A couple of veggie questions...
inbetweendays
7 years ago
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inbetweendays
7 years agoRelated Discussions
Begginer; Just a couple questions about pot gardening.
Comments (3)Hum, It really is a matter of personal choice..Usually anything will grow in just about any type of soil mix if it is just for a couple of months..But then you have to decide how long you want your soil mix to hold up, and how will it affect your plants, and your growing area. For me, no matter where I lived and what I plant, and for how long,I would still use the 5.1.1 mix and use Foliage Pro.... I like to get the best growth out of all my plants, even if they are growing for one season..Big roots, massive growth, large yields, and very happy plants.. That is my idea.. But if you decide to go another route, I can't believe that I am saying this, I would buy some bagged soilless mix,and depending on how long you want your mix to hold up, add perlite or some other sort of ingredient to make your mix drain well. I use to use everything from cow manure, to fish, and compost in my containers for vegetables, with tons of perlite, and they seemed to grow ok, that is the ones that out grew their pots and died before the first frost. You can pretty much use any type soil, depending on what results you want.. My father shovels dirt out of the ground and uses this..He gets about a month or two out of his plants, and they are pretty much stunted compared to mine, always turning yellow before summers end,with less yield.. So, I would decide just how vibrant and healthy do you want them to be..I would question just how much yield do I want? How long do I want them to stay wet? Do I want healthy roots that breathe to create huge plants? How long do I want to soil to hold up in structure? From there, you will pretty much decide what will be best for you. You might get a hundred different recipes and mixes suggested, which will only confuse you. So ask yourself what is expected from your plants, and realize the best thing you can do for them is to provide a good porous, well draining soilless mix, that will hold up over time. A mix that will not compact around the roots, and that will stay evenly moist while allowing the roots to take up the nutrients needed with no problems because of the good gas exchange you will want your mix to provide, every time you water.. The 5.1.1 mix does all that and more,while the Foliage Pro provides all the nutrients that plants need, that most fertilizers do not.. Good luck Mike..:-)...See Morea couple more questions about my roundup-poisoned veggies
Comments (5)we used killzall last year to kill off weeds and we waited about a week or when everything looked dead and then we planted grass seed and it took pretty well.It has the same ingredients as round up. Now, this was grass seed and not vegetables. I dont know but I would think that plants that are already growing would be fine. It is up to you if you want to risk it. Maybe try one or two plants at a time to see how they do....See MoreA couple questions
Comments (15)Alright Kevin, I'll chime in. You can't equate dry/wet/moist measure (dry/wet/moist volume) to pounds with soil mixes because you will always have variation and compaction of the soil. Manufactures either state the pounds or they state the volume and usually put in a remark like "packed by volume some settling may occur" for legal reasons. As far as it goes with sterilizing soil; I would not recommend it unless you have access to a laboratory to test for toxins after sterilization. Yes a lot of toxins can be produced by sterilization. When chemicals are heated chemical reactions occur and they may not be beneficial. A lot of potting soil manufactures mix in a mycorrhizal inoculant; if you sterilize the soil you will kill the mycorrhizae. They also add it to coconut coir and it is one of the main reasons soil mixes grow plants so well. The other thing is heating soil can change the PH of the soil by chemical reaction making the soil too alkaline or acidic. "How come I like capsaicin so much" that's an easy one; we all do, it releases endorphins:) I don't care how anyone else feels about MG but as for me and my opinion I will never buy it ever again. A few years ago I opened up a bag of MG and it was infested so I bought another bag from another store looked through a magnifier and guess what? that one was infested too. No thank you; for the price it's not worth it. They should have better quality control than that. Now I mix my own potting soil mainly for starting the plants out. I mix my own with coconut coir mixed with perlite and a mycorrhizal inoculant. Vermiculite has a tendency to retain way too much water and in my experience leads to damping off killing the seedling before it even has a chance. Bruce said it best "don't over-think the job" Here is another one "Kill them with kindness" It's easy to do when you love growing plants:-) Eric...See MoreTaters and Cabbage
Comments (6)I think we'll go ahead and harvest a couple of the small cabbage heads and see how they taste. We decided to dig the potatoes. The first couple of Yukon Golds hubby pulled weren't too impressive and he said something about the red potatoes doing better. Well, he changed his tune real quick when he started pulling up gorgeous Yukon Gold taters! (We hadn't planted them before so neither of us had any idea how they'd perform.) My kids got right in the big middle of the digging operation and had a blast. I really should have taken pictures of them (son is 13, daughter is 10) as they were on their hands and knees, covered in dirt and muck, happily digging away. Anyway, we ended up with 50+ pounds of potatoes. Will have to try the combo you mentioned, Chena. We usually eat at around 7:00 so come on over! :)...See Moreoakiris
7 years agoinbetweendays
7 years agogjcore
7 years agoZachS. z5 Platteville, Colorado
7 years agodigit (ID/WA, border)
7 years agolast modified: 7 years ago
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