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soil Any idea what this is? (soil content)

HwyBill

HwyBill

Banned
There is a community garden in the vacant lot behind my apartment building.

Every once in awhile, they pull up and dump a big pile of this stuff nearby.

I went down and collected a few kettles full of it in hopes of using it to pot-up my plants.

Any idea what it is, or how good of an idea it is to use it?

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It looks like "forest products" which could be anything from shredded wood to dirt, to anything in between. It probably won't be bad to grow chiles in, but I would check the ph and try to make it around 6 or 7 before planting anything in it.
 
Well, it was dumped outside of the community garden, which they grow anything from flowers to corn to pumpkins in...

I doubt it is "bad" for chiles, but as far as I know no one besides me is trying to grow chiles from it.

Probably just some general all purpose potting material.. I will definately follow-up and adjust as needed.
 
Speaking of pH, what should my pH be in my garden for my peppers? Also, how do you get it up to said levels if it is not there yet?
 
Real basic top cover or like armac said "mulch". I don't like to use mulch that thin as the large chunks are a few bucks a litre and work a lotter better.
 
Looks like mulch to me. It's very hard to tell from the picture or a picture in general. I would mix it since it looks like it has a lot of chunks in it. Should work out well. I also suggest giving it a ph test and asking people at the community garden what it is.
 
I was hoping this would be good planting material, since it is free and obviously readily available.

If it is not, does anyone have any recommendations on what I should use when I pot-up my plants?

Please keep in mind two things:

1) Before you recommend any fancy homemade mixtures, I live in the middle of Chicago and only have access to a Home Depot. Any component that wouldn't be definately available there is kind of out of the question.

2) I am a student, so cost is a major factor.

Thanks.
 
Get a cheap pH testing kit at Home Depot. Test your water. Then put a couple of tablespoons of the material you have in half a cup of water and let it sit overnight. Test that water. If the pH is between 5.8 and 7.2 you're good to go. If it's way off you can raise or lower the pH with different materials. To raise it add dolomite lime, hardwood ash, bone meal, crushed marble, or crushed oyster shells. To lower your pH you can add sawdust, composted leaves, wood chips, cottonseed meal, leaf mold and peat moss. The changes won't happen overnight but within a few days you should be seeing a change.

With all of the fertilizers and supplements available today the growing medium isn't as important as it used to be. If it protects the roots and can maintain a neutral pH you can grow peppers in it.
 
Ok.. that sounds like I can use it then.. just need to ensure it has a proper pH.

Which brings me to my next question.

I think my plants are big enough now to start using fertilizer.

What is a good, cheap, effective product?

Please keep in mind it needs to be something I can find at Home Depot, and on a student's budget.

Thank you.
 
It looks like compost that was not allowed to finish. Does your city do a community composting that you can get for free? When it comes to fertilizer, are you organic or not???
 
Organic is always nice, but I'm not particularly picky.. just what ever works well.

Synthetic might be more readily available to me at my Home Depot in the city... and also more affordable.
 
HwyBill said:
Organic is always nice, but I'm not particularly picky.. just what ever works well.

Synthetic might be more readily available to me at my Home Depot in the city... and also more affordable.
Click to expand...

I suggest to try out the above medium with one of your plants just for the side-by-side comparison. And collect as much as you can, so if it works, you can use it later on, probably in the next season :fireball: If not as soil, at least as mulch :rofl:
 
What's difference between soil and mulch?

Oh I saw a show on PBS that seems to clear it up a little bit.. mulch is just stuff you put on top of the soil to make it look pretty.. also they say it helps keep moisture and heat into the roots.
 
You should have hydro stores around you somewhere, it might be like a 10-20 minute drive but they should be there. Try looking up a store called brew and grow. Thats were i go an i noticed they have like 15 places in chicago or so. Use something like 2-3-7 or 3-7-3 or something. Just nothing with high nitrogen content ( the first number is nitrogen). The one i use was reccommended to me by the store but it has pretty low nitrogen but only cost 9 dollars for a quart so I decided to try it out. Its like Biogrow or something. Good luck !
 
I don't have a car.. that's the reason I was asking for something I could find at my neighborhood Home Depot.

I'll keep an eye out for that Biogrow stuff..

Can you break down the #-#-# thing? You said the first one is nitrogen.. what sort of ratio should I look for?
 
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