Chemical (synthetic) fertilizers aren't unavoidable in containers, I think many of us just see no point to them (though many of us do use organics for our in ground gardens). You described the problem of using organic solids such as manure/compost in that it will clog up the spaces between particles as it breaks down. This isn't a huge issue if you already have a mix with superior drainage and the amount of organic matter is kept low (let's say 10% of the total volume), BUT, the nutrient benefit isn't going to be reliable or significant. The soil food web is definitely another potential problem in a container. It isn't that you can't have bacteria, worms etc, it is that it is difficult for most to maintain a working population due to rapid environmental fluctuations in containers. pH, moisture, temperature all swing wildly in containers. If you think about how the soil food web are built up in soil we add organic matter and often mulch the area to make the environmental fluctuations less drastic. Many have hopped on to the no till bandwagon so as to not disturb the critters in the soil. Even if you did build a potent soil food web in the container, think about what they are going to do. They will attack every organic component of the mix including the bark and peat and thus the soil will structurally collapse before it needs to. There are those who grow organicly in containers, some post here from time to time. I have not read any of them to say it's particularly easy to do well and I recall one person who assembles a mind boggling number of ingredients to make a good mix and then tosses it in the garden each year due to it's collapsing too much to reuse. You certainly can do containers organic if you wish though. Blood meal isn't something I would use in a container because a little goes a very long way and it all becomes active nearly immediately. The risk of over fertilization would be high. Bone meal I also wouldn't use because it takes a long time to release nutrients and would likely have been flushed out of the container before that happens. If you wish to use teas I see no problem with that, but if you are willing to use diluted urea why not just use Miracle Grow or any other liquid fert with urea in it? I don't see the difference between organic/synthetic in this case. Just my thoughts. You can always do a few containers in a purely 'synthetic' way and some others in a purely organic way and see which you prefer. No harm in a little experimentation ;)

Has anyone used OIL DRI - I remember many years ago - we would keep a bag of oil dri in the garage to sop up oil spills. It was tan just like profile - and it was pretty cheap. WOnder if it will work? So then I looked it up on the garden web, and saw this thread - I cut and pasted it below. ANd list the link Greetings All: The list I have posted below, I found on another Bonsai Forum. I use Turface, made by Profile. If you check out their website,you can call the 800 number and they can tell you where you can locate the nearest supplier in your area. Good luck, Goz Soil Amendment sources: Profile Turface www.profileproducts.com and www.turface.com TXI Diamond Pro Diamond Pro is described as an expanded shale and clay. www.txi.com and www.diamondpro.com Oil Dri Soil Master & Terra Green www.oildri.com/agri/index.html and www.bonsaimonk.com for Terra Green (a bit expensive) Southern Athletic Fields Mule Mix www.mulemix.com Eagle Pitcher Play Ball & Axis Soil Amendment (both diatomaceous earth PLUS products) www.eaglepitcher.com/Filtration_Minerals/Products_services/Scroll to Axis Soil Amendments and Play Ball Stabilizer Solutions Stabilizer www.stabilizersolutions.com Lots of fun - Mike Here is a link that might be useful: Oildri

Dear angierainbow83, Please think about the info from Jodi and Al. I add my own story below. Since thinking through my own experiences will help me too, I hope you don't mind. I believe for me, I need to separate the garden beds from my containers; just as a two bedrooms can be used differently while still being a room, a separate approach to garden beds (to use Al's words, more "organic") vs. containers (more "inorganic") is still gardening. Good luck on your journey! Over the past few years I seem to be suffering from a case of harvest envy. Due to space and location, I do not have the ability to grow vegetables in the ground due to shade, but I do have a very sunny spot where containers work fine. I have "successfully" grown various vegetables (and am lazily including tomatoes in this category). I say "successfully" since I have never been able to come close to the level of harvest that neighbors get when the essentially identical plants with similar methods EXCEPT the plants are grown in the ground. In fact, I can say this with with confidence since I have provided them with their plants. I have experimented with various combinations of top soil, organic potting soil, compost and small gravel. (I won't go into nutrient supplements I have tried.) I have used about 15gal lightly-colored plastic pots raised off the ground. Given my growing climate, young plants move into these pots in early May and typically are taken down sometime after Columbus Day. The plants are still producing, but the colder temps negative influences many of the types I grow. In the case of eggplant, tomatoes, cucumbers, and peppers, for example, my plants are 5-6ft tall and produce a crop not quite sufficient for a small family throughout much of the season. When I take the pots down at the end of the season, I typically find the exterior soil to be damp/dry while the center below the stem and near the main roots to be very wet. Further, there are many small roots near the soil surface, possible due to the thin mulch layer I applied (thinking I needed more moisture retention). There are some larger roots that spread in the pots, but not a tremendous amount. The best fruiting, distribution and size of roots was in the year where I only used organic potting soil without a mulch cover. Although I can't say with 100% certainty that by making the soil more organic I caused this problem since from year to year I changed conditions (and growing conditions change too), the evidence is pretty well stacked against me.

Does this mix work well for swc? Speaking from personal experience with variations on this mix, yes it does. The critical part of this mix is the size/degree of compostedness (is that a word) of the bark. If using fresh, larger bark pieces it may be necessary to increase the amount of peat to wick water to the surface well. If using a more composted bark it isn't. I have read alot of people use this mix and miracle grow ferts but isn't miracle grow ferts nitrogen urea based? Yes. Mg isn't necessary, there is certainly more than one way to skin a cat (to use a really horrible colloquialism ;) How are the plants in a soiless mix getting nitrogen from urea based ferts?...... The bacteria responsible for the conversion are ubiquitous and don't require soil or even much in the way of consistent environmental parameters. They are the same bacteria at work in lakes, in fish tanks, darn near everywhere. They are subject to temperature limits, but this is really only a potential problem in cold soils/mixes. Otherwise provide them a food source and good luck keeping them away.