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.

Yes - I use the 5:1:1 soil mix for tomatoes, other veggies, and most flowery/foliage display containers - all the short term stuff. For tomatoes: I fertilized last year with regular recommended dosages of 9-3-6 until the plants were well established. I then cut way back on the dosage and added ProTeKt to the solution. I rather like to envision that I used the added K (and got the benefit of the added silicon) to change the fertilizer ratio to 3:1:3 from a 3:1:2. This allowed me to considerably reduce the overall dosage strength, the primary purpose of which was to reduce the supply of N, to slow vegetative growth, while still supplying adequate P and K. It worked the way I wanted it to, but I had a less than stellar tomato year last year. Our nights were absolutely chilly for most of late June, July, and August. I remember JaG over in the frozen northland of Wisconsin complaining (ok then - mentioning) he had the same weather obstacle last year. I had lots of fruit set, but it just would NOT ripen. Al

Hey MeyerMike, you and I have been posting similar questions this spring even though you've already got tons of experience under your belt. I wanted to thank you for sharing your experiences when you've replied to my many questions. So can I ask you, you have said before that you lost many citrus in pots last year. But do you blame that solely on the organic fertilizers? Was it a heavy potting soil? Or the fact that you're growing in a cold winter climate and moving plants around? Or overwatering? Or some combination of these factors? I don't think I'm going to be convinced to use MG right out of the gate... so I'm committed to using the organics and informing myself as best as I can. So I'm using a variation of Al's soil mix (with a smidge more organic content than he would) and meticulously following his watering instructions. And I will be using the EB Stone dry mixes and supplementing as needed with the liquid ferts.

So, basically what you guys are saying is potting soil is sterile and needs help with things like manure or compost. It sounds like next year I have make up my own planting soil mixture for containers then. You can certainly go that route if you wish and you'll find several recipes for container mixes over on the Container Gardening forum here. Since you are using containers rather than in-ground beds, that will be the best forum source for info for you. But none of those recipes will contain dirt (soil). Some compost and composted manure, fine but soil isn't used in containers because it compacts, drains poorly, and the roots rot. Not to mention that is can be a source of damp-off, pests, and disease problems. Experienced container gardeners use only soil-less mixes in containers to avoid those problems. And it isn't that those mixes are necessarily "sterile", they aren't. There are many good container mixes that come with mycorrhize added to them. Pro-Mix is one that is often recommended on several of the forums here. I use it myself. But that still isn't going to solve the problems of nutrient leach. Containers require frequent, regular supplemental nutrients, regardless of what you mix into the container to begin with since the roots are "contained" unlike in a garden and the nutrients wash out when you water unlike in a garden. That, plus maintaining consistent moisture levels, are the biggest drawback to growing in containers. How much of a problem it is all depends on the size of the container you are using and you didn't mention how large your container is. Take a look at Jaybo's pics linked below. He is using 31 gallon self-watering containers. Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Earthtainer Garden Pics