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Suggestions: Least expensive Way To Fill 200 5 gallon Pots

floricole said:
You should choose double grind bark mulch
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i was looking at that but that place is a bit far... im gonna start searching for local mulches... hell when i lived one town over i could get it all free from municipal... maybe my current town has something...
 
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
 
i was looking at that but that place is a bit far... im gonna start searching for local mulches... hell when i lived one town over i could get it all free from municipal... maybe my current town has something...
 
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Middletown has free mulch…..and plenty of it.  
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Maybe dump your efforts and funds into improving a piece of small land? The land under the grow bags possibly? I am one to jump in the deep end also but maybe you can work towards this goal. It's not really a turnkey operation.
 
Full scale is relative,there are guys growing 10's of thousands of plants. I am guessing this is just to supplement your income?  Have you thought about just isolating the plants you are growing for SFRB's in order to get seed stock and cut costs?  Are the seeds you are growing for purity from isolated stock? I probably have 50 more questions I would ask you or ask myself if it was me doing this. You can improve your margin by thinking smaller and smarter. 
 
 
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ill be growing the sfrb pods and open pollinated seeds on my sisters property which is within walking distance of my current house... i have grown in ground for years here... no problems with the land besides available space... concrete patios, sheds, large trees blocking sun... so the pots help cause i can move them around as needed... 
 
most of my seed stock was from isolated seed stock but anything that doesnt grow true will not be sold as isolated... and you are right full scale is relative... people running these 10's of thousands of plants are bulk sellers and open pollinated seed sellers... my store will be alot more specialized... you'll have to wait to see what i mean as the season begins... ill be specializing all the way down to each individual pod.. not just plant or variety... if people want cheap shoes they can go buy them out of the bin of the places that make 10's of thousands of shoes and pay next to nothing... some people prefer boutique shopping to get the best and they will pay for it too...
 
need proof of that just look at what people pay crazyhotseeds and pepperjoes for open pollinated seeds just cause they have decent looking websites... both make quite a good amount of money... ill be offering much better options...
 
Cant compare what goes on here at thp to what the actual market is... we are all a small niche group of gung ho hobbyists and professionals... i have given away free and recieved free high quality seeds etc... most people buying dont have that kind of time or enthusiasm and just wanna buy and do their own thing... even within this small group there is an even smaller group of say 20 people here that really participate and post...  there is a much bigger market out there...
 
 
tctenten said:
 
 
Middletown has free mulch…..and plenty of it.  
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ive been there with a friend that lived there... dont i need to live there to get it? ill check it out... municipal mulch may not be good for pots..might have all kinds of stuff mixed in...
 
 
jedisushi06 said:
Going cheap to fill that many pots sounds like a bad idea.  Never go cheap when building soil.
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well i wouldnt use garbage... i dont mean cheap in the bad way... maybe i should say least expensive method? besides, i lean most on my compost tea mix and other additives for the good stuff... i mean ive grown giant plants this way in just plain perlite so (hempy bucket style) so the media really doesnt matter as long as its not detrimental in any way... i dont need it to add anything except aeration, and area for the roots to grow into...
 
Pr0digal_son said:
Maybe dump your efforts and funds into improving a piece of small land? The land under the grow bags possibly? I am one to jump in the deep end also but maybe you can work towards this goal. It's not really a turnkey operation.
 
Full scale is relative,there are guys growing 10's of thousands of plants. I am guessing this is just to supplement your income?  Have you thought about just isolating the plants you are growing for SFRB's in order to get seed stock and cut costs?  Are the seeds you are growing for purity from isolated stock? I probably have 50 more questions I would ask you or ask myself if it was me doing this. You can improve your margin by thinking smaller and smarter. 
 
 
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also when i say full scale for me like you said its relative... It is still just gonna be a hobby but im upgrading it to use it to help fund other real business projects... last year i grew only 10 plants and profited big dollars off of those 10 plants .. growing to 10-20 times that amount of plants and i have a decent amount of money to start some real projects outside the pepper world...
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
 
ive been there with a friend that lived there... dont i need to live there to get it? ill check it out... municipal mulch may not be good for pots..might have all kinds of stuff mixed in...
 
