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soil My new mix for soil for my peppers + Is this new soil mix a good one for my climate?

Codeman

Codeman

Hello all. I did a new mix very very recently and was wondering if it was any good considering my climate. My climate is a Greensboro North Carolina climate. It's rainy humid and hot but rains pretty often and sometimes its hot and humid and other times it's hot but not humid. Which is why my peppers seem to do very good apparently. I was wondering if my new mix is good for this. My mix consists of this down below.
Mix
1/4 mushroom compost
2 cups vermiculite
2 tablespoons epsom salts
1 cup burpees tomato and veggie granular fertilizer
Rest sta-green potting mix (Non-moisture max).
Now i am not re doing anything again the rest of the year.
I thought i could do better??
Thanks!
This is to see if i can do better and if i can, i'll do a better soil next year.
 
Probably too heavy, I'd increase the aeration 
Although I don't know what the ratios are
 
1 part compost, one part aeration, one part other organic matter like potting mix, peat moss or coco coir is a great start
 
Powelly said:
Probably too heavy, I'd increase the aeration 
Although I don't know what the ratios are
 
1 part compost, one part aeration, one part other organic matter like potting mix, peat moss or coco coir is a great start
Click to expand...
 

The potting mix does have peat moss in it.
 
Powelly said:
Probably too heavy, I'd increase the aeration 
Although I don't know what the ratios are
 
1 part compost, one part aeration, one part other organic matter like potting mix, peat moss or coco coir is a great start
Click to expand...
 

Mushroom compost is the compost but also the organic matter. and it does have aeriation due to it containing vermiculite.
 
Powelly said:
Probably too heavy, I'd increase the aeration 
Although I don't know what the ratios are
 
1 part compost, one part aeration, one part other organic matter like potting mix, peat moss or coco coir is a great start
Click to expand...
 

I've already stated the ratios.
 
You could express it by weight, by volume, or even "big bag of X" and "little bag of y" and "half a bag of Z," and folks might be able to guess based on the most common packaging strategies taken by supplier.  Like, most peat comes in 2.2 or 3 cu ft packs.  What I tried was  3 cf peat(1 bale), 3 cf topsoil (4 sacks), 2.25cf of composted manure (3 sacks), 8 cups pelletized gypsum (scooped from a bag), 4 cups pelletized lime (scooped from a bag), 8 cups of perlite (scooped from a bag).  For me, i'm feeling pretty good about it but i'm wondering if i messed up the perlite (tryna grow in cloth grow bags) but i'm new to this; for all i know my mix won't work well for bags in zone 7a (where i'm at in NJ...)  But, right or wrong, anyone can critique it b/c they know the ratios  of each of the components.
 
Do you know how much of each component you used in your mix? 
 
Codeman said:
...
Rest sta-green potting mix (Non-moisture max).
Click to expand...
I think this is what they are referring to. 'The rest' is very vague when we don't know the final amount.

But, really, I think you just need some perlite in there.
 
Jubnat said:
I think this is what they are referring to. 'The rest' is very vague when we don't know the final amount.

But, really, I think you just need some perlite in there.
Click to expand...
 

I already added 2 cups Vermiculite to the mix. it already has perlite in the potting mix.
 
Bicycle808 said:
You could express it by weight, by volume, or even "big bag of X" and "little bag of y" and "half a bag of Z," and folks might be able to guess based on the most common packaging strategies taken by supplier.  Like, most peat comes in 2.2 or 3 cu ft packs.  What I tried was  3 cf peat(1 bale), 3 cf topsoil (4 sacks), 2.25cf of composted manure (3 sacks), 8 cups pelletized gypsum (scooped from a bag), 4 cups pelletized lime (scooped from a bag), 8 cups of perlite (scooped from a bag).  For me, i'm feeling pretty good about it but i'm wondering if i messed up the perlite (tryna grow in cloth grow bags) but i'm new to this; for all i know my mix won't work well for bags in zone 7a (where i'm at in NJ...)  But, right or wrong, anyone can critique it b/c they know the ratios  of each of the components.
 
Do you know how much of each component you used in your mix? 
Click to expand...
 
I just open a bag and scoop some out into the pot.
1/4 mushroom compost
2 cups vermiculite
2 table spoons epsom salts
rest sta green potting mix. hold on let me find the ariana bloem sip plant pot online here.
 
