This year I'm learning/observing some very interesting results, like: growing on top of a stump is great for eggplants, and you can grow in mostly leaves for peppers.

The full update is posted on the blog below (it is easier to write and post with lots of pictures on a blog).

So far, it seems to be making a good, and free, container mix. The sand keeps it well aerated, the oak leaf residue seems to retain sufficient water. I haven't checked the pH, but I'm not too concerned, since my water is naturally alkaline, it will eventually come up if it's too low. I've planted a large tub of melons, a couple of tomatoes, some various annual flowers, a couple of dwarf butterfly bushes, and some conifers and deciduous trees, and so far so good. I am, however, fertilizing with Osmocote and a liquid all purpose 20-20-20.

By using heirloom seeds and letting some plants go to seed every cycle as well as by trading seeds with others I believe I have the seed part covered. By installing a good rain barrel system I pretty have water covered so long as Mother Nature cooperates; if not then city water can supplement. But what about soil and nutrients?

I tried composting but compost gets too compacted in containers just as the big box store soil mixtures do. Leaves, stumps, sticks, etc. seem like they could help. I will be reading your posts for more ideas.

I recently started experimenting with the pine bark fine based soil recipe posted by Al ("Tapla")... but it's certainly not free; I'm thinking it's about $5.00 per cu ft not counting time, labor, and gasoline. Will my yields make up for this cost? I don't know yet. This mix also requires supplemental nutrients to work so I also added Dynagrow Foliage-Pro 9-3-6 which cost me $23.99 total for a 32 ounce jug at Amazon.com. 32 oz = 192 tsp so each tsp costs about $0.13. Assuming that I add 1 tsp per plant per week and an average plant life of 4 months we're in the $2.00 to $3.00 range for cost per plant.

I couldn't find the pine bark fines nearby but Wal-mart had a close match: American Countryside soil conditioner from Sims Bark Company out of Muscle Shoals, Alabama. After sifting out the very small particles (which makes up about 50% of the volume) its remaining pieces are mostly under 3/8" and are made mostly of pine bark so no there is no need to sift a second time to get rid of any larger parts. The perlite and sphagnum peat are easy enough to find but not cheap.

Anyhow thanks for your posts. If I come up with anything noteworthy in my own experiements I will be sure to share.

Perhaps just another example of laboratory results not bearing out in the field.

That being said, I have tried to do organic methods in containers and have found it very problematic in many ways, and now do containers in 5-1-1 with great success, which is still much cheaper then using commercial potting mixes.

That being said, I wish you luck in your experiment as I realize how difficult organic is in containers where the environment is too small to maintain a full ecosystem.