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DIY Potting Mix

Sick625

Sick625

Im Trying To Make My Own Potting Mix I Have So Many Plants Its Becoming Really Pricy$ Cause I Got About 25 Plants & I Was Wondering If Someone Has Ingredients Or Ideas On How To Make Your Own Potting Mix? & Do You Really Save $$ On Making Your Own In Long Run?​
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Thnxs Any Advice/Ideas Will Be Great. :pray: ​
 
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/10245-all-about-soil-a-great-resource-i-thought-i-would-share/
 
Great sticky with a ton of info on making your own soil mix. My first year mixing my own, and its very easy, and I would say much cheaper then buying lots of pro mix. My personal mix is peat moss, compost, perlite, limestone. With greensand, rock phosphate, bat quano, and kelp meal as my organic fert mix. Though there is alot of differnt mixes you can do. Happy growing :)
 
are you talking about promix? or the like?

its probably in bad taste to post your own threads, but rather than regurgitate it here...

http://thehotpepper.com/topic/37333-making-cornell-peat-lite-like-a-boss/?hl=%2Bpeat+%2Blite

you dont want sedge peat... you want Canadian virgin spagnum. here in houston i cant find the "good" stuff anymore so ive moves on to coco-lite... same deal just coir and perlite, w/ no liiming charge and no wetting agent.

check your local prices. i can buy 2 cubic foot of coir now for 9 bucks... 4 cu ft. of crappy peat costs me like 24 bucks now... peat continuing up and coirs coming down continually.

IMO ill take a good peat mix anyway over coco lite. coco varies even more than peat... the crap you get from mexico is generally very conductive, and poorly sifted. the good stuff comes from syri lanka (spelling?)... its generally well washed,and pretty consistant mesh sized.

peat lite MUST be lime charged! it also MUST be charged with wetting agent! if you dotn want to do either properly, then you can not go with peat lite... go with coco lite
 
JoynersHotPeppers said:
In DE you can get a 3.8 cu ft.compressed bale of ProMix BX for $39, works out to just over 7 cu ft uncompressed. It cost me as much to make my own therefore I switched. 
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how does it cost the same?
 
i can make 8 cubic foot of peat lite, which is better than BX promix in the first place...  for about 50 bucks.
a 4 cubic foot bale costs like 44 i  down here, and at best its 25% perlite.
 
queequeg152 said:
how does it cost the same?
 
i can make 8 cubic foot of peat lite, which is better than BX promix in the first place...  for about 50 bucks.
a 4 cubic foot bale costs like 44 i  down here, and at best its 25% perlite.
Click to expand...

Do u think I can use garden soil & mix it up wit some perlite & some potting soil?
 
it really depends on your garden soil. these plants grow best in very airy, low BD soils with lots and lots of air exchange.
if your garden soil is super dense clay or w/e, it might not be worth your time. if on the otherhand its mostly composted woody matter with some sand and other light amendments, you could probably just add more perlite until you begin to approach the BD of promix or peat lite type mixes... i would think this would be vastly superior to regular garden soil.

how do you fertilize tho?
its important to note that peat lite by design holds little water, its free draining and needs constant irrigation.
its also bereft of nutrients... so it has to be provided by fertilizer or some sort.
 
queequeg152 said:
it really depends on your garden soil. these plants grow best in very airy, low BD soils with lots and lots of air exchange.
if your garden soil is super dense clay or w/e, it might not be worth your time. if on the otherhand its mostly composted woody matter with some sand and other light amendments, you could probably just add more perlite until you begin to approach the BD of promix or peat lite type mixes... i would think this would be vastly superior to regular garden soil.

how do you fertilize tho?
its important to note that peat lite by design holds little water, its free draining and needs constant irrigation.
its also bereft of nutrients... so it has to be provided by fertilizer or some sort.
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yeah cause i was thinking of buying miracle grow garden soil & mixing it up with PatioPlus. I Use Fish Fertz mixed with water.
 
what about my dirt from the top gets to dry quikk what can i doo or add on top so if wont get dry to fast??Use Gravels? Mulch?
 
queequeg152 said:
how does it cost the same?
 
