First-time Gardener with Old soil and a dream to grow some Basil

13 years ago

Hey all,

I found some soil sitting on my patio and decided to pot some Basil and Habanero. The soil looks great (black and sticky when wet with white specks - fertilizer?), but i really have no idea how long the soil has been sitting around, how much beer and human urine has been poured in there, etc. Nevertheless, I bought the habanero and basil (each about 5 inches tall) 4 days ago and nestled them in there, no fertilizer added. The plants are alive, though they don't look as healthy as I'd hope, and I'm afraid I'm going to find them slumped and dead one morning. That would be devastating to this first-time gardener.

Any advice? Anything I can throw in the soil to improve it? There's not much wiggle room in the pots to totally re-engineer the soil, so the less invasive, the better, i would think.

But then again, I have no idea what I'm talking about. Some of you, I'm sure, do. Any help would be much appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Sam

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Comments (6)

fatamorgana2121
13 years ago
In college in my computer science classes we talked alot about "Garbage In, Garbage Out." This is much the same. You can't get optimal results with less than optimal soil for these two plants. Buy a bag of fresh potting soil, carefully take your plants out, throw out the old soil, refill with new soil, and re-add your plants. If the plants were from some greenhouse or supermarket, make sure your plants are in a sheltered location until they get acclimated to the great outdoors.

If you do this, I think the results will be so much better for you. Oh, and make sure no one puts any more beer or wee-wee in your plants - they will NOT appreciate either liquid! :)

FataMorgana
rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
13 years ago
"black and sticky" is not a description for a suitable planting material. "Old" is another adjective that should not be attached to a potting medium. The beer could be a problem, though urine has long been used as a fertilizer. Some people consider it a shame to flush it!

Get some new potting medium and replant your little garden. I doubt that you'll have much success otherwise.

By the way, potting soil should be very coarse textured, loose, and crumbly.
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fatamorgana2121
13 years ago
Urine as fertilizer? Hadn't heard that one. I understand each animal is different but grass and other plants do not appreciate dog urine - regularly pee'd on plants get sickly and croak in my experience. Feces is another story...the grass grows thick and lush where the old dog-doo has broken down into the soil.

But fertilizer or not, I still wouldn't want folks pee'ing in, on, or around my herb plants. ;)

FataMorgana
nygardener
13 years ago
Some of the nastier things people might have dumped in there could affect your health, not just your plants'.

Hie thee to the hardware store and buy some potting soil. Dump the old stuff in the trash, and scrub the pot before filling with decent soil.
cyrus_gardner
13 years ago
If I had a garden, I would haul it to there and till it in but as has been suggested
I wouldn't use it as potting soil.
With your descriptins(...with white specles..) sounds like it is some old potting soil.
The white stuff is probably perlite.

About human urine, there has been lots of discussions about it her at gW.
A major Dutch university study has indicated that it can be used as fertilizer
under certain conditions safely.An that is, it has to be aged for about 3 months in a glass container then added to compost or directly to the garden.
As I remember, urine changes to ammonia first and ammonia is rich source of nitrogen. Sometimes I pour ammonia over my compost pile.
Of course, household ammonia is a very diluted form, maybe 10% real ammonia, 90% water.
MGPinSavannah
13 years ago
Interesting discussion about human urine as fertilizer. Not being a guy I may be at a bit of a disadvantage here... (!) There is at least one thread here discussing it, and I found a post from a woman in Australia who uses it.

Here is a link that might be useful: Using human urine as fertilizer

First-time Gardener with Old soil and a dream to grow some Basil

Comments (6)

fatamorgana2121

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7

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