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Invisibletempleton1
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Registered: 12/22/07
Posts: 410
Home Made Soil Mix
    #14461220 - 05/16/11 09:31 AM (12 years, 8 months ago)

I'm in the process of creating an outdoor vegetable garden in terraced raised beds, maximizing rootspace in the same area of sun exposure.

I have the following at my disposal in virtually unlimited amounts:

Top Soil/Manure
Vermiculite
Perlite
Spaghnum Peat Moss
Gypsum

What would be an ideal ratio for the composition of my homemade growing medium?  Also, is it necessary to pasteurize this mixture?  I'll be working with bulk amounts so pasteurizing the mix would be quite time consuming.


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Invisiblekoraks
Registered: 06/02/03
Posts: 26,672
Re: Home Made Soil Mix [Re: templeton1]
    #14466084 - 05/17/11 02:14 AM (12 years, 8 months ago)

No, you don't need to pasteurize anything.

Just mix some ordinary dirt/soil with manure (I assume it has straw mixed in; that's a good thing). If it's too acidic and/or you're trying to grow lime-loving plants (lavender, rosemary), you might want to add some gypsum; it almost never hurts.

The most important thing is to make sure that the soil is nice and airy (till it every year before planting) and contains sufficient nutrients (mix manure in the soil or use fertilizer during tilling). It works best if you let the soil with the manure mixed in rest for a couple of weeks before planting, but it's not a necessity.

Don't bother with the vermiculite, perlite or sphagnum moss. I've tried vermiculite in potting soil mix for potted plants, but didn't like it; it wasn't necessary, and it didn't seem to improve the water retaining capacity of the soil anyway. If you decide to add sphagnum (for whatever reason), then keep in mind that the moss is acidic, and you could add some gypsum to the mix.


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OfflineSKrink
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Registered: 01/29/11
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Re: Home Made Soil Mix [Re: koraks]
    #14468346 - 05/17/11 03:05 PM (12 years, 8 months ago)

I usually mix coir with potting soil and worm castings for indoor plants-- if I had an outdoor patch I'd use whatever gave me a good balance of drainage/retention and nutrients (manure + sand?). Get a bunch of earthworms, they'll do more good than anything.

If you have unlimited resources go crazy with the plant-specific mixes! Good luck!


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Invisibletempleton1
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Registered: 12/22/07
Posts: 410
Re: Home Made Soil Mix [Re: SKrink]
    #14468650 - 05/17/11 04:07 PM (12 years, 8 months ago)

thanks for the advice..

Quote:

SKrink said:
Get a bunch of earthworms, they'll do more good than anything.





It's funny you should mention it.. While I was working on the garden, I had a bag of Black Kow on the sidewalk.. As I picked it up to use it, I found 6 earthworms in heaven underneath the bag; of course, i promptly threw them into the garden


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OfflinegeokillsA
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Re: Home Made Soil Mix [Re: templeton1]
    #14468859 - 05/17/11 04:55 PM (12 years, 8 months ago)

Here's a recipe my local nursery (that tends some brilliant beds!) recommends for 100 sq feet of nutritive soil that shouldn't require any additional feeding:

Organic Matter
  • 6 cu ft of compost (Gardener & Bloome "Soil Building" or "Harvest Supreme")
  • 3.8 cu ft peat moss
  • 1.5 cu ft chicken manure
  • 20 qt worm castings

Primary Nutrients
  • 6 lbs cottonseed meal (nitrogen / acidifies)
  • 5 lbs bone meal (phosphorus)
  • 12 lbs Dr Earth starter fertilizer (inoculate / NPK)
  • 1 lb Sul-Po-Mag (sulphur / potassium / magnesium)

Micro Nutrients
  • 1.5 lbs iron product (minor elements)
  • 10 lbs Gypsum


Frankly, I don't typically mess with all that in all honesty, though I am working towards more comprehensive mixes every year.  Generally I just amend my top soil with some compost, LOTS of earthworm castings, a bit of chicken manure and dry boxed organic starter mixes from my local nursery.  The most important thing in my experience, is making sure your soil is broken up to great depths and doesn't have an over-abundance of clay, which would cause it to compact from added water, or large rocks/tree roots which will obviously obstruct the new growth.  Hard, compacted soil will fuck up your crops no matter what type of nutrients you throw on them.


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