Hi, fairly new to soiless mixes. First I live in the Big Horn river valley of south central Montana, near the site of Custers last stand. The summers get hot here quick come the end of june, and its not uncommon for summer days in late june, july, august, and early sept for tempt to be in the 90's low 100's, with very low humidities. Temps overnight still get cool in june and sept. More often than not there is a breeze present and occasional gale force winds.

I have on hand:

3.8 cubic feet peat moss

3.8 cubic feet coco coir

1.5 cubic feet composted chicken manure listed 3-2-1

1.0 cubic feet worm castings no listed fertilizer value

as much one inch gravel and coarse sand I want.

Small bag of dolomite lime

small bag of fox farm 5-5-5 with calcium

small bag of "mater magic" 8-5-5 organic slow release

I was thinking something along the lines (in 5 gallon buckets for tomatoes, determinate and indeterminate):

Drilling 8 holes in the side of the bucket, four at the very bottom along the side and four an inch higher or so along the side.

In the buckets 1-2 inches gravel in the bottom of the bucket, on top of the gravel I would add my mix of equal parts peat and coco coir.

I would then add approximately 10-20 percent by volume the composted chicken manure and 10 percent by volume worm castings.

I was thinking of adding each of the fertilizers according to the manufacturers specifications, but have no idea of how much dolomite lime I should add.

For my Peppers, many different varieties, the same except that I was going to omit the lime.

Uh, does this sound like a workable solution? I am wanting some advice specifically addressing how much lime i should add, and whether I should add it at the middle portion or at the top. There will two seperate weeks where I will be out of town, one early july and one late august, at this points I was either going to rig a automatic drip system or have friends water for me, but other wise I will be hand watering as needed.