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soil Suggestions on soil mix....

MAFWIZ

MAFWIZ

Hey guys,

I recently purchased a 3.8cu bale of Premier brand peat, and I want to make a mix with it. (I wanted Promix but I'd have to drive quite a ways to get it, and the advertisement for Promix on the bag taunts me every time I look at it.)

Anyhow, I'm going to grab a 2cu bag of perlite to mix in, and I guess I need about 15lbs.-20.lbs of dolomite lime to raise the ph.

I'm curious what else people suggest I add? I read the soil sticky but there's a TON of information there and I got a little overwhelmed. I was thinking of adding the 1.5 cu of miracle grow moisture control I have left., and then maybe some compost and/or manure? I don't have any home-made compost but I think its fairly cheap at home depot...also they have 1cu bags of steer manure for $1 which would work.

Also does anyone have any suggestions where to find the lime? I can find 40-50lb bags online for under $10 (before shipping...) but online at least home depot only has a 6.75lb bag for $5.
 
Add a bunch of composted manure, cow and chicken. I dont worry about adding lime to mine, just peat, perlite and manure. Never seems to bother the plants at all. I don't like to use certain types of compost because it makes the mix too dense and the roots cannot get around very well.
 
millworkman said:
Add a bunch of composted manure, cow and chicken. I dont worry about adding lime to mine, just peat, perlite and manure. Never seems to bother the plants at all. I don't like to use certain types of compost because it makes the mix too dense and the roots cannot get around very well.
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The reason you have add good results is because the compost acted as a natural ph buffer. Otherwise, the lime is needed to adjust ph.

I use 20% perlite to my peat. I use 2 tbl sp of lime per gal of mix.
 
Thanks for the input guys.

Guru, your mix sounds superb but with so many ingredients it may be a little beyond me at this point. I don't know of any decent garden supply centers in this area so getting all the goodies would probably be time consuming and expensive. I've been a couple of places over the years where I could pick up everything on your list, but around here it seems to be slim pickings. Maybe I'm just not looking in the right places.

Milworkman, your mix sounds a little more doable for me at this point. What ratios do you use? How do you feel about steer manure vs chicken and (presumably dairy) cow?

Capsicum, thanks for the info re: ph buffering. I'll be sure to use at least one or the other if not a bit of both.
 
I use one bale peat moss, 80 lbs composted cow manure and 24 quarts perlite. The Black Kow manure that I use has a lot of sand in the mix so it helps with consistency also.
 
millworkman said:
I use one bale peat moss, 80 lbs composted cow manure and 24 quarts perlite. The Black Kow manure that I use has a lot of sand in the mix so it helps with consistency also.
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Yep... noticed that... I've seen reviews complaining about how much sand is in that compost (basically arguing that if you pay for compost, you should get compost), but at the same time, at the price you're paying, it's not a big deal, especially since it can only help you in container gardens for the most part.

I also like to mix in a bit of mushroom compost as it seems to have more texture to it (a mix of large and small fragments). I don't think I added any lime to mine last year and never had any issues with nutrient uptake.
 
I ended up using the following mix :

5 parts perlite;
3 parts peat moss (dry; expands to larger volume obviously when moistened);
3 parts miracle grow moisture control ;
2.5 parts compost; http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100207757/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=compost&storeId=10051
1.5 parts manure. http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-100619087/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=steer&storeId=10051

My hope is that the miracle grow, compost and manure will compensate for the peat's low ph without the need for dolomite lime.

Thanks for your help guys, between you and the all about soil sticky post I felt a lot more comfortable experimenting.
 
MAFWIZ said:
I ended up using the following mix :

5 parts perlite;
3 parts peat moss (dry; expands to larger volume obviously when moistened);
3 parts miracle grow moisture control ;
2.5 parts compost; http://www.homedepot...t&storeId=10051
1.5 parts manure. http://www.homedepot...r&storeId=10051

My hope is that the miracle grow, compost and manure will compensate for the peat's low ph without the need for dolomite lime.

Thanks for your help guys, between you and the all about soil sticky post I felt a lot more comfortable experimenting.
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I also was wondering how it drains, mg moisture control and peat moss together is like growing in a sponge,
though maybe w/ all that perlite it balances out, i would still think it a bit heavy, hope it works for you!
 
To be honest I've been so concerned with over watering that I haven't watered any of the recently potted plants enough for there to be any runoff. The weather has been kind of bleak and we've gotten rain a few times since I made the mix, so it's hard to tell at this point how the drainage / moisture retention of the mix is working out.

The mix is 33% perlite so it shouldn't be awful, but it will probably retain a fair amount of moisture.
 
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