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best soil for potting up new bare root hostas

11 years ago

This year I plan to order my first bare root hostas. What is the best soil type to use? Is triple mix okay or should I add something for better drainage? Thanks. Marg

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Comments (12)

Steve Massachusetts
11 years ago
I don't know what you mean by triple mix. In the container forum the peeps there recommend a mix with a lot of bark in it. I use the 5-1-1 which is five parts pine bark (fines not chunks), one part peat, one part perlite (or chicken grit, or turface). I mix it in a wheel barrow and then fill up a plastic trash container and have enough for the season. You can add fert at this time also if you like.

If you want a premixed bag of container mix, try Fafard 3B. It's the closest thing commercially available. 50% bark fines in it.

These mixes will drain very well. That's what you want in a mix.

Steve
marricgardens
Original Author
11 years ago
Triple mix is a mix of compost, soil and manure. I have both the turface and bark. Do you think I could just add some of each to increase drainage? I've never seen Fafard for sale around here. Marg
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adding new questions at the bottom of another persons note.. may not get you the best answers ... some peeps .. like me.. don't come back to a given post forever ... upon arrival of bare root stock ... i open the bottom of the plastic sleeve ... and put them into a pail of cool water for no more than a day ... and hopefully just for an hour or two ....... they are not water plants ... they probably wont care if they are left in a pail for a few days ... but why risk it ... rot starts in too much water ... if i am expecting more than i know i can handle on arrival day ... i either have a small area to 'heal' them in ....spacing is not an issue ... just put them into the protection of mother earth ... for a day or two ... until you have time to properly site them .... or i have pots and soil ready for immediate potting ... again .. a sloppy job can be redone.. a rotted plant can not be saved ... only one caveat ... if you are expecting arrival before last known frost date ... pot them .. and put them in a wagon .. so they can be brought into the garage at night .. and back out during the day .... some of the providers grow them in greenhouses.. and they come fully leafed out.. and they are tender ... and if they came from south of you.. and from a greenhouse.. they may not appreciate a MN night e.g. .... in cool spring... they will not need a lot of water.. after the first planting ... cold and wet is not conducive to a healthy plant ... ken
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well linda.. there is the safe way .. and there is winging it.. i thought we were discussing the safest way ... i mean really .. [its been a while] .. but they are hosta... odds are.. you can throw them on the driveway for the summer.. and then replant.. and all but the foo foo ones will recover ... they may not be pretty ... but they will live ... so it doesnt surprise me that you 'got away with it' .... i just wouldnt recommend it as the favored procedure.. lol ... but you cant use them to make tea in tepid water.. maybe the rain kept them in cool water .. who knows ... mel.. back in the day .... if i was going to pay $50 for shipping .... i was going to amortize that cost over 50 plants ... lose 4 or 5 tags.. and your head is ready to explode... when i started... shipping was up to 25% of the cost of the order .... that was the quoted rate ... so on a 200 dollar order.. you do the math .. the local stores had the usual suspects [undulata and the blue one] .. there were no options ... ken
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Hey thanks for the response georgez5il. I had begun to wonder if any one would offer me futher advise. No mice or rabbits are seen on my property, but there are two squirrels which play and scavange under my four mature, acorn producing oak trees. Still yet it is a wonder why my late May recently planted hosta's display so much leaf damage. It certainly looks like what one would expect to see rabbits cause. Thanks for your heads up about that. Maybe, I should cage the buried pots and even bury the sides of the cage well enough to prevent any ground preditors from tunneling under and up into the cage. Since your IL z5 has much colder winters than we do here in zone 6b/7, that gives me more confidence that following your advice should give them a good chance to pull through till next spring. Since they are to be wintered by covering them with straw or leaves, and since our winter cold temps take so long to really entrench in, do you think it a good idea, for me to first put down a little bit of mulch, and then later secure a removable wind and cold temp shielding cover over the cage just prior to our predicted light freeze times, but later to only cover the plants completely with leaves and mulch or straw just prior to our first predicted hard freeze? If I do not do it this way, what can be done to prevent them from rotting if I cover them completely from the start of our night temps, only, dropping into the mid to low 30s?
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snow is irrelevant ... its too much water at thaw [or rain after the pot freezes in late fall] ... that cant drain.. because the rest of the pot is an ice cube ... just keep in mind.. roots need air.. as much as water ... and if you freeze it into an ice cube.. there is no air ... yes covering it works ... but you dont want such to trap heat.. if there is some mid winter thaw ... i might not cover it until 3/1 ,.... or so ... depending on the winter ... and keep in mind.... with a smaller pot.. it may come dormant weeks or months early ... which can lead to frost or freeze damage ... but with one pot.. just cover it again ... something as giant as a whiskey barrel ... with such a media mass.. probably wouldnt thaw that much sooner than the soil ... which brings to mind.. the most important thing in that pot.. will be the media ... not the plant.. and BTW ... i seem to think i said whiskey barrels tipped on their side.. with annuals spilling out of them.. out the front door ..... was passe ... lol .. using one to raise a plant.. a vertical accent.. is a different ball of wax ... ken
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ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
pots or ground???

