Commercially available 5.1.1 mix?
Comments (15)
popmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
2 months agoRelated Discussions
Tapla's 5-1-1 Container Mix in More Detail
Comments (433)"All that comes up clicking on that link are posts in Container Gardening." And all of them are titled Container Soils - Water Movement and Retention, which is exactly what was asked for. This is a very long running series of threads that contain invaluable info for anyone interested container gardening. So what is your point, Jordan, and why are you following me from forum to forum, commenting on every thread I respond to?? Rather stalkish behavior. Four, I have sometimes gotten lost in a Houzz maze I could not remove myself from and had to resort to Google to access a specific GardenWeb forum. Maybe try that with Container Gardening and then do the search....See MoreOrganically fertilizing a 5-1-1 mix (lengthy with pics)
Comments (18)You might know some of this already, seysonn, but the super simple approach to fertilizing would be to premix up to 1 tbsp of controlled release fertilizer (Dynamite All Purpose Select, for example) per gallon of potting mix and then to apply a soluble fertilizer (Dyna-Gro Foliage Pro, for exampe) at every watering. In general, aim to provide the soluble fertilizer at label rate weekly (so if the recommended rate is 1 tsp per gallon you'd simply divide that by the number of waterings per week). The CRF provides a steady source of nutrients throughout the growing season (which is especially valuable in prolonged wet weather when you don't need to water), and the soluble fertilizer gives you some control over growth rates. If you want to slow down vegetative growth, for example, you can reduce or withhold the soluble fertilizer (or you can alter the NPK ratio with a supplementary product like Pro-TeKt, which can accomplish the same thing). This post was edited by shazaam on Sat, Nov 9, 13 at 10:50...See MoreOrchiata: Suitable for 5:1:1 and/or gritty mix?/Turface woes
Comments (3)Hi CK, I also live in Singapore and have just rebooted my container gardening efforts using the knowledge and advice that is so generously offered by many on GardenWeb. I am using Orchiata Precision Grade (3mm - 6mm) as the pine bark component of Al's 5-1-1 mix. I have also been following the advice from Al's fertilising containerised plants threads and have been getting really positive results (I am growing peppers and tomatoes and a few herbs). A couple of things worth mentioning: Trawling back through the container soil posts I get the feeling I should have gone with one of Orchiata's larger grades (e.g. 6mm - 9mm). I think I might have gotten confused about the best size for 5-1-1 vs gritty. In any event the precision grade seems to be working well for me at the moment. I noticed that Orchiata treat their bark with dolomite. I had added dolomitic lime to my mix prior to realising this, however it doesn't seem to have negatively impacted my plants at all. Anyway, I hope you are have lots of fun and success! Please feel free to get in touch if you would like to compare notes about container gardening in Singapore! Kind Regards, Brad...See MoreIs Al's gritty mix or 5-1-1 mix really any better than other mixes?
Comments (32)@Nil13 made reference to the Whitcomb 311 mix, which is an earlier historical attempt to create a more coarse potting soil for container plants. I think it is extremely helpful to read a document written by Carl Whitcomb that explains how he came on this formula by accident. Essentially what happened is he accidentally left nine test pots under a bench and everyone forgot they were there. They had successfully nearly killed all of their test plants by watering in a normal potting soil mix and the unwatered plants started to do very well. What I have started to realize is that any plant can do well in many different soil mixes, if you are able to carefully control the watering. This explains why so many people on this forum claim gritty mix is not as good for their succulents as their (fill in some random horrible soil with lots of small particles) mix. Inevitably those people are growing their plants indoors. They have enormous experience with their plant type and they know exactly when to water the plant. So that is the case of a very skilled gardener compensating for a very bad soil. What gritty mix does for me is let me grow succulents outside in very abusive weather conditions, without the plant dying. A plant can get a week of rain and it will still drain well. During Summer, gritty mix will tolerate a bit of overwatering, although you still really need to pay attention to not overwatering. Whether you make your 511 mix with perlite/peat, or with two parts Turface, or with lava and pumice, is probably in the big picture not going to be the deciding factor in whether your plants grow well or not. Success can be add with any of those mixes because the size of the particles allows the roots to breathe and prevents capillary action of water from bring the perched water table to the top of the pot and drowning the roots. Fine-tuning how you make 511 is a question of matching the plant type to the moisture retention of the soil and to the watering habit and climate exposure. Any 511 variant is going to do better than almost any commercial potting soil because of the larger particles used in the majority of the mix....See More
ken_adrian Adrian MI cold Z5
2 months agoCassie (8b Southern AZ, high desert)
2 months agoJodiK
2 months ago
tapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 months ago@Cassie (8b Southern AZ, high desert) Since Fafard was acquired by Sun-Gro, they have eliminated the 3 or so mixes that contained pine bark as the primary fraction of the medium. Trying to "amend" media that are too water retentive is almost always an exercise in futility. Must growers believe that as you add perlite or pine/fir bark to media based on primarily fine materials, it increases aeration, but it does not. More accurately, it does not increase aeration until the % of coarse material is so great there is no longer enough fine material to fill all the spaces between the large particles. This transition point is called the threshold proportion. If you have interest, find it here. To take best advantage of the greater opportunity a highly aerated medium offers your plants to realize as much of their genetic potential as possible, the coarse material (larger than will pass a 1/8" screen) should be north of 75-85%, which would mean the medium should be based on coarse material with only enough fine material to raise water retention to a level you are comfortable dealing with.
You can find screened pine bark at American Bonsai in FL (LINK), but the cost of shipping and screening probably raises the cost to >5-10x what you'd pay for it unscreened and local by the 2 or 3 cu ft bag; even more than 10X if you find it in bulk.
Best luck, no matter course you decide on.
Al
seasiderooftop
2 months agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 months agoseasiderooftop
2 months agotapla (mid-Michigan, USDA z5b-6a)
2 months agopopmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
2 months agoJodiK
last monthpopmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
21 days agoI purchased a soil mix from an Etsy seller that looked interesting. It was kinda pricey but I wanted to see what it was like. So I bought a bag. I corresponded a bit with the seller and he told me that he was familiar with the 5-1-1 and took his inspiration from that. Here's a picture of it.
His website is kgisubstrates.com.
Travis in PHX (9b)
17 days agopopmama (Colorado, USDA z5)
17 days ago
Sandplum1