Al, I will try the all-Cactus-Mix in one 'Tainer to see how it wicks, at one end of the spectrum, then do a 1/3 Cactus Mix with 2/3 Miracle-Gro potting mix in another 'Tainer, and then straight Miracle-Gro mix "diluted" with Perlite to then compare results of the three. Where is a good source to get Perlite? At Lowes yesterday they only had very small bags of it. These moisture and pH meters are not good to rely on for absolute readings - -but I like to use them to gauge "relative change" as an indicator from one experiment to the next. It was interesting in the 'Tainer where I did not add Epsom Salts that the pH was reading 6.4 just now. Again, no faith in absolute numbers, but it indicated to me that the Epsom Salts in the one 'Tainer *may* be the cause as to why I am getting a lower reading on the scale in that one 'Tainer. Regarding tomatoes only, I had read somewhere that they did best in media that was between 6.2 and 6.5 pH. Do you not agree with this opinion? I am tempted (again), to reduce the size of the wicking basket to a 4 inch square one, with a 3.5" by 3.5" opening in the aeration bench, as a simplistic approach to continue use with the standard Miracle-Gro potting mix, to try to constrain the flow of moisture up into the SWC. But at some point in reducing the opening of the orifice the 'Tainer might not fully wick properly, and areas of potting mix may run dry. I guess I would rather find a potting mix (or a blend of two medias) that will exhibit the desired saturation characteristics ideal for tomatoes. Darn Hobby!!!!! BTW, The Peppers and Corn both love the current design's moisture eco-system! Raybo

Susan, I don't use vermiculite because of the risk involved in inhaling asbestos from it while handing it. I've very picky about what I'll use and even though there are some forms of 'organic vermiculite', I just won't use it. To me the possible health risk outweighs the potential benefit of using it. My chicken manure eventually makes it into my containers via compost, but first it goes from the chicken coops to the compost pile. I only use one brand of cow manure, Black Kow, because of its high quality and the fact that it is 100% compost with no fillers added. Some brands are as much as 90% filler material and usually the filler is a poor quality black clay soil. I used to use "local" manure given to me by local ranchers but stopped doing that after manure contamination with herbicide residue became a big issue in the 2000s---an issue that continues to this day. Even if my friends aren't spraying the suspect class of chemicals on their hay pastures, most of them buy hay to supplement what they raise and that hay could be contaminated. Dolimitic lime is the kind I use, and one bag lasts me forever because I don't use that much. I don't care for those soil-moist pellets you add to your pots. Been there. Done that. Not doing it again. They're great in a hot dry year, but in a very wet year, they kept my soilless mix too wet and I lost a lot of plants. To me, good drainage is more important than the capacity to hold water. After all, if the mix is draining too quickly, it merely means I have to water more often. However, if it is holding too much moisture, there's not much I can do to 'fix' that in the short term. I think the containers that are draining too fast this year will be fine next year after some of the pine bark has decomposed. When I add new ingredients to the mix next year, I just won't add pine fines. We have lots of sunlight here and relatively little shade in the non-wooded areas where I garden, but I do try to position my containers so they get either morning shade or afternoon shade. My containers are too large and too heavy to move once they're planted, so wherever I put them in March, April or May in the year I redo the soil mix is pretty much where they stay until the next time I completely redo the soil mix, which is about once every 3 years. I do plant trailing plants in almost all my containers so they can cascade down over the sides and shade the containers from direct sunlight and that helps a lot. The ones that are drying out too quickly are close to the driveway and get more reflected heat than I'd like, as well as full sun from sunup to sundown, and that's just a few. I have over 100 containers and it will be a cold day in hades before you'll hear me say I stood outside in the hot, midday sun and watered them! I used to do that, but then found that planting trailing plants to shade the sides worked pretty well. I bought some Green Country mulch this year and I think it is the first time I've used that brand. (I've never used their soil products, but glad to hear they've worked well for Lynn.) I have not been happy with the smell of it either and don't plan on buying that brand of mulch again. The smell drives Tim crazy. He thinks it smells somewhat like whiskey barrels and somewhat like railroad cross ties. Lots of the cheap wood mulch sold in stores is just ground-up wooden pallets, and I avoid that stuff. Lynn, I agree completely with your assessment of bagged top soil. It is the worst junk on earth and I think it is 100% clay or close to it. Charlie, I have grown just about every vegetable there is in containers. You can grow dwarf varieties, and you can grow regular varieties as long as the container holds enough soil for them. I use a few dwarf varieties (for example, the dwarf okra varieties 'Little Lucy' and 'Baby Bubba') but mostly plant the same stuff in containers that I plant in soil. The most important thing is that the mix has to be well-draining and you have to provide consistent moisture. There's a guy whose GW name is "Raybo" who posts on the Tomato Forum and he raises tomatoes and corn in home-made self-watering containers he calls Earthtainers. He seems to have a great corn crop every year as well as tons of tomatoes. Carol, Woo hoo! Hooray for having a truck! Now you can haul home anything you need for the garden. Susan, I don't know about using that black peat. It is the kind of thing that could come back to haunt you by ruining your mix. I've never seen it recommended anywhere, so I think that's sort of a 'clue'. My concern is that if you get a bad component in your container mix, it can be hard to fix it since you can't easily remove the black peat once it is in there. I've linked Raybo's website so y'all can see his tomatoes and corn in the Earthtainers. He gets about the best yield from tomatoes that you could ever imagine and I think it is because there is a constant water source and fertilizer source. Dawn Here is a link that might be useful: Corn and Tomatoes In Earthtainers

Bruce, I was just reading your post in this thread. You mention screening out the particles less than 1/8". BE CAREFUL!! Remember you NEED at least some fraction of those particles in the 1/16" - 1/8" range for the mix to bind (and for retention). My mix calls for 1/2 part of bark in that range to be included, but that can be altered to increase the retention - if desired. Also, I'm seeing quite a bit of large diameter particles in your mix...beware of the ping pong balls dude! Are you passing it through a 1/2" mesh? If your product is comprised of too high of a concentration of larger particles...you may have to add another intermediate level of screening...say 1/4" to ensure that your larger pieces comprise only a moderate fraction of the total mix. Notice the amount of chips that are equal to or larger than your quarter? Quite a few, right? Notice mine. There are only a few pieces that are even half the size of the quarter. The more particles that you have in your mix that are similar, the better. You want to avoid too many large particles and too many small particles...the goldilocks zone is what your looking for....juuuuuust right. PJ

I agree with gardengal on this one. The Container Gardening forum is much better suited for the questions and issues you're experiencing. I too became frustrated with the bagged products available in my area at what I deem are reasonable prices. I used to use them for transplanting vegetable seedlings. My use is much more temporary than yours, but to get quality mixes, I would be financially better off quitting gardening entirely and buying fruits and vegetables. So, I decided to start building my own transplant mediums from free, locally-sourced materials. Namely... wood chips. As you pointed out, the main ingredient in bagged products these days is 'partially decomposed forest products'. What is that? Decomposing wood chips! The other ingredients are mainly compost, and/or poultry manures. Since my use is very temporary (until transplanting out in the garden,) the stability of pine barks and perlite isn't very important. I get wood chips in the spring/summer delivered for free when the chips have leaves shredded into them. I let them decompose until the leaves have composted. I them screen them down to size... the larger chips are sifted out first for multiple uses around the house. Then, the compost is separated from the smaller, grit-sized chips. I them combine the pure compost with a measured amount of the smaller chips until I reach a desirable consistency. I use a soluble liquid fertilizer to supply any needed nutrients. The results have been much better than the affordable store-bought, bagged products in my area. I hope you too find something that works for you.