kinda left out the most important fact .. eh

ken
paul_in_mn
11 years ago
Last couple of years I switched to 1/2 Premier Pro-Mix and 1/2 pine bark mulch (not nuggets which are larger pieces). Seems to be working well. Mix in a big bowl adding water to wet the peat.

Here's a pic

Paul

Here is a link that might be useful:
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
for a pot.. i would use a pro blend of peat/perlite/vermiculite .. with 1/3 mini bark chunks ... store bone dry in a garbage can for 100 years ....

for the ground .. stay natural ... compost/manure.. etc ... improve your soil.. rather than a given hole ....

if bad clay soil.. see above re: pots ...

if maple.. see above re: pots ... lol

==>> in potting culture.. i would rely on a PROFESSIONAL potting media.. souped up with added drainage thru the bark ...

i am of the position.. that mother earth does NOT belong in pots.. and compost is just an unprocessed form of mother earth.. and so is manure ...

'engineering' potting media.. is all about achieving a PREDICTABLE basis of water management ... and there is nothing predictable with cow poop.. or leaf poop .. or any other poop ... [gold star for most use of poop in one paragraph.. thank you all for this award ...]

but of course.. its all great stuff as a soil amendment ...

now.. that was my opinion ... if you have used it enough .. in pots.. and feel secure with use.. you just go do whatever you want .. but do consider the course additive of bark ...

worst that could come of it all is that you have to come back and tell me i was right ..

or you came back and tell us.. it worked your way ...

good luck

ken

Here is a link that might be useful:
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
go figure.. the missing fact was in the title...

ken
Steve Massachusetts
11 years ago
Marric

Yes you can use well aged compost or manure in place of peat. I would sift it first then mix it with the bark and the turface and you should be all set. Ken is right. Keep soil out of pots.

Steve
in ny zone5
11 years ago
My bare-root hostas and seedlings would be in a pot only for 2-3 months until I find a spot for them in the ground. I use 50% composted leaf mold from my compost bin and 50% Scotts top soil which contains wood or bark chips in my area. I use the compost also to fill in pots with dug-up divisions which I give away for a hosta sale.
Bernd
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
berny is correct in asking.. how long will they be potted ...

if its just to hold them until planting ... it probably doesnt matter ... as long as they arent standing in water ... i have held them in 100% peat for a few weeks ... jsut to keep the roots moist ...

the base issue is that hosta roots NEED AIR.. AS MUCH AS WATER ...

if your pot is a gelatinous pile of soggy goo.. your hosta will eventually die ..

just about anything short of that.. is equivalent to the driveway .. lol ..

ken
marricgardens
Original Author
11 years ago
Thanks for all the help. When I get them, I won't have time to plant right away so I wanted to pot them up til I have time to plant them. I already have Pro Mix and bark here that Paul suggested so I might as well use that. Thanks for the tip about not using soil in pots, good to know. Marg
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
11 years ago
i used to jsut half fill the wheelbarrow.. and 'heal' them into that for a month ...

the real trick.. if you get a few.. is to keep names straight ..

and that is solved with a ballpoint pen.. and writing the names on a leaf ... yes .. i know.. its heresy.. lol.. but a $50 dollar hosta w/o a name.. is a $5

ken
Babka NorCal 9b
11 years ago
"writing the names on a leaf" BRILLIANT!

-Babka

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