After more reading I found the answer to my question about the difference between the 5-1-1 and Gritty mixes. I'll use the 5-1-1 for basil.

Is it necessary to let it sit for 2 weeks?

thanks again

Why you have to let it sit for 2 week?

You don't need to let it sit for two weeks before planting. The lime takes a little time to go I work changing the pH and releasing some calcium and magnesium. When you add lime to garden soil, the recommendation is to do it in the fall or early spring because it takes a lot longer to go to work in mineral soil. It works faster in container mixes that are warm and moist. If you're using controlled release fertilizer, that can take a week or two to begin supplying nutrients as well. If you have the time and patience, waiting about 10-14 days before planting is a good idea. But many of us, including me, plant almost immediately and don't experience any problems.

I'm glad you decided to go with 5-1-1 for basil. I use it for my fast growing, annual, soft leaf herbs like basil and dill. I prefer gritty mix for some of the perennial herbs like oregano, thyme and bay that like drier conditions. But I've grown them all successfully in 5-1-1.

Ohiofem, I made up a batch of 5-1-1, enough only to fill two 14" terracotta pots. This is going to be expensive! Maybe pine bark fines don't cost much, but I couldn't find that, so I bought Repti-Bark, at $30 something per CF bag. That will only fill two pots.

Anyway,it feels so strange to put a plant in a mix without soil! Is it really going to grow?? I didn't put any CRF in it, is it too late to add something? I'd like to keep it natural, i.e., no Miracle Gro, etc. But how much fertilizer does basil like? Not much N, at least, from what I hear. What do you use?

Anyone know if I could or should add something like rock phosphate and greensand to the mix for long term nutrition?

I haven't tried it on smaller plants and annuals so I can't give you much advice but I've grown a citrus tree in it and it took 1-2 months before the plant acclimatised in the mix. I didn't use controlled release fertiliser either. At each watering I use either half or a full dose of Miracle Gro.

I think the key for the 5-1-1 at least for me was having enough moisture but no PWT. My citrus doesn't like it dry between waterings. It didn't work so well in the first month or two because my pine bark was about or bigger than 1/2" size. After the bark started decomposing into smaller pieces and after I understood the fertiliser requirements, it started to love it. I dig about in my mix a lot and noticed that the roots have become finer and in mass. Also the roots love to wrap around the pine bark.

As per your fertilization question, from what I understand, you'll want a liquid fert with a 3-1-2 ratio, dosed low, almost every watering. The reason for this is that you want the water to fert ratio to be ideal for the plant's uptake. You also water heavily to wash out the salts.

I think rock phosphate is more of a long-term amendment and green sand, well, it won't be 5-1-1 if you add much of that, will it?

I went with a CRF with micro-nutes and am using a very low dose 3-1-2 liquid on most waterings (when it's not raining here) and my 60 5-1-1 pepper pots are doing incredible. Identical plants in the 5-1-1 are literally triple that of my leftovers planted in pro-mix and a home peat-based organic mix. Next year I'm using 5-1-1 and gritty exclusively in my pots.

If you can't find the right sized nuggets try finding a creative way to break the larger ones down... I used a leaf sucker/mulcher to knock some 2-3in chunks down to size.

I have made a combo planter (using 5-1-1 mix) that has different flowers(mostly), one pepper and few basil. The basils are doing great, better than the ones in the garden. Most herbs like well drained soil and 5-1-1 is just that. But you have to raise the pH a bit.

Eggsandart: Unfortunately, the reptibark is really too large for 5-1-1 and gritty mix, with many pieces larger than a half inch. It takes a lot of water and some time to get it wet enough to begin working. But it is easier to find than pine bark fines, and I used it for gritty mix the first time I made it three years ago. I put a lot of large flowering house plants in it, including plumerias, clivias and orchids. They all did very well once I got used to how I needed to water and fertilize, which was a lot. Once the bark broke down a bit, I didn't need to water so much. Many of those plants are still in the gritty 1-1-1 mix with reptibark and blooming right now.

For 5-1-1 it's better to use partially composted bark or a bark mix with a range of sizes from dust to 3/8 inch. Before I found my current source of pine bark fines, I was able to find pine bark mulch that had really broken down at hardware and some big box stores and found that it worked much better than reptibark for the 5-1-1 I use for annuals like herbs, vegetables and flowers. The finer roots of plants like basil do need to stay moist when they are getting started, but they also need to dry out a bit between waterings. I think your basil will be fine once it gets going. If I had to choose between MiracleGro with moisture control and 5-1-1 with reptibark, I'd choose the 5-1-1 because it can dry out between waterings.