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Nah…they do not check.  If you have Jersey plates you are in.  They shred all the township brush, so you might pick up some nasties but it is usually smoking from composting.  I use it sometimes but it is double the work.  Fill up pickup truck than empty pickup truck.  I generally just go to Molzons and have them fill it up for me.   
 
tctenten said:
 
 
Nah…they do not check.  If you have Jersey plates you are in.  They shred all the township brush, so you might pick up some nasties but it is usually smoking from composting.  I use it sometimes but it is double the work.  Fill up pickup truck than empty pickup truck.  I generally just go to Molzons and have them fill it up for me.   
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but have you used it in the pots? or just top cover? still smoking sounds bad for in the pot..
 
jedisushi06 said:
last year i used lots of calcium in my mix and i had really good results.  
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i actually just sprayed my plants down with a calcium magnesium zinc solution before im about to repot them into solo cups and they exploded in growth... 
 
Yeah, that city compost sounds like the stuff we get here. Really chonky(chunky), big pieces of wood chips and such...steaming hot.
And they seem to give you the same amount every time, whether you're just driving a pickup truck, or have a 6' x 12' utility trailer...hope your suspension can handle it.

But I tried to use that for a few gardens years ago, nothing really did well for a coule of years. After that it was great. But I don't think it would be too good as a potting mix. Maybe if you let it sit for a while and let it finish breaking down. Or sift the big chunks out, but that would be a whole lotta work.

But anyway, what he said, top dressing...I only use it as mulch now.
 
Jubnat said:
Yeah, that city compost sounds like the stuff we get here. Really chonky(chunky), big pieces of wood chips and such...steaming hot.
And they seem to give you the same amount every time, whether you're just driving a pickup truck, or have a 6' x 12' utility trailer...hope your suspension can handle it.

But I tried to use that for a few gardens years ago, nothing really did well for a coule of years. After that it was great. But I don't think it would be too good as a potting mix. Maybe if you let it sit for a while and let it finish breaking down. Or sift the big chunks out, but that would be a whole lotta work.

But anyway, what he said, top dressing...I only use it as mulch now.
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That is really bad stuff, for so many reasons. I used it for years - mostly as top dress - until I saw why I shouldn't, for any reason. (unexplained plant ailments)
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There is no telling where any of it came from. There is no telling what residuals or systemics were taken up into it. There is not telling what other foreign substances are present. Additionally, if it's as hot as it is from our city landfill, it's got a long ways to go before it's done composting - so it's gonna rob nitrogen for a long time, and fix it.
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The program is an idea with great intentions, but bad execution. In the end, if you have a source of horse manure, that's probably the much better route. (still needs to be composted, of course)
 
Funnily enough, that's why I stopped using it...I found a place to get some really nice, dark, composted horse manure from the university farm.

And then I don't have to constantly pull out trash and shredded plastic out of my garden.
 
I'd say the cheapest way would be bulk buying coco coir and sand then adding a few inches of spent mushroom compost to top dress
 
Powelly said:
I'd say the cheapest way would be bulk buying coco coir and sand then adding a few inches of spent mushroom compost to top dress
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Why sand?  Doesn't that rob coco coir of some of its best attributes? (porosity and oxygen retention)
 
I would love to know more about your isolation method! 
 
JUR-Z-Devil said:
 
my isolation method guarantees total isolation even with plants 2 feet away from a different variety... its easy but time consuming... but i have the time and i love it...
 
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JUR-Z-Devil said:
 
well aware....big time history channel discovery channel documentary watcher... i like to learn while tv rots my brain... NJ really doesnt have any crazy mother nature issues...  maybe an occasional hurricane but if your not on the beach they really only effect certain areas badly... biggest issue is no power for a while..
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ummm yeah this.
 
A case of monumental stupidity on my part, and an ill timed business trip to Raritan Put me in the eye of Freakin hurricane Sandy.  13 days later we got power and i got to go in to work.
 
WTF.
 
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