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soil Ok, so I got sh!tty soil, now what

patrick said:
Adding some chicken manure would be a great way to liven up that soil. I would go with an 80/20 ratio though soil to manure. Then peat, about the same amount as the dirt/manure combined. Then about three gallons of perlite. Couple of cups of pelletized lime then mix it all up. Hope that helps. Should be under $20 total.

Good luck!!

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeet! Thanks dude!!! That is very helpful information.

(I'm not totally averse to using the quote, some stuff is most definitely worth repeating... ;) )
 
@FiveStar @Dyce51 @caroltlw @peppermanbaha @AlabamaJack @Joeknowsjolokia

Yeah, the quote and multiquote are very useful :P
 
Ive found that just using organic compost for ~$1/bag now is working out for me a lot better than the name brand Jungle growth and miracle grow.

When you shake out the dirt from the root, if you keep them in the shade and moist for the next few days they wont go into shock so bad. I recently had to separate 4 plants from one pot, the roots were all tangled, had to shake out and wash out alll the dirt, repotted, no shock whatsoever. good luck..
 
Ok, here is a side by side comparo. The one on the left is over a month older than the one on the right. They are the same kind of plant, only different birthdays and different soil.

3642158769_cb69e8ce34.jpg
 
@peppermanbaha yeah, I have kicked around that idea, but since I have a whole bag of the crappy stuff I figure I better find a way to fix it.

@POTAWIE I'll look up peat. Is it a fairly complete substrate? I like all in one's kind of stuff. Have never considered MG soils, I even looked at the bags at the store. I'm just a little old school I guess, I'd rather throw some compost, or peat or animal turds into the mix before using something like MG.
 
Mixing in peat will loosen the soil but won't add nutrients. Did your sh!tty soil already have any nutrients in it?
 
No, was just a random bag of soil, all the PKN were pretty low. It's a pretty loose mix already, and actually what I feel it needs from the way the water puddles first before it sinks in, shows a lot of surface tension, is some good organic matter. It seems to be barely anything more than chipped wood with a bit of perlite. It most definitely needs some goodness added into it. The chicken manure seems to be a good way to get a little supm in the mix that would be good. Some compost in there as well and I think it should be ok. Shoot who knows, this might be yet another way to make a batch of good growing medium, starting with a bag of sh!tty soil.
 
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