool or overcast weather. I'm unfamiliar with Bill's soil, but any soil you use should be very well aerated and drain freely. If the soil supports a PWT, using a wick is a good idea as it will help reduce the ht of the PWT. Your container should be deep enough that the maximum ht of the PWT is always below the proximal (root) end of the cutting. Putting that another way - the bottom of the cutting should never be immersed in water occupying that soggy layer of soil that so often occurs at the bottom of the container. Cuttings need lots of gas exchange in the root zone, and a cutting end coated with a film of water is highly undesirable, no matter what type of cutting you're rooting in a solid medium. I prefer a rooting medium that is as free as possible of the fungal spores that cause damping off. For that reason, I try to stay clear of rooting media that contains potting soil, compost, or any fraction of topsoil. Rooting cuttings is a race to see if you can encourage a vascular connection between roots and shoots before the fungaluglies rot the plumbing. I root almost all my cuttings in the gritty mix, but if I had a cutting I prized, I'd probably use a sterile (sterile by virtue of the fact there is no organic component) 50/50 mix of rinsed coarse perlite and screened rinsed Turface. Rinsing the perlite largely eliminates any potential difficulties associated with perlite's fluoride content; rinsing the Turface eliminates residual dust. I hope that helps. Al