What can I mix my container soil with to make lighter?
naturalmommys
13 years ago
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sprtsguy76
13 years agomeyermike_1micha
13 years agoRelated Discussions
Good garden soil makes poor soil for roses in containers?
Comments (42)The reason you can't trust the volume of nursery pots, Jim, is that those black nursery containers are all "nominal" sizes. That means the volume of the pots is vaguely related to the stated gallon size. A "5 galllon" nursery can is 10.5 in. diameter and 12 in. tall. My online calculator says that is only 3.75 gallons if you pot 2 inches from the top of the pot. That isn't large enough for any rose past the first year or so if it puts on vigorous growth. The foot stomping is an old landscaper practice. It's just a cheap way of determining settlement without taking the time to water a plant in. I wouldn't do it. Water your plant in to settle the soil. I've seen people planting roses into dry potting soil. I wouldn't do it. Many potting soils have peat moss which sheds water once dry. Those of you in climates with steady rain year round may not have this problem, but in the desert West, once peat dries out, it takes a concerted effort to dampen it. I open the bag of soil, stick the hose in, fill it up and mix. Then I pot with dripping wet potting soil and also water it in. It's mud pies for grownups. It assures that the soil comes to the optimal height in the pot (about 2 inches down) and fills major air pockets. I unpot roses all the time and have never found an air pocket. I don't drop pots on purpose. Our summers are too hot to grow a lot of roses in pots well. We can't keep the roots cool enough through June and July. I overpot extensively. A 3 x 3 rose goes in an ornamental pot that is 22-24 inches high. I use various decorative pots from the big box store and always buy the biggest size. Why? They bring to rose up to height and look more in scale with a landscape. It's funny how a pot looks big in a store and miniature in the garden. Also, with those big pots I'm approaching the 15 gallon actual size I find any healthy rose needs. I do a seat of the pants volume-of-cone calculation to guesstimate the volume of the pot, taking into consideration the potting soil is probably 3 inches from the top of the container. Here's a nice online volumetric calculator. http://www.online-calculators.co.uk/volumetric/conevolume.php...See MoreWhich potting soil/mix should i use for citrus in containers?
Comments (4)Aha, finally a question I can answer! (I'm new here but I've read just about every post on potting mix I could find.) Head on over to the "Container" forum and read the series of posts about this very topic from a very knowledgeable poster named Al/Tapla and the many many many other people who have had success with his potting mixes. There are also other folks who use different mixes, but there's definitely concensus about the idea of creating a fast draining but well aerated mix for containers to grow successfully long term. The key thing I've learned about potted citrus is they don't like soggy roots. Basic potting mixes have too much organic material and that not only stays wet too long, but it breaks down and collapses quickly, accelerating root rot and the poor nutrient uptake. When I got here a couple weeks ago, the idea of "home brewing" my own potting mix sounded so revolutionary and a bit crazy, and now, I'm a convert. I do a slight variation of the mix Al recommends, because I want to grow using a bit more organic material than he uses. You might also want to read his fertilizer posts... all very helpful. Good luck with your citrus! Here is a link that might be useful: Al's Container Potting Mix Post...See Morecontainer newbie needs input for soil/container mix
Comments (4)We planted tomatoes in "earth pots" that we made using Home Depot 5 gallon buckets and for other plants used plastic bins. We got the idea online. We drilled holes in the bottom of the bucket and took cotton clothesline from Dollar General, cut it into lengths and pushed them through the holes. We knotted the ends so they wouldn't fall out. Sat a brick in the bottom of another bucket that had drain holes drilled into it around the sides at a certain height and then sat the first bucket into it. Filled it with a mix of Jungle Soil and garden soil. Tomatoes went nuts! One place to see directions is www.instructables.com Hope this helps! Good luck! Val...See MoreContainer Mix...Making do with what I have???
Comments (9)Jan, Bark fines, as the term is used in container culture, refers to the bark of conifer trees only, not to hardwood barks. Pine and fir would be the most commonly found. They are called fines because they are much smaller than the typical landscape mulch one finds everywhere. The mean particle size would be dime sized or smaller. The reason they are used in place of peat is that they decompose much more slowly and therefore are able to maintain good aeration in the container longer than peat can. Conifer bark will easily outlast peat by 4 or more times. Due to their slow decomposition N immobilization isn't an issue. Usually these aren't labeled as fines, but as soil conditioner or aged pine bark or some other name. The name isn't important, just that it be all bark, no sapwood and the size is appropriate for container use. Seedmama, The only ingredient you have on hand that I would consider ideal for container usage is perlite. The masonry sand may or may not be large enough in particle size to drain well. The compost would be OK for a season if it is fairly coarse to begin with. I would suggest seeing if you can swing a bale of peat and using that as the basis for your mix. Then be generous with the perlite and the compost, if you need more volume would be OK, but personally I would keep it at less than 20% of the total volume because it's going to break down the fastest and thus rob the mix of aeration. Having said that, if you are growing larger plants as opposed to the compact plants in 5 gallon buckets you can get away with heavier mixes due to the plants consuming 1-2 gallons of water per day once they get to a good size. This tends to reduce the problems associated with heavy/fine particle sized mixes which is primarily holding water to the exclusion of air for too long....See MoreSuzi AKA DesertDance So CA Zone 9b
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