You should be able to get:
1 - 4 cu ft bag of perlite for 1 - 4 cu ft bale of peat for 1 - 50 lb bag of lime for 4-5 - 2 cu ft bags of pine bark for about $23

The first 3 ingredients will set you up to make much more than you can make with the 4-5 bags of bark. The only other think you'll need is your fertilizer.

Al

Oh ok will this eliminate the gnats though? Peat is like soil right? Thanks for replying I actually found left over perlite in my garage :))))

What would the lime be for?

Fertilizer on hand I have:
Dyna gro liquid plant food 7-9-5 and Pro Tekt
Neptune's Harvest: liquid fish & seaweed

There is a triangle bounded by soil choice, watering habits, and nutrition that are inextricably linked to each other. If you get the soil part right, the rest becomes much easier, with a much wider margin for grower error. Peaty soils or soils based on primarily fine ingredients are much harder to grow in, and the margin for error increases in a fairly linear relationship with a soil's water retention. Your gnat issue is probably related to both soil choice and watering habits at a minimum - possible a fertilizer issue too, depending on what you've been using.

Lime in bark/peat soils serves 2 purposes. It brings pH up to a more favorable level, and it provides a source for Ca and Mg - two nutrients usually missing from soluble fertilizers (but present in most Dyna-Gro products.

I'll link you to a thread which provides information that clarifies how water behaves in soils. I think that gaining an understanding of what's in this thread is probably the largest step forward a container gardener can make at one time.

Al

Here is a link that might be useful: See what you think .....

Thank you and I'll read the link now :)

Posted by tapla z5b-6a mid-MI (My Page) on
Sat, Feb 22, 14 at 14:19

You should be able to get:
1 - 4 cu ft bag of perlite for 1 - 4 cu ft bale of peat for 1 - 50 lb bag of lime for 4-5 - 2 cu ft bags of pine bark for about $23
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

A simple math show that 5-1-1 mix(based on above prices) will cost LESS THAN $3 per cubic foot ($0.38 per gal.). The most expensive ingredients in it is PERLITE that costs $5 per cubic foot. But it is 1/7th of the mix.

TRANSLATION: to pot a 5 gal. bucket, it will cost UNDER $2. That is probably less than one half of some bagged potting soils. (like MG, Promix)

So if you have a lot of container gardening to do, then 5-1-1 is worth looking into it.