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soil Soilless Mix

R

reader

Hiya all!
 
I have on hand coconut husk chips, coconut coir, fir bark, Baccto (potting mix with sedge peat, perlite, sand), and plenty of perlite. Also some leftover peat-perlite-vermiculite from last year.
 
Does anyone have any good recipes using the above? I was going to do equal parts chips, bark, and perlite but I have no first hand experience with coco anything so I'm wondering if I'm missing something. Hoping to find a good general purpose mix for transplants and smaller plants kept indoors in containers that doesn't rely on peat (hate working with the stuff).
 
Thanks much, would love to hear what everyone else is using!
 
queequeg152 said:
50% peat or fine coir and 50% perlite. its that simple yo.
 
now if you dont want to water every day, loose some perlite, or switch to verm, but your pore space and oxygen diffusion rates will suffer accordingly.
 
a bulk density around .1 - .15 grams per centimeter is ideal.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/37333-making-cornell-peat-lite-like-a-boss/
Click to expand...
Yeah, that's a very common recipe. I've been doing a bit of internet searching these last couple of days on this. Do you think it is desirable to add some lime to the recipe? One recipe I saw added 1 tsp dolomitic lime per 1 gallon starter mix.
 
for peat? or for coir?
 
for peat yea you NEED to... for coir, you do not need to add anything.
 
if you go to that thread, you will see i talk at some length about liming and the lime charge i had to add to the mix.
 
queequeg152 said:
50% peat or fine coir and 50% perlite. its that simple yo.
 
now if you dont want to water every day, loose some perlite, or switch to verm, but your pore space and oxygen diffusion rates will suffer accordingly.
 
Click to expand...
 
Nice thread, thanks! I've used the peat-lite before, wish I'd had pictures to refer to when mixing it up! And I really hated working with the peat -- I don't intend to use a bunch of organic amendments, but I prefer not to use wetting agents. Plus I really dislike the smell, the texture, and the powdery mess from peat. So it's great to know coir can be substituted and as a bonus, I don't have to buy more lime!
 
juanitos said:
3-5 parts bark fines/husk chips
1 part coir/peat
1 part perlite
Click to expand...
 
Yeah, I think this is the way I'm leaning. I used the base 5:1:1 recipe one year and liked it well enough, but it's such a PITA to source pine bark fines here, which is why I purchased the reptibark. Pretty excited to actually be able to use the "right stuff". But then, of course, I'm wondering how to tweak it even though it probably ain't broken, so to speak.
 
Is there anything to be aware of when using coco husks or coir as far as salts and fertilizing? I read a thread elsewhere that suggested soaking the husks in calcium and epsom salts to help balance it out, and another that said you should always fertilize with every watering if you use coco products.
 
I think maybe I should try a few different recipes and see which works best in my conditions. Got plenty of stuff to mix up! :)
 
reader said:
 
Yeah, I think this is the way I'm leaning. I used the base 5:1:1 recipe one year and liked it well enough, but it's such a PITA to source pine bark fines here, which is why I purchased the reptibark. Pretty excited to actually be able to use the "right stuff". But then, of course, I'm wondering how to tweak it even though it probably ain't broken, so to speak.
 
Is there anything to be aware of when using coco husks or coir as far as salts and fertilizing? I read a thread elsewhere that suggested soaking the husks in calcium and epsom salts to help balance it out, and another that said you should always fertilize with every watering if you use coco products.
 
I think maybe I should try a few different recipes and see which works best in my conditions. Got plenty of stuff to mix up! :)
Click to expand...
yes mine was marketed as organic compost happi grow. its actual composted bark fines, they have in OK maybe they have there too? (3 of my local nurseries carried it so seems to be widespread). reptibark is really expensive!
 
read this on coconut products, pretty much rinse it out before atleast, add some fert to buffer maybe.
 
Thanks for the link! I read through, very interesting. A lot of it was over my head or beyond my resources this year but I feel like I'm better prepared for the issues that might arise. I also found it pretty comforting that his experience shows the coco mediums are very forgiving regarding overwatering. Makes me think I've made the right choice experimenting with it this year!
 
Right now I've got the husk chips soaking in some mild orchid fertilizer with micros (3-9-6) I had left over from last year so hopefully that'll be satisfactory as far as buffering goes. The package I bought (Hydrofarms Plantit!) doesn't say one way or another but I'd assume if it were already prepped it'd say so.
 
Yeah, the reptibark is pretty expensive on the face of it, but what price do you put on not having to drag two little kids to potentially multiple garden centers? It does hurt to spend ten times as much as I've spent in the past on soil conditioner, but I have plenty of clean bark for my purposes this year and $15 to not have to deal with rude employees and inconsistent product was worth it to me. Next year'll be different, no doubt. :)
 
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