Hello all, (newbie gardener here) Wanted to say THANK YOU for this thread. Although some of it went right over my head, what I did get from this discussion was perhaps a reason why my plants may not be happy in containers. Since we had an organic garden as kids, I started my gardening career trying to use mostly those methods. In past years, I've planted in a mix of about 50/50 soilless+compost. For plants that I thought would like a lighter mix, I threw in a little perlite or vermiculite (whichever I had on hand). This has been for my tiny collection of house and patio plants. Though I have tried patio containers of tomatoes and peppers planted in compost+peat+perlite. I fed with Terra Cycle liquid worm "juice". Indoors, the result has been that all goes well for about half the year. But late in the season, the soil looks dead and is very compacted. In my houseplants, I refresh it each Spring. But needless to say, the plants don't look at all happy through Winter. I'd like to improve that!!! We just moved from zone 8 to zone 6A. This year I want to try EB's on my deck. But which veggies should this beginner try? Was thinking of some small, determinate tomatoes, sweet peppers, and mulling over pole beans and maybe squash or cukes. I'm also anxious to try growing fingerling potatoes in a container of straw+compost mix b/c I hear it's easy. So what soil mix would you suggest for the houseplants. And what soil mix for the outdoor EB's? I have spent days reading here and at the EB forums and was wondering if I should use the moisture retaining crystals. I'm guessing the answer is NO from what was said above. I was frankly nervous about using chemical fertilizers. I still don't understand why slow-release fertilizer is not a good idea for the EBs. Some gardeners posted that feeding with weak compost tea, worm "juice" or fish emulsion was fine in the EBs. But most say stick with the strip of fertilizer on top. In a soilless mix, can someone suggest a brand of fertilizer to use or an NPK ratio that might work well on this year's veggie crop for this newbie? Thanks in advance for your time.

If I was watering 2x per week, I would do a couple weeks at every 5 days and then go to every 7 days. The scary thing about chemical fertilizers is how much to use, how often, and how to care for the lawn after applying the fertilizer. With organic fertilizer, none of that matters. You can apply a double dose every day with no water afterwards and everything will be fine. That is why I suggest it for new grass. You can't hurt anything. Once your grass is up and you are mowing it all on a regular basis (2x per week for bermuda), then you can consider a chemical fertilizer. Be sure to water it in right away after applying. Do NOT wait for the next day just because the sprinklers will come on that day. I like alfalfa for the cost and the benefit. Even after you are on a monthly chemical fertilizer plan, I would strongly suggest you supplement the chemicals with at least one app of organics per year. Without that your soil can suffer.

Ok so we had rain Thursday last week... by aerating time on Sunday.... things were REALLY dry. I did it anyway and was not happy with the depth. So I went back and watered some areas in the time I had, but mother nature helped out! :) I got rain Sunday night and Monday a very hard rain... and a bit Yesterday. So I drug the aerator back out last night and had another go at it. AWWWW... so much better depth. I had already threw out 10 bags of Lowe's topsoil... so i went back for 18 more bags at Home Depot. Threw them out on the ground last night. So I have 28.... 40LB bags of soil tossed out on an aprox 15,000-20,000 sq foot yard. Whew! Now I had some 28-0-4... because of the rain it says i have to hold off for 1-2 days and not have it rain for another 1-2 days.... UGH! So I'm thinking can just a straight fertilizer go down w/o the water restrictions. What about a straight preemergence? I could take back the 28-0-4 and get the other stuff??? Whew it better green up after all this work! Thanks!

Tim--you're fine. Post adding stuff (phosphorus, most notably), proper sampling through the entire profile is better, but it won't impact most other nutrients that much. Calcium, magnesium, potassium, and most of the minor elements perk through rather well and distribute themselves through the profile. There can certainly be exceptions when using calcium oxide or magnesium oxide, but I never recommend use of those anyway (well, not as a general rule, but there's always an oddball and I can think of one case). Phosphorus levels, post using starter or triple super phosphate, will read rather low the second year if you only sample the deep part of the soil. Phosphorus perks at a snail's pace. That might lead to overapplication of phosphorus, which could be a potential problem...except that we target 200 anyway. Even doubling that will only bring you to 400 if you started at effectively zero. 400 is not a problem and well within normal range, if at the high end. Organic matter levels will tend to read low when sampling deeply (something I do intentionally), but there's no down-side to increasing OM levels through the mid-teens at the absolute floor. OM also perks down incredibly slowly. Re-testing rapidly post an application of anything isn't recommended, so that's not usually a problem.