Making dirt for the first time... some questions...

[UltraZelda64]

COMPOSTED manure does not stink. When you are driving down the highway you are smelling FRESH poop. Next time you're at Lowes tear open a bag and smell it. It smells (and looks) like dirt. I use manure in my garden and it does not smell.

I'll take your word for it, I'm sure it smells more tame when well rotted, but the whole idea of it is just nasty.

Your correct I usually get the "lites" mixed up from time to time. Just make sure you don't use too much if your already using a mix that has peat moss in it. I've never used that moisture control so not sure what's in it. On a side note if you don't want to use sand to weigh down your pots you could always just put a large rock or brick in the bottom before you add your soil.

Alright, thanks for the clarification. As I mentioned, I will try to avoid peat and instead use some other form of more-nutritious soil amendment if at all possible. I'll be looking for compost instead. I think peat moss is one of the "ingredients" of the topsoil I got, though, but I'm not sure how much. But if I can find enough organic stuff to add, I'd like to offset the peat quite a bit.

Damn, I wish I already had a compost pile started. I'm guessing making compost requires a good amount of heat... the kind you get in late Spring through Summer... so if I were to go get a compost bin sometime this week and try getting it going, it would probably just sit there not doing much until the weather warms up?

 

[ChicosAStar]

I forgot to mention: Anything poo... I avoid. Sorry, I can deal with it if it's dead, rotting plant matter of any kind or even certain rotten insect remains or something, but if it came out of an animal's--any animal's--ass, I'll pass. That's just nasty and it reeks. I think I saw some manure-based "compost" at Lowe's as you described, but I walked right past it (on purpose, of course...). Eew... call me crazy, but when I'm driving down the highway and I smell either manure/shit or dead skunk, I *immediately* close all windows (if open and it's not too late), reach for the "circulate" button on the climate control system to keep that stench outside the vehicle as much as possible, and start holding my breath (and often slam the gas to get the hell away from it faster as well, screw speed limits).

Compost doesn't reek at all. If it did reek, there was obviously something wrong with it. I own several horses, cows, and goats, and none of their manure smells horrible. The worse of all are the cows, and that is just a bit bad. Horses and goats have no odor to me, so compost should be nothing. Hell, maybe I just have a fetish and you should forget what I said...

 

[UltraZelda64]

Compost doesn't reek at all. If it did reek, there was obviously something wrong with it. I own several horses, cows, and goats, and none of their manure smells horrible. The worse of all are the cows, and that is just a bit bad. Horses and goats have no odor to me, so compost should be nothing. Hell, maybe I just have a fetish and you should forget what I said...

Nah, if anything, you're probably around that shit (well, what other way to describe it... lol) all the time and have somewhat desensitized your sense of smell to it. In other words, you're probably used to it. Kind of like smokers seem to be oblivious to the fact that they often (not all of them) *reek* of cigarettes, and the smell could sometimes almost churn the stomach of a non-smoker (I can always tell when I'm near one at the store). Hell, I (and my breath) reek of cigarettes after being at my cousin's house for a night since he smokes inside all the time. And it doesn't go away until I get a shower/brush my teeth, and even then it seems like I have to wait further for the crap to be out of my lungs before I can't detect it in my breath any more.

I think it's all just a case of being around it a lot... or not. Or maybe I have sensitive senses, I don't know. Like I said though, even if rotten shit smells like peaches, it's still something I think is nasty and will avoid. Even if it's high in organic material and nitrogen.

 

[woody3says]

Your nose is kind of backing you into a more expensive corner then....

 

[UltraZelda64]

Your nose is kind of backing you into a more expensive corner then....

Yeah. Oh well, I should've looked into getting a compost bin sooner (sometime last year). If I could see well into the future, I most definitely would have tried harder to get one, but I had no idea what I was going to be able to grow this year (if anything), or whether I would still be living here or not. It turns out that selling my car to my sister changed things drastically, and now I'm just trying to save a bit with potting soil by making my own (yeah, I'm cheap--but come on, this is freakin' dirt we're talking about). Couldn't beat 39 pennies per 1.5 cu.ft. bag of topsoil as a base though, IMO that's a good start. So it's not all bad.

 

[Jenn]

For the last few years I lived in an apartment, and all of my plants were inside or within a few feet of it. I felt the same way you do about compost- umm, no thanks, not IN my house! Now that I have a real yard, I will definitely be spreading that lovely poop all over everything, because it's the best way to introdce nutrients into the soil.

But for my containers, I will probably continue using a 1-1-1(ish) mix of Bark-Peat-Diatomaceous Earth. I read as many different soil recipes as there are container gardeners before deciding on mine. But I finally realized that I'm way too lazy to use more than three ingredients, lol. I used DE instead of perlite, because I'd read that perlite breaks down faster, and it has a tendency to float up to the top of the container. I bought the DE as a oil absorber from an auto parts store, as neither Home Depot or Lowe's knew what I was talking about.

Since my soil had no nutrients, I used the General Hydroponic Flora series diluted to feed them. It took a while to feel out how much and often to fed them- I burned several before I learned to read what they were telling me. This year, I will probably switch to something that doesn't require mixing (due to the aforementioned laziness). I'll also plant a few plants in a mix that includes compost, to experiment.

I'd love to see you mix up a few different ratios, make notes on which pot is what, and report your findings back to us at the end of the season.