i can make 8 cubic foot of peat lite, which is better than BX promix in the first place...  for about 50 bucks.
a 4 cubic foot bale costs like 44 i  down here, and at best its 25% perlite.
Click to expand...
To each their own, my plants love what I put them in. My square foot garden disagrees with you however.  :dance:
 
queequeg152 said:
how does it cost the same?
 
i can make 8 cubic foot of peat lite, which is better than BX promix in the first place...  for about 50 bucks.
a 4 cubic foot bale costs like 44 i  down here, and at best its 25% perlite.
Click to expand...
You imply that your mix must be cheaper, since you disagree that it costs the same (unless you meant your mix is more expensive, which wouldn't be a smart point to make anyways?). How does that make sense? He said he gets 7 cuft "uncompressed" for $39.. which is $5.57 per cuft. Your $50 for 8 cuft costs $6.25 per cuft, making the promix 11% cheaper.
 
all bales are compressed to some extent. the canadian fertiloam peat i used to be able to get was far more "compressed" than any HP promix i ever bought.
im simply going by the bales advertised volume. i choose not to speculate on what volume it expands to. going by BD is far better imo.
fwiw i dont believe promix expands to almost two times its size.  possibly an additional  third... MABY approaching 1.5, as this is what ive seen in my heavy ass bales ive dealt with.
its been a while tho... since ive used promix.
 
Speculation from either of you aside, I was just going with your reported numbers i.e.:

"i can make 8 cubic foot of peat lite, which is better than BX promix in the first place... for about 50 bucks."

You said you make 8 cuft, not that you bought an 8 cuft compressed bail of it.

Assuming his and yours were both correct by estimation, his promix was 11% cheaper. But, I rest my case.

Continue!

Good thread *thumb up*
 
lol. 4cubic foot bale + 4 cubic foot bag of perlite.
did you not read my thread?
 
if i assume my peat bales expand to 7 cubic foot i get a total of 11 cubic foot...
 
I quoted your post in this thread here, not from your "other" thread. You clearly stated 8 cuft in the above post, not 11.
 
I know for a fact it expands to 7 cu ft+, I have used 6 this season and all of them were roughly the same at 7.5. Google is your friend, don't believe me and regardless I use additional nutrients to season feed and what not. I was simply helping answer the original poster, THERE IS NO right answer. Happy gardening. 
 
lol well my 10 gallon containers must be alot larger than 10 gallons, because 1 bale just barely allows me to transplant 6-3gallon bags to 6 10 gallon bags.
also my "35 gallon" container takes almost two bales.

my 10 gallon bags are 13" in diameter by... i think like 1 foot. id always assumed they were approx 1 cubic foot. ill have to check their dimensions again.

However, is is just not true that its the cheapest. HP promix is at most 25% perlite?

go to any major garden sale, you can buy a compressed 4 cubic foot bale of peat for 20ish bucks depending on where you live. down south here, good quality spagnum was 26 bucks. add a cubic foot of perlite... or if you are going by expanded volume, 1.75ish cubic feet...
4 cubic foot bags of perlite are like 22 bucks... so your total cost is going to be about mid 30s...

i get you guys like to just bust open a bale and go to town, but saying its the cheapest is not correct.
 
queequeg152 said:
lol well my 10 gallon containers must be alot larger than 10 gallons, because 1 bale just barely allows me to transplant 6-3gallon bags to 6 10 gallon bags.
also my "35 gallon" container takes almost two bales.

my 10 gallon bags are 13" in diameter by... i think like 1 foot. id always assumed they were approx 1 cubic foot. ill have to check their dimensions again.

However, is is just not true that its the cheapest. HP promix is at most 25% perlite?

go to any major garden sale, you can buy a compressed 4 cubic foot bale of peat for 20ish bucks depending on where you live. down south here, good quality spagnum was 26 bucks. add a cubic foot of perlite... or if you are going by expanded volume, 1.75ish cubic feet...
4 cubic foot bags of perlite are like 22 bucks... so your total cost is going to be about mid 30s...

i get you guys like to just bust open a bale and go to town, but saying its the cheapest is not correct.
Click to expand...

Geez dude let it go. Im just stating its cheapest for me.
 
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