Must replace all soil each year!

Soil Building
#21

Sure @Gdub Gary! It’s a standard potting mix ratio:

70% Peat
20% Compost
10% Aeration

If you’re using sphagnum peat, it’s pH is too low and needs to be adjusted with lime. So I prefer coco coir, which naturally has the right pH. But, it must be buffered with Cal-Mag, so I guess it’s a trade-off.

For the compost, I like worm castings, but any good finished compost will do. Some people prefer closer to 50/50 compost to peat if the container is outdoors, but I’ve heard (but not read myself) about studies that have shown that the plant won’t benefit too much more over about 20% compost. It’s thought beyond that point you start to sacrifice some drainage ability and aeration, and so you start to see diminishing returns after that.

I prefer to mix in organic dry fertilizer amendments rather than use bottled fertilizers, but either would work.

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#22

I have a mix im trying now we see how it goes. its doing really well so far

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#23

$300 per ounce of flower at my local dispensary. That’ll buy a lot of quality soil at the local garden center.

I bury vegan table scraps in my garden all year long to feed the worms. As long as worms are in the soil, they keep it aerated, fertilized and pH balanced. I throw in some cow shit in the fall, the worms love that. I grow lettuce in potting soil in window boxes, that all goes into the garden beds at the end of the season, along with the shredded maple leaves that I use for mulch during the growing season. But whatever I do, the worms are my barometer. If they are happy, my plants are happy. Despite a very rainy summer, I filled the freezer with peppers, tomatoes, parsnips, eggplants and green beans, along with a good supply of reefer.

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#24

That’s the way my compost is except i use chicken manure,sand,clay from creek and trying something different for my carbon im getting old rotten wood that you can crumble up with your hands

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#25

When I built my raised beds, I buried a layer of maple sticks as the bottom layer.

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#26

You want to put twigs down then leafs then the grass clippings on top of that food waste then add some soil on top the grass clippings will start breaking it down

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#27

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See what y’all think of my new soil mix day 26 they doing great no feeding just airated water

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#28
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#30

I put all of my material through a mulcher to help break down into smaller pieces it helps with the breaking down the leaves that are falling now I put in a pile for next spring i will pull from the bottom where the breaking down is going on and send them through a mulcher along with rotting wood

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