soil Making a "chunky" soil lighter? Does soil being old matter?

[BigCedar]

So I have a few questions about soil.. As some of you saw the more "chunky" jam packed soil I potted starts up with was a bad idea and sent my plants into a downward spiral. They're now in a very light fluffy soil and doing too well. But here's what I don't understand. I've potted up gallon size plants into that soil for 4 years now and have seen great results but when I potted up 72ct cells into it they were on death row IMO.

So questions..

Is it because plants so young can't handle the more chunky more fert loaded soil?

Also, the soil wasn't so fresh.. It had been getting rained on since spring time last year, got water-logged if you will and I potted up in Feb with it.. was that the problem? The fresh soil we get in March seems alot lighter even though it's the same thing..

Another thing.. Could it have been drainage? I don't see near the amount of perlite in the local soil as I do with the black gold I've been using.. So to make the local soil lighter.. could I add perlite to make it more pepper friendly even though I've seen good results in years past? Anything else I could add to it to make it lighter?

I would really.. REALLY like to use the soil I can get from my work for this operation with a few tweaks rather than filling 250+ containers with 20+dollar bales that will fill 8 containers each.. And seeing that it has worked for 4 years past for me with gallon starts it just seems silly to bail on it because my starts didn't react well..

ALL of my overwinters are in the local soil as well and doing great. I have a hard time understanding the whole deal and why my starts reacted the way they did, the only thing I can come up with is age or drainage.. but I'm leaning more towards age because I've seen adult starts do well.

Any information would be greatly appreciated.. Thanks for reading. You just might be saving me alot of money if you have a good solution lol..

Hope all is well with everyone.

Brandon

 

[muskymojo]

Yes, you can add perlite to make a soil lighter, but I'm not sure what you mean by chunky. What does it consist of?

Was it still wet when you used it to pot up? If so, it was probably compacted, which would make it drain not as well. There would also be much less air in the soil.

 

[Dulac]

It could of had mold in it. Lack of air is very possible too. When starting the seedlings out it's best to use new soil to avoid critters and such from outside. You can recycle that old soil outside later on.

 

[Siliman]

After making some mistakes last year using my own homemade 'chuncky' mix for seedlings and overwintered plants, I made adjustments. The various stages of seed germination, seedling growth, final pot up and overwintering each have different needs, IMO.

I like a really fine quality mix for germination (Hoffmans)--going for a nice initial rootball. Then pot up to a high quality non-fertilized peat base with perlite (ProMix BX) for seedlings--it is great to work with, add the nutes you need. Then for final pot--go for a bulk blend (your local nursery with nicely decomposed materials)--get it by the yard and amend as needed. Then finally, for overwintering---a clean mix again---I've used Black Gold, also Gardner & Bloome, but I think the ProMix would be way better just to minimize bug risk.

Any growing medium laying around outside for months doesn't come in the house. You are inviting in the fungus gnats, aphids, mites, thrips, whatever. I don't mind those creatures (as much) outside, but inside they are a major pain and have no natural competition, can ruin seedlings or give you a long winter battle.

So 3 of the 4 events: germination, seedlings and overwintering get 'clean' medium for indoors use. The outdoors containers and raised beds get the full monty of bulks blends, rich topsoil, composts, leaf litter, perlite, manures, bat guano, worm castings, peat, etc etc.

If you break down costs, the germination and seedling mediums don't require a huge expenditure, at least prior to the 1-gallon per plant pot up stage. The big cost usually is filling your containers or raised beds. So, bottom line, sure, get your local bulk mix for this big ticket item. One of the prime things is it needs to drain well. I'm a big fan of perlite, but pumice gets great reviews from some growers as does vermiculite. Finely chipped bark also is great for drainage, but if it is not decomposed, it might rob nitrogen-- you can still use it to lighten the mix for cheap, just add extra nitrogren as you fertilize. Mix stuff up and give it whirl.

Just my $.04 worth, long winded as usual...

 

[patrick]

Not sure what you mean by "not fresh" soil. Has it been used before to grow peppers or any other plants? If so you might want to amend it with some good compost or lacking that I use Happy Frog soil amendment. Perks up the old stuff right now.

You can add perlite to any soil to lighten it up.

Best of luck to you BC.