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soil Rate my soil mix

F

FloridaCracker

Moving to a new property here soon and Ill have a lot more space (and cash) to devote to the garden. I typically grow my peppers in 5-10 gallon cloth pots. We will continue to grow a bunch but want to build some big raised beds too. Id like my soil mix to work for both..

I have 24 espelettes, a dozen aji pineapples, a dozen sugar rush peaches and a few various super hots started that are past ready to transplant. Theyre all indoors under two HLG QB135s in the 5000k spectrum. All in cloth pots about 3x the size of solo cups in fox farms oceans forest soil.

This is for a Houston TX climate, and I will probably end up doing several cubic yards worth of this mix by then end of the year for peppers and whatever my wife wants to plant.

I measure with a 5 gallon bucket because its easy..

5 gallons perlite
5 gallons peat moss
5 gallons local organic compost
3 gallons fine pine chips
2 gallons worm castings from my own worms, Ill do more if they can keep up.

Ill also mix in appropriate amounts of:
9-3-1 bat guano
Kelp meal
Granular humic acid
Oyster shell powder
Azomite

Ill hit them with an aerated worm tea every week or two to keep the fungus and bacteria population up.

This fall when it cools down and they can actually bloom Ill top dress with high phosphorus seabird guano and do a lot of high potassium worm casting teas.

What do you guys think? Did I leave anything out?

Also, the new house has a water filter/softener that adds sodium chloride into the water. I can bypass it but Im wondering if its really necessary..
 
Should work just fine.
You'll get more complicated answers than that, but your mix looks great.

Sent from my FIG-LX1 using Tapatalk
 
Howdy Cracker !
 
Are you sure you want that perlite in there ? I'll remind it "floats", and therefor I hate it. It was suggested a long while ago to me (and others) that porous lava rock can do the same job and it doesn't float. And it can still remain "light". The other nice thing about it is it can provide air pockets down under the soil and harbor beneficial micro organisms. Also, as long as I'm posting I'd like to mention that a little neem meal and crab meal can do fantastic things for a plants defenses against pests. Perhaps consider adding in appropriate amounts of those.
 
Hope this helps !
 
Jungle Joe said:
 
Are you sure you want that perlite in there ? I'll remind it "floats", 
Click to expand...
 
Perlite does not float.  If that were the case, nobody would use it in Hempy buckets, as the entire growing column would shift and displace at every watering.
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Perlite at the top of a container is displaced by water.  The smaller and heavier particles get shifted below the perlite, giving the impression that it's  "floating" out of the mix.  But it is certainly not!
 
FloridaCracker said:
Moving to a new property here soon and Ill have a lot more space (and cash) to devote to the garden. I typically grow my peppers in 5-10 gallon cloth pots. We will continue to grow a bunch but want to build some big raised beds too. Id like my soil mix to work for both..

I have 24 espelettes, a dozen aji pineapples, a dozen sugar rush peaches and a few various super hots started that are past ready to transplant. Theyre all indoors under two HLG QB135s in the 5000k spectrum. All in cloth pots about 3x the size of solo cups in fox farms oceans forest soil.

This is for a Houston TX climate, and I will probably end up doing several cubic yards worth of this mix by then end of the year for peppers and whatever my wife wants to plant.

I measure with a 5 gallon bucket because its easy..

5 gallons perlite
5 gallons peat moss
5 gallons local organic compost
3 gallons fine pine chips
2 gallons worm castings from my own worms, Ill do more if they can keep up.

Ill also mix in appropriate amounts of:
9-3-1 bat guano
Kelp meal
Granular humic acid
Oyster shell powder
Azomite

Ill hit them with an aerated worm tea every week or two to keep the fungus and bacteria population up.

This fall when it cools down and they can actually bloom Ill top dress with high phosphorus seabird guano and do a lot of high potassium worm casting teas.

What do you guys think? Did I leave anything out?

Also, the new house has a water filter/softener that adds sodium chloride into the water. I can bypass it but Im wondering if its really necessary..
Click to expand...
 
