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soil Rookie soil question

chilehead70301

chilehead70301

Ok, so I made up some soil over the weekend. This is what I used.

2 parts vermiculite
2 parts perlite
3 parts topsoil
3 parts peat
2 parts cow manure
1/2 part bonemeal

I used it in one pot that houses a long red slim. Here is a picture.

peppers006-1.jpg


My question is this. When looking at the picture, the soil appears somewhat moist. However, today, I checked it and the top layer is dry and kinda stiff.
What should soil feel like once it has been wet and then dried? It's not as stiff as the Mg organic crap I used. I was actually expecting the soil to be more on the loose side.
What causes the soil to become stiff?
 
chilehead70301 said:
What causes the soil to become stiff?
Click to expand...

That would be the peat, too much peat and it dries like a brick. but on the other hand too little peat and your soil doesnt dry enough.
example: take a jiffy peat pellet soak it let it expand then never water it again once it dries out you will never get that thing soft again without grinding it up first lol
 
I guess I should add more topsoil. On a side note, I found some ProMix BX that is about an hour drive. It's at a farm supply store yet they would not sell me one bag. Pretty crappy if you ask me.
 
+1 on peat being the culprit!


Tell them they had better sell one bag or else. When they say "Or else what?!" pause momentarily, and then very abruptly poke them in the eye. When they begin to express distain about the obvious intrusion of personal space, just remind them that "This whole mess could have been avoided if I was given proper customer servicejust a second ago." Should work wonderfully. Just have an egress plan before you poke, for the heck of it.
 
DarkTrak said:
+1 on peat being the culprit!


Tell them they had better sell one bag or else. When they say "Or else what?!" pause momentarily, and then very abruptly poke them in the eye. When they begin to express distain about the obvious intrusion of personal space, just remind them that "This whole mess could have been avoided if I was given proper customer servicejust a second ago." Should work wonderfully. Just have an egress plan before you poke, for the heck of it.
Click to expand...

I must have missed something because I have no idea as to what you're on about :(
 
Considering Pro Mix BX is 75 - 85% peat moss I'd be hesitant to say that peat is something to worry about although if it dries out I agree it can get crusty. To me your mix sounds pretty good. Quite a bit of bone meal though. How is the drainage/density? That would be my main concern.

Are you soaking the soil through or just watering little bits here and there to keep it moist? That may answer why it starts to feel crusty on top.
 
That is the same soil mix that I used, although I omitted the bone meal. Mine does look different from yours though, since we obviously didn't use the same brands to mix with. Mine seems to have a similar problem of getting pretty solid when it dries out but it drains well and that's what matters. The seeming solidness doesn't seem to affect the plant and once it's rewatered it's fine again. Probably nothing to worry about. Soil just gets stiff when it's dry.
 
When I re-potted, I gave the soil a good soaking. It does appear to drain well. I guess my concern was below the surface thinking the root system would be affected since the soil was stiff. I also never tested the soil ph. I'll see if lowes has anything such as a test kit. I'm hoping the ph is good as i don't have the knowledge to start adding nutes to get the ph where it needs to be.
 
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