 
Bicycle808 said:
You could express it by weight, by volume, or even "big bag of X" and "little bag of y" and "half a bag of Z," and folks might be able to guess based on the most common packaging strategies taken by supplier.  Like, most peat comes in 2.2 or 3 cu ft packs.  What I tried was  3 cf peat(1 bale), 3 cf topsoil (4 sacks), 2.25cf of composted manure (3 sacks), 8 cups pelletized gypsum (scooped from a bag), 4 cups pelletized lime (scooped from a bag), 8 cups of perlite (scooped from a bag).  For me, i'm feeling pretty good about it but i'm wondering if i messed up the perlite (tryna grow in cloth grow bags) but i'm new to this; for all i know my mix won't work well for bags in zone 7a (where i'm at in NJ...)  But, right or wrong, anyone can critique it b/c they know the ratios  of each of the components.
 
Do you know how much of each component you used in your mix? 
Click to expand...
 

https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bloem-13-in-x-10-1-in-Calypso-Resin-Self-Watering-Planter/1000174891
I picked the 2nd largest lowes had of this brand.
 
Bicycle808 said:
You could express it by weight, by volume, or even "big bag of X" and "little bag of y" and "half a bag of Z," and folks might be able to guess based on the most common packaging strategies taken by supplier.  Like, most peat comes in 2.2 or 3 cu ft packs.  What I tried was  3 cf peat(1 bale), 3 cf topsoil (4 sacks), 2.25cf of composted manure (3 sacks), 8 cups pelletized gypsum (scooped from a bag), 4 cups pelletized lime (scooped from a bag), 8 cups of perlite (scooped from a bag).  For me, i'm feeling pretty good about it but i'm wondering if i messed up the perlite (tryna grow in cloth grow bags) but i'm new to this; for all i know my mix won't work well for bags in zone 7a (where i'm at in NJ...)  But, right or wrong, anyone can critique it b/c they know the ratios  of each of the components.
 
Do you know how much of each component you used in your mix? 
Click to expand...
 

if this will help you know what size my plant pot is, I'll post a picture for you to get a gist of the amount i used.
 
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tD8Om2Qm.jpg

 
These are all the same size pots that i have for my peppers. Ignore the green larger pot where my tomatos are.
 
Codeman said:
 
I already added 2 cups Vermiculite to the mix. it already has perlite in the potting mix.
Click to expand...
While both vermiculite and perlite help with aeration, and vermiculite to a lesser extant, perlite improves drainage, and vermiculite retains moisture.

In the context or growing peppers, this makes the two very different, even though they seem similar.
And also, when growing peppers, soil mixes containing perlite usually need more added in, especially when amending with things like compost and vermiculite.
 
Jubnat said:
While both vermiculite and perlite help with aeration, and vermiculite to a lesser extant, perlite improves drainage, and vermiculite retains moisture.

In the context or growing peppers, this makes the two very different, even though they seem similar.
And also, when growing peppers, soil mixes containing perlite usually need more added in, especially when amending with things like compost and vermiculite.
Click to expand...
 

Ah shit! It's still pretty damp. like i said whatever happens to them, happens because of family getting mad with buying stuff every week. i wanted to know as well: With the 1/4 compost and potting mix would i even needed to add any vermiculite? Or would it have been better to just use perlite in place of vermiculite?
 
RE vermiculite vs perlite both are fine however vermiculite will give aeration but not that good drainage
If you don't want to remove the whole thing and mix in more perlite then I would simply wait until it dries out and make sure you only give it very small waterings - if you're getting run off then it's likely too much
 
You can google "Port Adelaide Weather" to see what my weather is like at the moment and in the pepper plant I have in a 1L container I've not watered it in over 2 weeks and it's not even drooping yet. It's planted in just compost and I'll only give it 200ml of water when it starts to droop in order to prevent over watering during the winter months 
 
Powelly said:
RE vermiculite vs perlite both are fine however vermiculite will give aeration but not that good drainage
If you don't want to remove the whole thing and mix in more perlite then I would simply wait until it dries out and make sure you only give it very small waterings - if you're getting run off then it's likely too much
 
You can google "Port Adelaide Weather" to see what my weather is like at the moment and in the pepper plant I have in a 1L container I've not watered it in over 2 weeks and it's not even drooping yet. It's planted in just compost and I'll only give it 200ml of water when it starts to droop in order to prevent over watering during the winter months 
Click to expand...
 

yeah it's actually 3/4 potting mix. do you think if i do this mix again to just use perlite instead of vermiculite?
 
Codeman said:
 
yeah it's actually 3/4 potting mix. do you think if i do this mix again to just use perlite instead of vermiculite?
Click to expand...
 
Doesn't matter, just with vermiculite you should water less often
If it rains often then pick perlite
 
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