Gardening Tip - Save on Potting Mix
Carol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
11 years ago
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Michael AKA Leekle2ManE
11 years ago
TampaBull
11 years agoRelated Discussions
Year 2 Newbie Container Gardener- Need help with potting soil mix
Comments (5)Dear angierainbow83, Please think about the info from Jodi and Al. I add my own story below. Since thinking through my own experiences will help me too, I hope you don't mind. I believe for me, I need to separate the garden beds from my containers; just as a two bedrooms can be used differently while still being a room, a separate approach to garden beds (to use Al's words, more "organic") vs. containers (more "inorganic") is still gardening. Good luck on your journey! Over the past few years I seem to be suffering from a case of harvest envy. Due to space and location, I do not have the ability to grow vegetables in the ground due to shade, but I do have a very sunny spot where containers work fine. I have "successfully" grown various vegetables (and am lazily including tomatoes in this category). I say "successfully" since I have never been able to come close to the level of harvest that neighbors get when the essentially identical plants with similar methods EXCEPT the plants are grown in the ground. In fact, I can say this with with confidence since I have provided them with their plants. I have experimented with various combinations of top soil, organic potting soil, compost and small gravel. (I won't go into nutrient supplements I have tried.) I have used about 15gal lightly-colored plastic pots raised off the ground. Given my growing climate, young plants move into these pots in early May and typically are taken down sometime after Columbus Day. The plants are still producing, but the colder temps negative influences many of the types I grow. In the case of eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, for example, my plants are 5-6ft tall and produce a crop not quite sufficient for a small family throughout much of the season. When I take the pots down at the end of the season, I typically find the exterior soil to be damp/dry while the center below the stem and near the main roots to be very wet. Further, there are many small roots near the soil surface, possible due to the thin mulch layer I applied (thinking I needed more moisture retention). There are some larger roots that spread in the pots, but not a tremendous amount. The best fruiting, distribution and size of roots was in the year where I only used organic potting soil without a mulch cover. Although I can't say with 100% certainty that by making the soil more organic I caused this problem since from year to year I changed conditions (and growing conditions change too), the evidence is pretty well stacked against me....See Moresave from fertilizer burn & container/pot soil mix? HELP please!
Comments (2)Quick update- I have spent all day/night (literally for the past 13 hrs and it is now almost 1am) fretting over the possible death of my guys; reading and reading and becoming more and more confused between the various websites' info. One thing that has not confused me is the confidence everyone on THIS site has in Al's GM [Al, how r u not mass producing this already?! ;-) ] The current status of my guys are that they r not sitting in water but have received 2 very hot and steamy treatments in my bathroom over the course of the night- i am hoping this will mAke due by supplying SOME semblance of water w/o drowning them.... one website I read mentioned letting the roots dry out??? Again- lil Miss Confused over here :-/ All is (hopefully) not lost bc thru my trusty google search and Turface's website, I've located a dealer who is less than 5 miles from me! :-D I'm emailing the unsuspecting manager tomorrow and hopefully will be able to move forward w/ what seems to be one of the hardest of the materials to find. *fingers crossed* I will admit that altho I have pics, I am simply too embarrassed to post them :( and also have further confused myself by reading mentions of the 5:1:1 mix but out of pure exhaustion have not fully read up on-yet. It sounds like Al's GM works for all of my guys including all of the succulents I have managed to NOT kill (yaaaay me!). From the fellow forum members' posts, sounds like I can find the proper bark and granite supplies at my local Home Depot. Al - I know you are out there somewhere and I thank you for sharing this knowledge with the rest of us newbies!!! Will post again RE: the process!...See MoreMG Potting Mix or MG Garden Soil?
