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soil Any of you recycle your soil?

I don't think pH 7.0 is your real problem. It is not ideal for peppers, so if you are trying to maximize yield you will want to fix it. For a casual grower, or an in-ground grower, I would say 7.0 is acceptable, and it certainly isn't high enough to lock out nutrients. If your lime is Calcium based and you use a lot of it, you may get Magnesium lockout because Mg is at the back of the line in competing for uptake with N, K, and Ca.
 
If you want to be a soil expert, check out this series of learning modules from U Montana http://landresources.montana.edu/NM/
 
Cayennemist said:
Always,
If you grow organicaly, it only gets better with time. I do amend every time I re use soil, but thats a givin.
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Agreed! In my case though...I was re-ammending with fresh castings and/or compost sources, new perilite, and fresh organic granulars ...but not adding new peat or soil. That's what caused some of the problem because the used soil becomes broken down and gets heavy... the compost is heavy...so nothing was being added to lighten the mix except perilite and perilite by itself wasn't enough. Mixing 50/50 with fresh peat or soil and adding the other ammendments mentioned above seems to have fixed that for me.

Cayenne ...if you don't mind would you outline how you recycle? What amendments do you add and in what ratios approx?
 
OZZZ said:
Agreed! In my case though...I was re-ammending with fresh castings and/or compost sources, new perilite, and fresh organic granulars ...but not adding new peat or soil. That's what caused some of the problem because the used soil becomes broken down and gets heavy... the compost is heavy...so nothing was being added to lighten the mix except perilite and perilite by itself wasn't enough. Mixing 50/50 with fresh peat or soil and adding the other ammendments mentioned above seems to have fixed that for me.

Cayenne ...if you don't mind would you outline how you recycle? What amendments do you add and in what ratios approx?
Click to expand...
 
 
It's almost never the same, every batch seems to need something else.
 
The trick is to know the final product, or what it should be, and then amend to get there.
 
when you get a plant that does very well, feel the soil, take note, remember the ratios, then try to re-create it.
 
 
 
 
When I build my soil I start with about
 
20%  compost
30%  perlite (cruncky)
10%  wormcastings (fresh)
20%  plain old local dirt (sifted)
20%  sphagnum (Fine)
 
Other stuff I may add if I have it on hand
Rockdust, gypsum, vermiculite, sand.
 
If you want to FLUF up your old soil, try adding peat, perlite, verm, or coarse unsifted compost.
 
PS If you think you need to acidify your soil to 6-ish try a little coffee, it also atracts worms for inground plants
 
An awful lot of it is just trial and error and seeing what works... my dad can just look at the soil and make an educated guess on what it needs to make it great for growing without testing a single thing(he's literally never done it in 30 years). Our garden is basically a compost pile and we just toss in all sorts of things, rotting fruit, the peels of anything we cook, coffee, a bag of lime here and there, some gumballs, all our grass clippings, leaves, some manure, a couple buckets of sand, some bales of peat moss, all the soil from our annuals goes in there too, occasionally some mulch as well(keep in mind decomp of certain types of mulch can rob the nitrogen but add other nutrients). I got a basic pH and nutrient reading kit, took the results to the neighborhood nursery and they were really shocked at how high all our levels were and said they've never had anyone come in with such high residual levels from their garden.

Basically my point is you'll get the hang of it, also that pH isn't the only important thing for soil. N-P-K readings are important as well, as well as amended trace minerals. I think that what you're doing sounds pretty good and you're on the right track for success.

My general rule for watering is wait until the leaves start to droop, lightly mist them with water, then I put up some sheets as a makeshift shade cloth and if they bounce back within 15- 20 minutes there's no need to water, it's just the afternoon sun(my garden is shaded by 100+ year old willow oaks and it experiences a 30+ degree temperature change within the course of an hour).
 
Ya Im really starting to think it was just a severe case of overwatering.

Im embarrassed to say this here but I havent watered these plants in 3 weeks and they havent drooped yet! I stick my finger all the way down to their original rootball and it feels just barely moist now. After 3 weeks of the 5 gallon buckets sitting outside getting 5 hours of sun a day.
 
OOOOPS
 
On a good note... my worm bin population seems to have TRIPLED and are producing the highest quality castings Ive ever had them produce. The only thing I did different was I used aged horse manure as the bedding instead of paper products. They are ripping through a tray in about a month and a banana peel lasts barely two weeks. These are very well aged horse nuggests that have sat outside in the weather since last summer. The worms are literally exploding in population.
 
Ill never go back to paper products again. I can get my 10'x5' trailer filled to the brim for free from a farmer outside of town. I just shoveled the load into a unseen corner of my yard and let it set. I walk out there with a empty worm tray, fill it up and stick some coffee grounds, a banana peel or apple core in it, wet it down and pop it on. In a week its crawling with migrants.
 
I should take a video .. the damn bin is exploding!
 
Extremely high quality castings too. Not a trace of recognizable material left in the tray I just harvested. I almost always have had little bits and pieces and just mixed it in the soil with no problems whatever parts were in it seem to finish decomposing in the soil.
 
By using horse manure as bedding though ... wow. All I can say. Not only that but the worms are huge, dark red and active. Freakin' fatties.
 
Its crazy just about three months ago or I was having issues with the worms not finishing the trays but now its like their on crack. I bet soon Ill be pulling 15lbs per month outta that thing.
 
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