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soil Potting Soil for 2013 Grow

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DocNrock

Any thoughts on SunGro soils?

I know Jim Duffy uses mix #1 (the all-purpose). I believe it is Spongey600 that uses mix #4. From what I gather, both are excellent soils, but the mix #4 drains much more rapidly. This is probably great in an environment like San Diego, but in the near-desert where I am, I was thinking of mixing them. According to the SunGro website, the components are the same, just in slightly different compositons for drainage.

I was also thinking of adding some sort of amendment like Ancient Forest (thanks for the tip, Spongey). Or would worm castings and bat guano be enough of an amendment?

I'll probably be doing 5 to 7 gallon containers, if that makes a difference.

Also, any benefit to using Rapid Rooters?
 
Prehensile said:
whatever Duffy uses can't be bad
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Portuge said:
He must be doing something right cause his plants always look big n healthy...
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Completely agreed, but he also has machinery to plant seeds to precise depths, etc. For the most part, everything sounds automated. I'm sure the soil is top-notch. Just trying to make it a little error-proof for someone who will be doing everything manually.

Also I understood from him that he has so many plants that when one starts to look "off" he just tosses it. I won't have that luxury, haha!
 
I make my own soil now 15 bucks a bag is way to much cash for my poor soul, I started with a basic local mix that cost 140 bucks for 9 yards then experimented with the mix ratios. I posted a rundown with my mix ratios near the end.
http://thehotpepper.com/topic/32046-is-it-stinky/
 
Well, I got two bails of Sungro #1, two bails of Sungro #4, one bag of Ancient Forest, one eight pound bag of worm castings, two small boxes of kelp meal, one bag of Mexican bat guano, and one bag of Indonesian bat guano. I'm wondering how many five gallon bags this will fill.

If I use the 5 gallon Walmart bags, would anyone recommend putting some small stones in the bottom of the bags for weight and also to improve drainage?

On a different note, if going for just a few peppers on each plant, would 2 to 3 gallon pots be too small for the plants to reach maturity enough to make pods, or is 5 gallons pretty much a minimum?

Thanks.
 
Prehensile said:
memba 2 much nitro is not a good thing..
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I don't think any of this is immediate release nitrogen. Plenty of delayed P and K in there, as well, I think. All the amendments make up less than 1/2 a bale of the potting mix, and a total of 4 bales are being used.

Please though, correct me if I'm wrong about this. I only have a half a season under my belt so far, which probably makes me even more dangerous than a total noobie.
 
I did 5gal buckets this year and to me it was a wrong choice cause my plants have outgrown their pots... Im thinking 15gal would be as big as I would go...
 
Doc, you have made a good sized investment in soil and amendments, look at smart pot or root pouches to grow in. Last time I looked they were both sold pretty cheap on homedepot.com

I am going to use sunshine #4 advanced myself.

Portuge said:
I did 5gal buckets this year and to me it was a wrong choice cause my plants have outgrown their pots... Im thinking 15gal would be as big as I would go...
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I agree, next year I am using 10 and 15 gallon smart pots. I have some serious rootbound plants right now in my 5 gallon buckets.
 
armac said:
Doc, you have made a good sized investment in soil and amendments, look at smart pot or root pouches to grow in. Last time I looked they were both sold pretty cheap on homedepot.com

I am going to use sunshine #4 advanced myself.



I agree, next year I am using 10 and 15 gallon smart pots. I have some serious rootbound plants right now in my 5 gallon buckets.
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So I could potentially get one of these and grow 33 plants at 15 gallons/plant, or 50 at 10 gallons/plant. Not a bad deal for $61.00.
 
So I was just doing the math on this. Something doesn't seem right. Here is a 500 gallon raised garden bed/root pouch. Not a bad deal for $61. If growing in pots, 5 gallons seems like the minimum and 10 would be much better. So for 500 gallons that would be 50 plants at 10 gallons per plant.

This item is 80" in diameter, giving it a surface area of about 5026 square inches. If that is divided into 50 plants, each plant only gets about 11" diameter in growing space. 25 plants would only get about 14" diameter each. For 5 gallons a plant, each plant would get a whopping 8" of space.

I'm thinking individual pots would be better. Or the Walmart bags. Thoughts?
 
DocNrock said:
So I was just doing the math on this. Something doesn't seem right. Here is a 500 gallon raised garden bed/root pouch. Not a bad deal for $61. If growing in pots, 5 gallons seems like the minimum and 10 would be much better. So for 500 gallons that would be 50 plants at 10 gallons per plant.

This item is 80" in diameter, giving it a surface area of about 5026 square inches. If that is divided into 50 plants, each plant only gets about 11" diameter in growing space. 25 plants would only get about 14" diameter each. For 5 gallons a plant, each plant would get a whopping 8" of space.

I'm thinking individual pots would be better. Or the Walmart bags. Thoughts?
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You have to take into consideration that a 5 gallon bucket is only approx 11" diameter x 14" depth -- so is actually less area than the 100 plants getting 8" x 24" of area to grow in - when you consider having the shared space of the 500 gallon area -- figure in the 500 gallon garden each plants roots could spread out and use the wasted space of the plants surrounding it where in 5 gallon buckets each plant can only use it's 5 gallon space - so the 500 gallon garden would probably produce better than 100 individual pots since any lost plants would then provide more area for stronger plants to use vs. having an empty bucket of wasted soil ! (unless of course the canopy becomes too crowded where you could move the 5 gallon pots apart from each other to provide more canopy space while the 500 gallon garden only has the canopy space it has.)

Then you also have to consider other things like Disease in the soil which could spread throughout the 500 gallon garden and effect your entire grow vs. effecting only a few of the containers --- Also containers being portable so being able to move them out of poor conditions. So really each has it's own advantages\disadvantages.
 
JDFan said:
unless of course the canopy becomes too crowded where you could move the 5 gallon pots apart from each other to provide more canopy space while the 500 gallon garden only has the canopy space it has
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JDFan, this is exactly what I was thinking. The benefit of a raised bed of this size would *almost* be like growing in-ground, a luxury I don't have right now. And the use of all that soil by the plants is definitely what got me thinking about this after Armac mentioned these pouches. The part of your reply that I quoted is exactly the downside that I thought of with the measurements I had posted, which as you mentioned could be overcome with individual bags by increasing the distance between them.

Or, just let them all grow and let the canopies mix and intertwine all together! Man, if I got lucky enough for the plants to be productive, could you imagine the *fun* of the harvest?

Six of one and half-dozen of the other. ;)
 
Yeppers a raised bed like that is exactly like growing in ground -- figure at 6-7 ft. diameter with 2 - 3 cubic Yards of Soil - you aren't gonna move it anywhere !!
 
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