Comments (14)Definitely use the potting mix as it is properly formulated for container growing, and usually contains a mix of peat, perlite, lime, etc. Containers need good drainage and the problem with soil, garden dirt, compost or such is that it will compact over time and water log the soil. Bad for little seeds and roots! If you're going to do a lot of containers you can mix your own potting mix, or buy big bag(s) or a bale. I've used several brands of potting mix, but last year bought a big 3.8 CF bale of Pro-mix from the local Ace hardware which special ordered it and cost about $32. It is a nice mixture with no sticks or stones, although dealing with a compressed bale is not as easy as the bags, which are fluffier. I still have about 1/2 the bale left so there is plenty for this year!...See MorePotting soil vs potting mix
Comments (4)Kristy, Different manufacturers blend all kids of different ingredients into their products labelled "potting soil" and "potting mix." In fact, the same product from a national or international company may have different ingredients in a product with the exact same name or basic label. For example, a potting soil sold under the Scotts label might have composted rice hulls as a primary component if manufactured in Louisiana or Texas, while having composted pine bark fines as a replacement for the rice hull component if manufactured in Georgia. Another thing you should be aware of is that both potting soil and potting mix might be essentially the same ingredients blended in different proportions. The fact that the label says "potting soil" does not automatically mean the product has "dirt" or "topsoil" as one of the ingredients despite what others may say. A "potting soil" may be composed almost entirely of composted bark fines, forest products, composted manure, and other products that have not necessarily ever been a part of a soils layer in the earth. However, most "potting soils" contain some form of "dirt" in the strictest definition of the word, simply because the mix may have some sand, limestone, or vermiculite, all of which are sedimentary in origin. But then again, "potting mixes" also may contain mineral components such as sand, limestone or vermiculite which begs the question of whether they too should be designated as "potting soil" instead. Now ... TOPSOIL Back when the Midwest was native prairie, the topsoil layer may have been a foot or two deep. It took 10 - 12 thousand years after the melting of the glaciers for Nature to form that layer of topsoil. It only took about 150 years of poor farming techniques to wash that layer of topsoil into the Gulf of Mexico. Since it takes about 500 years for Nature to build an inch of true topsoil, nobody is gonna sell it for 2 dollars a bag or 60 bucks a pickup load. If you buy "topsoil" in a bag, or in a truckload from a nursery, I'll bet you're actually getting river bottom dredged silt, bottomland farm soil, or a manufactured product containing sand, silt, and a variety of composted leaves, garbage, sewer sludge, etc. Read the label ... if there is one. So, back to Mix vs. Soil ... what are you getting in the bags labelled "potting mix" and "potting soil?" READ THE LABEL! If the product is packaged by a reputable manufacturer, the label will always have the components listed along with some other information that should give you a good idea what the product is intended for. Bottom line: If you're starting seeds, rooting cuttings, growing plants indoors or that require a sterile, soilless medium ... make sure the label informs you that the mix meets your needs, is comprised of sphagnum moss, perlite, vermiculite, and other products and is sterile. If you're filling containers to grow tomatoes outdoors, and the transplants are well beyond the stage where dampening off is an issue ... don't worry whether it says "potting soil" or "potting mix." Just read the label and pick a product that will give you a nice, loose-textured, well drained growing medium capable of retaining moisture but not becoming too soggy and not drying out to quickly. Bill...See Morelinda_leaf _z10a_southwest_fl
11 years agoforeverlad
11 years agoslopfrog
11 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
11 years agoforeverlad
11 years agoCarol, thanks for the compliment. You're a flatterer. Slopfrog, sorry Lamberts didn't work out for you. Mileage will obviously vary, but it's still a shame we don't all get the same results from a product.
Just behind the garage I've got a bunch of coleus, milkweed, canna and angel trumpet cuttings going strong in the lamberts. Only been watering them once a week, and they're fine, save for new snapdragon cuttings that haven't adapted yet.
For what're effectively 5 cent cuttings, that soil hasn't failed me yet, but I could certainly understand someone investing in a higher end product for valuable and risky propagation material.
juneroses Z9a Cntrl Fl
11 years agoCarol love_the_yard (Zone 9A Jacksonville, FL)
11 years ago
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juneroses Z9a Cntrl Fl