Wow!!! New member reading an old post. Will use for future grows...
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tutorial All about soil - A great resource I thought I would share
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Wow!!! New member reading an old post. Will use for future grows...
Over the last year I have been playing with different soils, peat, coconut coir, “triple mix” and so far nothing has worked as well as pepper Joe’s dirt mix witch has compost (mushroom compost)(leafs) and cow manure but also pearlite or vermiculite, hay/straw and very fine pine wood mulch (maybe some sulfur or Epsom salt). I will try and figure out the best amount later on. When using coconut coir it’s best to have some dirt near the bottom of the pot…
My uncle uses this mix for his potted pepper plants, big healthy plants with tasty peppers.
He also throws in some dolomite lime and starts feeding when they need it.
I'll probably use this soil mix this year too, important to use a high quality compost.
5 peat
3 compost
1 perlite
1 vermiculite (or just 2 parts perlite and no vermiculite)
He also throws in some dolomite lime and starts feeding when they need it.
I'll probably use this soil mix this year too, important to use a high quality compost.
5 peat
3 compost
1 perlite
1 vermiculite (or just 2 parts perlite and no vermiculite)
Great info thanx.
This is a little "out there", but I've had truly fantastic results using intensive growth media from the green roof industry. It is usually made from calcined (expanded by heat) clay, shale or slate, and sometimes pumice on the West Coast. It's about $100/yard, which is darn cheap compared to the ProMixes and other peat-based blends out there. The one drawback is that they have a lower CEC than peat/coir-based blends, but if you are doing some regimen-based fertilizing (fertigation, etc.) this stuff works incredibly. You also don't have to replace it or add to it in raised beds since it doesn't settle over time, being ~75% inorganic matter by volume (~91% by mass).
Below is a spec sheet on the material. I'm intimately familiar with this material so if you have nay questions, just let me know (I don't work for the companies that make the stuff, just had a lot of experience with it).
Below is a spec sheet on the material. I'm intimately familiar with this material so if you have nay questions, just let me know (I don't work for the companies that make the stuff, just had a lot of experience with it).
Good question. Unfortunetly I've never weighed my mixes, but I can say mine are very light. A few pounds if that. Since my area doesn't get too hot and really doesn't need a lot of water retention I make it as light and fluffy as possible and usually only fill it up about 3/5 of the way. Half way through the grow season I do add some worm castings and light fertilizer and then top with mulch.
The following paper is some of the most important information on soil formation ever published. It completely changed the way I understanding agriculture and soil fertility.
I take that back. It is the most important work available to anyone who is growing anything:
http://www.hydrogeochem.qc.ca/pages/publications_gcbr/doc140.pdf
I take that back. It is the most important work available to anyone who is growing anything:
http://www.hydrogeochem.qc.ca/pages/publications_gcbr/doc140.pdf
I've read a lot about that stuff, and lots of folks on this board swear by it, but that's the extent of my knowledge...
My knowledge of it is limited but I believe it is supposed to be a substitute for peat moss. I believe it is supposed to be a sustainable source where peat is not.
my local hydro place said that it's way better than peat for it's natural low PH, prevents water logging, and it's
70-30 moisture-to-aeration level... i dunno... i think i should plant some seeds in some to see if it works...
Go for it! But I'm not sure about the accuracy of the hydro shop's statement that it has a natural low PH. I'm not questioning that coco has a low PH but rather that the statement would imply that peat is not low in PH. Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe that peat is an acidic medium as well. If they are implying that coco is more acidic then you might want to be careful as peppers don't like soil that is TOO acidic.
Most people I've seen recommend combining peat with something more basic to bring the PH up to something more tolerable for peppers. So if coco is more acidic then you'll want to do the same thing, if not more.
A couple things I've learned about peat and coir over the years:
There is a HUGE variety of coir on the market. Most gardening coir comes from Sri Lanka. Some of it is very salty with an excessively high eC as delivered. The best comes from inland Sri Lanka locations where it is surrounded by freshwater, rather than near bodies of salt water where the material picks up salt from the sea. When I dealt with a lot of coir, we would test each batch and refuse about 20% of them.
When properly manufactured and "cured", coir is great. Good coir tends to have a pH around 5.8 +/- 0.4
One of folks' favorite things about coir is its "re-wetability" when compared to peat. Years and years ago, it wasn't like this with peat. Here's why.
Peat nowadays is usually "mechanically" dried, meaning they speed up the drying process before it is baled or processed. This involves low temperature ovens that dry it out quickly. As a result, the natural oils and waxes are forced the surface of the peat fibers, making them hard to "re-wet". That's why you sometimes get the dried out potted plant in ProMix that just lets the water run down around the perimeter and out the bottom when you hand water the plant.
Sun dried peat doesn't have this problem. It is naturally dried in the sun and the waxes and oils remain evenly distributed throughout the fibers. This stuff re-wets just like top grade coir and is a fantastic product. It also doesn't break down as fast and for reasons unknown to me, has a higher CEC. The best peat I've ever seen was sun dried and came from B.C. and it was very light in color ("blond peat"). Haven't seen it in years.
On pH, peat tends to be in 4.X range, so I've only used it to buffer potentially alkaline mixes that are based around expanded shale or slate, both of which have a pH up around 8.5-9 by themselves.
The best all-round growing material for most plants that I've found is fossilized diatoms. Goes under the name Axis. Neutral pH, reasonably high CEC that locks onto the macros our plants need, light in weight and it doesn't break down so it can be sterilized and re-used. Not the cheapest material, but in mixes I've used 60-70% Axis and gotten ridiculous results. I suspect that part of this is the high saturated air porosity which allows roots access to to copious amounts of air, wven in a fully saturated state (usually >20% air porosity by volume.)
diatoms as in diatomaceous earth...? i use that stuff on my poultry to control mites and other bugs... it is expensive... 5 bucks a lb... but it's a fine dust... not even a powder... is this the same stuff...?
after some research online, yes, this is the same stuff... gotta find non-food grade DE now and give it a whirl...
after some research online, yes, this is the same stuff... gotta find non-food grade DE now and give it a whirl...
Here's the material I've used in the past: http://epminerals.com/axis.html
They have several grades, I've used a mixture of course and fine. Course is screened 3/8" on the top and 1/16" on the bottom and is quite granular. Cheaper than Hydroton/agri-grade LECA and considerably better IMO.
Does anyone know if Navlet's, Orchard Supply, Home Depot, etc. carry a decent mix? The first two I listed are better places for me.
Here are three mixes on Navlet's web site, though they have more at the store: http://www.navletsgardens.com/products/index.html
Thanks.
Here are three mixes on Navlet's web site, though they have more at the store: http://www.navletsgardens.com/products/index.html
Thanks.