Like most herbs, Basil doesn't need much fertilizer, but it does need some. The 5-1-1 and gritty mix without CRF have no nutrition. So you really need to fertilize. And since you used reptibark, which isn't at all composted, organic fertilizers won't work very well if at all. So in your situation, I would choose a balanced chemical fertilizer with trace elements, like Foliagepro 9-3-6 or MiracleGro 24-8-16 in a half strength at least once a month. It really makes no difference to your plants since they take up chemical elements from either source. Since I use the CRF in all my mixes, I don't usually fertilize most herbs during the season.

Thank you, everyone, I learned something from each of your posts. There's more to container growing than I realized. It's really a whole different thing than growing in the ground. It seems to me that it's almost like growing hydroponically -- the 5-1-1 is just the medium but I have to provide the nutrients. I'm not sure how I feel about this, since I've always relished the holistic aspect of gardening. But unless I'm going to give up pesto, this seems to be my only option.

So 5-1-1 stands for the NPK ratio?

Ohiofem, it seems all the CRFs have a high percentage of nitrogen. From what I'm reading, basil doesn't like a lot of N -- but it works well in this situation? Special thanks, you're zeroing in on my confusion and clearing it right up!

Egganddart: if you really want organically grown basil, it would probably be better to grow it in the ground. But, I've had much better luck growing it in gallon-size containers of 5-1-1. I make a lot of pesto, and grow a few different kinds of basil.

The 5-1-1 refers to the potting mix: 5 parts pine bark, 1 part peat and 1 part perlite. You could replace the peat with an organic potting mix if you want, but that won't really provide enough food for any plant. Like you said, growing in a pot of 5-1-1 -- or really any fast draining mix -- is more like growing hydroponically than it is like growing in the ground. In a container it is very difficult to keep a healthy balance of the microbes that are needed to turn organic fertilizers into a form the roots can use.

Many of us here and in the nursery industry believe that the ratio of N:P:K most plants need is 3:1:2. Almost all plants we grow need more nitrogen than either of the other two elements. The CRF I am using for all my plants -- from tropical flowering trees and orchids to leafy herbs and fruiting vegetables -- is Dynamite All Purpose Select with15-5-9 NPK and all the micronutrients. If you're interested in understanding the reasoning behind this thinking, Al (aka Tapla), the creator of 5-1-1 and gritty mixes, wrote extensively about fertilization in this thread.

Here is a link that might be useful: Fertilizing Containerized Plants

Ohio, I grew basil in the ground for 32 years until downy mildew struck. I hate to give up pesto, so I'm going to try this. What concerns me is that soil amendments and fertilizers aren't regulated the way food is (and the way a lot of so-called food is raised, it isn't even fit to be eaten, IMO). I don't have faith that the safety of the industrial and sewage waste used in amendments is tested enough to be found fit for consumption either.

What I'd like to find out now is if there are any fertilizers that are "clean" , though I don't know enough about it to give an exact definition of that at this point.

However, this has all been very interesting to learn about. I do have Al's info bookmarked, and am looking forward to reading it.

Thanks again :)

You should change the way you think about nutrients and fertilizer.

Plants are little miracle chemistry sets. They eat stuff at the molecular level and turn it into wonderful herbs. They don't care where the molecules come from - and neither should you.

Say worst case the nitrogen in your fertilizer comes from animal waste. Does that mean that animal waste "goes into" your basil? NO! Only some nitrogen molecules that were in the ferts will go into the basil. The plan itself screens out anything else. So what is there to regulate?

Are we really to the point where we can't/won't use anything that isn't controlled and blessed by some bureaucracy? Even Mother Nature?

Dennis

Just anecdotal, but my basil in 5-1-1 this year seems to be growing a good 50% faster than it did last year in MG mix.

You could probably get away with bark that is larger than 1/2. Try a 4-1-1 mix in such case.

For me the 5-1-1 never worked well for herbs. It's me, not the medium. I just cannot be around all the time, and found the mixture needs constant attention. You have to supply all nutrients, and it is fast draining thus dries quickly. This was addressed somewhat in the gritty mix, but turface is extremely inefficient at providing water to the plants when needed.
Using mixes that retain more water work better for me. Ones that supply nutrition on their own, and I can rely on nature to feed my plants. This works a lot better for me.
It frees my time for other responsibilities in life that I have.
Glad it works well for you guys, I wish I had the time to use such mixes.