Fafard's nursery mix or their 51L mix .... unless the peat and/or perlite mixed with the pine bark fail your sniff test.

Al

Al - I ended up making my own potting mix from your recipe posted elsewhere on this forum, since I needed upwards of 60 gallons. The best I could find was a fine textured pine bark mulch (I sifted out the biggest pieces). As for micronutrient powder, I used Espoma plant tone as it claims to have micro nutrients...Should that be enough in the way of minors? Thanks!

Well - I hope you find it suits your growing style. ;o)

The Plant Tone only lists the primary and secondary macro-nutrients. It doesn't say anything about the minors? I'm going to link you to another recent thread that you might find interesting. See below.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: More about fertilizer

Thanks for the link about Dyna-Gro. Just ordered some of the 9-3-6 and Pro-tekt. Since I already have the Plant Tone mixed into the containers how long should I wait before starting off with the Foliage Pro? As of now the pots are out and filled with medium but still waiting for the plants. They'll be planted by the end of the week. I'm assuming being out in the rain will wash out some of the nutrients? Thanks again for the great info!

I'm a little concerned for you with regard to ammonium toxicity. It's pretty early to be applying organic fertilizers or urea-based fertilizers because of low soil temperatures. I usually wait until mean temperatures are 55* or above to apply fertilizers that get more than half their N from urea or organic sources.

Use the older leaves on the plant as a guide. If you see yellowing on older (but not the oldest leaves, which might be natural senescence) leaves, it could indicate a developing N deficiency, but it could also just be that something is affecting soil biota populations (temperature, moisture levels, pH, ...). If the latter is the issue, there could be adequate N in the soil, but it's just not available due to low microbial populations/activity. If you add (fertilizer) to what is already in the soil with a subsequent application, you could be leaving your plantings susceptible to fertilizer burn when the nutrients DO become available. This is one of the reasons I prefer soluble fertilizers for container culture and organic sources of nutrition for the gardens & beds.

Al

So, say I plant my seedlings in the mixture as it is with nothing additional, at what point should they get more fert?

There is no way for me, or anyone to tell you that. How fast the soil amendments you used as fertilizer break down depend on several variables, the affect of which we can't guess. Organic soil amendments tend to carry over in the soil until conditions are favorable for the growth of soil biota, then fertilizers can become available rapidly. The problem is you never really know if there is insufficient fertility, or the nutrients are there but unavailable, locked in hydrocarbon chains due to inactivity or low populations of the soil organisms required to reduce the nutrients to elemental form so they are available for uptake.

The reason I use solubles for container culture is mainly because delivery of nutrients from organic soil amendments is unreliable and erratic. By using soluble fertilizers, I know the exact ratio of NPK I'm supplying, I can completely control and fine tune the dosage, and what I apply is immediately available. If I look at a plant and the older leaves are showing some chlorosis, I can be pretty sure actual fertility is low and I need to fertilize. In your case, you're going to have to guess and take notes until you have a feel for what you need to do while learning from your mistakes - trial and error, because the same symptoms when relying on organic soil amendments for nutritional needs are not going to be such clear indication that potential or even immediate actual fertility is low.

Al

I understand I will be feeling my way through a bit on this. The plant tone claims to contain "beneficial microbes", calcium, magnesium and sulfur in a 5-3-3 mixture. I added about 1/8 of a cup of it per 10 gallons of potting mixture. I'm hoping this is all relatively benign and once the plants are established and the weather warms a bit I can switch to the Foliage Pro and Pro-tekt. Thanks for the hand-holding!

1/8 cup isn't much at all, so don't worry.

There are two ways to look at large populations of 'beneficial microbes' in container soils. If they're there and doing their job as promised, they are also chowing down on your soil, breaking it down into smaller particles which increases water retention and reduces aeration. These are media properties that need to be jealously guarded in container applications. It sounds like you'll do well.

In case you're interested in knowing, NPK are the primary macro-nutrients, Ca, Mg, and S are secondary macro-nutrients, and the rest of the essential nutrients plants use from the soil are micro-nutrients or trace elements.

Take care - good luck.

Al

All potting mixes are organic, even the Miracle Gro stuff, although whether to purchase a product from a company not known to be very environmantally sensitive probably isn't.

I like to use several organic fertilzers mixed into the soil in small amounts and then also mix small amounts with the water with nearly every watering. What I mix and when depends on the stage of plant growth and the type of plant. THe results I get with mixed organic ingredients are amazing. Yield is increased substantially as well as plant health and crop flavor levels. I have been using the information from the website listed below and my plants have never grown so well.

Here is a link that might be useful: organic fertilzers to add to soil and water to dramatically increase yields

All potting mixes are organic, even the Miracle Gro stuff

That is not precisely true :-) MiracleGro potting soils often include MiracleGro fertilizer and those labeled as "moisture control" formulations also include polyacrylic crystals as part of the mix - neither of these products are considered "organic".

And various organic fertilizers referred to above will typically produce excellent results in an inground planting situation but far less successful, consistent or reliable results when used in a container growing situation. It is easy to assume that they should work in either situation but the two situations present very different growing conditions and the soil biology necessary to assimilate and digest organic ferts and convert them to plant usable soluble ions are just not present or not present in satisfactory populations with container culture to achieve similar results with inground plantings. And very few organic fertilizers are water soluble, so mixing them with water is essentially a pointless activity.

"All potting mixes are organic ....." Really! You might want to qualify that a little - much to broad a statement and totally inaccurate. E.g., I have many plants growing in either 100% Turface or some combination of Turface and crushed granite or other inert, inorganic component - Haydite, perlite, pumice, akadama ...... to name a few.

FWIW, I also agree with the rest of Pam's reply. GTG's reply is really difficult to qualify. His/her yields and plant health are increased substantially as compared to what? His/her prior yields and the prior health of his/her plants? my yields/my plants' vitality? I think the flavor thing has been discussed to death and I, for one, can detect no difference in flavor or quality of the vegetables/fruit grown in containers with soluble fertilizers and those grown in the ground via nearly 100% organic methods.

I'd like to hear how CTG decides what he/she is going to mix with what and when to apply, so as to ensure plants will get what they need when they need it.

Al