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soil Thoughts on my first soil mix?

F

fusedpro

I was running around yesterday getting soil and preparing for moving my peppers outside permanently. After calculations, I need about 12 cubic feet of soil for my 18 5-gallon fabric pots. With that, I picked up two bags of the compressed ProMix, so 8 cubic feet when expanded. Since this apparently has like no nutrients, I have 80lbs of compost/hummus comprised of grass cuttings and leaves. This mix has an NPK of 1%, .5%, and .9% with pH between 7.3 and 8.3. I also have one bag/40lbs of manure compost/hummus that's .15% across the board. Finally, to lighten things up, 2 cubic feet of perlite. I'll also be throwing in one bag of TomatoTone.

Does this mix seem okay?
 
Sounds good to me. The perlite and tomatoe tone sound like good ideas. Lots of folks here use the ProMix. I'm rel new to this, but I would say you made a good mix. Others will chime in I'm sure. Good luck with your grow.
 
Thanks Rym. Not sure if I should cut back on the ProMix and use more compost and/or perlite. We still have lows below 50F here, so I'm guessing I have about another week before I can finally plant out.
 
Looks good to me and espoma's tones work very well.  FWIW, my most effective mix this season is 1/3 EWC, 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 perlite, and biotone.  Gotta water often. 
 
Your mix will definitely get it done.
 
Stuff worth looking into:  pine bark fines, rice hulls, rock dust, myco, and mulches.
 
Sounds good. An almost like what I used this year. Just FWIW. After adding the compost and perlite to the promix. I was able to get 12-13 5 gallon buckets. On average per bale.
 
I think I'll be heading to Lowes to look for some fine bark pines. If they have some, I'll cut back on the ProMix a bit and use them. Even if they don't, I'm still thinking about using less ProMix and picking up more compost. Haven't quite decided yet...
 
My mix contains about 30% perlite which some of the plants are loving the ratio and a couple (like my Reapers) may or may not be... we'll know more in a month or so.  10-20% perlite in your mix sounds pretty good.
 
Take that back. After adding perlite and compost. I got about 14-15, 5 gallon buckets out of a 3.8 bale. After doing another bale tonight.
 
I can't remember the size (I think 4lbs), but I do remember that, according to the recommended dosage, I would need two of the bags spread equally through my mix. I figured with the nutrients from the compost and whatnot that one bag will be plenty.
 
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