Yours is the latest in the line of heavy mixes that are getting posted this year.  It's got me curious where this wave is coming from.  It might work OK, so long as you don't get heavy rains.  But it's really over the top.  I'd do something a bit more like this:
.
3 gallons perlite
7 gallons peat moss
0 gallons local organic compost
3 gallons fine pine chips
2 gallons worm castings
.
You can obviously do as you like - but intentionally dosing high P and K isn't going to give you super crops.  It's going to cost you, though.  Your nutrient formulation can remain stable all season long.  There really isn't a need to shift nutrients for pepper plants.  Those are high $ ingredients, though, so your local grow shop will love you.
.
The mix you posted would work really well in raised beds with no bottoms or barriers. (open to earth)  I'm not so optimistic for containers.
 
As I've had my own experience with this, and googling "perlite floats to top" brings up hundreds of forum posts of people trying to solve this issue - I'm going to disagree. 
 
There are a lot of far better choices than perlite
 
Powelly said:
As I've had my own experience with this, and googling "perlite floats to top" brings up hundreds of forum posts of people trying to solve this issue - I'm going to disagree. 
 
There are a lot of far better choices than perlite
Click to expand...
 
It's funny because every time I recycle a container, the perlite is always right were I left in.  In fact, I have reservoir buckets that have 4-5" of perlite at the bottom, under a mix.
 
Disagree as you like.  It's been used for years, and it's still a very viable and economical option.  If other things are available, use them, too. But we can't just tell people that perlite isn't an option.
 
Powelly said:
As I've had my own experience with this, and googling "perlite floats to top" brings up hundreds of forum posts of people trying to solve this issue - I'm going to disagree. 
 
There are a lot of far better choices than perlite
Click to expand...
I've used perlite for decades in all my container plants, they all seem to like it, not just peppers. What are the far better choices, luv to try them..?
 
What people see is the surface around the plant in containers that use a heavier type mud manure mix that doesn't 'capture/absorb' the perlite. After a heavy watering, perlite only on the surface might float/clump together on the surface only. Normal in a soil mix ratio heavy in perlite like we use for peppers. But dig down (or when doing a replant) and you'll see the perlite consistently heavily mixed thru the soil. The contrast of the white surface perlite just seems to stand out and bothers some people.  Throw some pine fines down on top if its bothersome..?
 
If mixed correctly, perlite stays right where you put it, except maybe on the very top surface, that makes no difference except maybe cosmetically...
 
jmo
 
 
The local growers mix i get has no perlite and the stuff rocks. Its mostly pine fines, rice hulls and some compost. i just checked out 2 bags this year to make sure they didnt change the mix. This year i added about 30% ProMix All Purpose to it for a make shift ProMix BRK. It has very little perlite in the finished mix and drains like made. Virtually no compaction in the bag and pot from last year.
 
Pro Mix offers BRK/BK in various ratios of peat moss to aged pine fines....The stuff just works but may need to be watered more often.
 
This mini red rocoto is going nuts in some of that mix from last year. This year i added some worm castings, crab shell and kelp meal to the pot.
GJEj9ve.jpg

 
Aside from drying out fast its doing quite well. I never had so many blooms on a rocoto.
3460plU.jpg
 
ShowMeDaSauce, think I'll look for some of that Pro Mix and give it a try...
 
Those rocotos looks like they're doing great..!!! Very nice...
 
The All Purpose is WAY cheaper than ProMix HP or BRK but i probably would not use in places that get lots of rain without adding additional perlite or aged pine fines. Might be ok in grow bags straight. Pretty sure some of mine are close to straight PM All Purpose or just a little more perlite.
 
acs1 said:
I've used perlite for decades in all my container plants, they all seem to like it, not just peppers. What are the far better choices, luv to try them..?
 
