making potting soil go further
Chrissy- zone6B/7A
4 years ago
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4 years agomblan13
4 years agoRelated Discussions
MiracleGro Potting Mix versus SuperSoil Potting Soil ???
Comments (9)Do you have an easy recipe of making your own mix for a gardening-beginner? Yes. I would recommend using what is known around here as 'Al's 5-1-1 mix' for annuals and perennials grown for just a year or two before being repotted. For plants that will stay in the same container/mix for more than 2 years I would recommend what is known around here as 'Al's Gritty mix'. The 5:1:1 mix is 5 parts pine bark (very small pieces), 1 part perlite and 1 part peat. The gritty mix is 1 part pine bark fines, 1 part Turface MVP and 1 part grower grit (#2 sized). For more information on this I will refer you to this thread. Don't get too hung up on specific ingredients and percentages. The principle is using ingredients that will be of a large enough size (above 1/16th inch) for as long as the plant will be in the mix. This provides superior aeration. The higher the percentage of organic matter such as peat or bark, the faster the mix breaks down and aeration suffers. The bark breaks down much slower than peat though. Anyway, read the thread and you will learn a lot. If you can't find suitable ingredients to make your own mix in time to get the season started then just get the regular MG potting mix and take until next year to learn more and locate sources for ingredients you want....See MoreBought potting soil instead of potting mix
Comments (6)Sandpaper, As long as it said POTTING on the bag, it is for pots. If it's not for pots it says Garden Soil, or Top Soil. If you bought the cheapest thing they had, get rid of it anyway. That stuff is crap and I wouldn't plant anything in that. Wait til you get the money so you can buy Miracle Grow potting mix. Remember, don't go cheap on your potting soil or potting mix. If you put the money out on something decent, your plants will thrive and you just might get 2 years out of it....See MoreI want to make my own potting soil
Comments (34)Q. Why can't compost be used indoors? A. Because. There IS actually a very good and well documented reason why compost is not recommended as a major additive to container potting soil, either for indoor plants or outdoor plants. And that is how it affects good drainage, a quality that is pretty much paramount for any sort of container growing. Compost continues to breakdown even as a component of potting soil. The longer it goes, the more frequently wetted and the warmer the container is kept, the faster the material breaks down. And when that happens, the individual particles become tinier and more uniform in size, the pore spaces (the empty cavities between particles) shrink and the whole mix compresses. Compression and lack of pore space has a big negative impact on drainage and soggy soil and rotten roots tend to be a result. That's why most high quality purchased potting soils contain minimal - if any - concentrations of compost. It just doesn't hold up. If you are growing in containers short term, like very seasonal crops, compost can work as an additive (not the base) to potting soil. But for long term success - growing anything longer than 6 months - you want a durable, barky, textural potting medium that is not going to collapse and impact good drainage. The Container Gardening forum has a detailed discussion on this very subject that is the longest running (march '05) thread on GW. More than 2500 posts have entered into the discussion and the knowledge base is pretty high - in fact, the original author is considered an expert on container soils and container gardening in general Here is a link that might be useful: Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention...See MoreBark for making potting soil
Comments (7).... not a good choice for several reasons. Hardwood products break down quickly and at some point during the composting process you'll get a very high pH spike. Because they break down very quickly, which pretty much ensures a high degree of N immobilization, they also generate high temperatures as they compost in the containers (like a hot compost pile) which is a more significant issue than most growers realize. Conifer bark, otoh, is rich in the lipid, suberin, which dramatically impedes the ability of microorganisms to cleave the hydrocarbon chains the bark is made of; so, pine bark breaks down so slowly none of these issues are of much consideration, though fresh bark (and even peat) does temporarily cause some N immobilization .... easy to remedy by using fertilizers with more N than either P or K. I've settled on 3:1:2 ratios as the best choice for container culture, partly for that reason, but also because my trees all seem happiest and perform best with that ratio. Where do you live? It would be helpful if you just included your state or a large city near you in your user info so we could all see. The reason I ask is> after years of helping people figure out recipes and find container soil ingredients, I can sometimes offer insights, and it might help me gauge how difficult/easy it might be for you to find pine (or fir) bark in your neighborhood. Al...See MoreChrissy- zone6B/7A
4 years agogetgoing100_7b_nj
4 years agoUser
4 years agogardengal48 (PNW Z8/9)
4 years agomblan13
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agogetgoing100_7b_nj
4 years agoChrissy- zone6B/7A
4 years agoChrissy- zone6B/7A
4 years agogetgoing100_7b_nj
4 years agogetgoing100_7b_nj
4 years agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
4 years agolast modified: 4 years agomblan13
4 years agoWasap Ro
2 years agochamaegardener (Z5) Northeast Illinois
2 years ago
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