What people see is the surface around the plant in containers that use a heavier type mud manure mix that doesn't 'capture/absorb' the perlite. After a heavy watering, perlite only on the surface might float/clump together on the surface only. Normal in a soil mix ratio heavy in perlite like we use for peppers. But dig down (or when doing a replant) and you'll see the perlite consistently heavily mixed thru the soil. The contrast of the white surface perlite just seems to stand out and bothers some people.  Throw some pine fines down on top if its bothersome..?
 
If mixed correctly, perlite stays right where you put it, except maybe on the very top surface, that makes no difference except maybe cosmetically...
 
jmo
 
Click to expand...
 
Lava rocks / pumice will aerate the soil better than perlite due to it's porosity 
 
Perlite is better for smaller plants, for obvious reasons
 
Whatever you have access to is the primary factor in how "good" a thing is. I get perlite so cheap, I wouldn't even think of using something else. If you get pumice or rice hulls cheaper, winner winner chicken dinner. Between any of those options, none is going to make or break your grow. They all work well. None of them are going to supercharge your grow, if you live in a hot muggy climate. They're all just going to perform within the parameters provided.
 
solid7 said:
Whatever you have access to is the primary factor in how "good" a thing is.
Click to expand...
Well, access is a problem for me lately.  There is not an aged pine fine in all of s FL. Been looking for worm castings and pine fines, can't find any around here lately. Got both on order but delivery isn't till  6/18/19 and got many nice little plants that need to be transplanted immediately. Roots are coming out of the bottom of the little tiny containers they came in.
 
What would be an ok substitute for my mix..?
 Doesn't have to be the final 'big pot mix, just a intermediate 1 gallon pot mix for now, for the little guys to stay healthy.
 
  Ran out of my coir crunch mix. But got a bail of org peat moss, and a massive bag of perlite, plenty of org Dr Earth fertilizers and some new cns17. And many varieties of container organic soil.
 
acs1 said:
But got a bail of org peat moss, and a massive bag of perlite, plenty of org Dr Earth fertilizers and some new cns17. 
Click to expand...
 
There's the answer to your question, right there.  Get an intermediate mix going, with a minimal up-potting, and wait for the final mix to come in.
.
75% peat
25% perlite
.
Roll about 1/2 cup per 5 gallons of Dr Earth into that, along with a Tbsp of either dolomitic lime or ground eggshells.
.
These days, I really keep it simple. 
 
solid7 said:
 
There's the answer to your question, right there.  Get an intermediate mix going, with a minimal up-potting, and wait for the final mix to come in.
.
75% peat
25% perlite
.
Roll about 1/2 cup per 5 gallons of Dr Earth into that, along with a Tbsp of either dolomitic lime or ground eggshells.
.
These days, I really keep it simple. 
Click to expand...
 
Thanks, I'm on it, gotta keep those new bacctums healthy... Fishing this mornings egg shells out of the trash now... lol
 
 
acs1 said:
 
Thanks, I'm on it, gotta keep those new bacctums healthy... Fishing this mornings egg shells out of the trash now... lol
 
Click to expand...
 
For best results, dry them out in your grill on low flame, or in the oven.  Crush with coffee grinder or mortar and pestle, for best results. (the smaller the particles, the better they work)  Doesn't matter if they get a little charred.  You just have to cook the egg membrane.
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On another note...  Composted/aged pine bark is always best.  But if you can't find aged, this works, also: (and it's always available at WalMart in my area)
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https://www.walmart.com/ip/Timberline-Pine-Bark-Mulch-2cf-by-Oldcastle/145307330?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&wl13=1068&adid=22222222227062667610&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=c&wl3=166158458130&wl4=pla-273264600850&wl5=1015113&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=local&wl12=145307330&wl13=1068&veh=sem&gclid=CKag7rTj1-ICFfSOWwodnLMDnA
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It's pine bark fines, but not aged.  But, as stated, it still works.  In fact, if you don't listen to the hype about dropping N levels during fruiting, some of the nitrogen will help "age" the mix, by breaking down leftover pieces of wood.  And you'll get a nice bump next season, along with a mix that will last for a very long time. (with minimal "refreshing" )
 
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