| There are many good suggestions on the Container gardening forum. The most popular one is heavily based on aged (partially composted) pine bark fines. It holds its structure well. It is usually available as a soil conditioner, although you sometimes have to call the manufacturer for details. You have to add lime for it to work well. Compost retains moisture too well to be good as the major part of potting soil. The container forum thinks builder's sand is too fine to work well for aeration. 1/2 bb size and up is what they recommend. If you have a greenhouse supply place near you, try getting bulk peat moss or other ingredients there. If you have animal feed stores, that can be a source for "turkey grit" or something like that. If you are in the city, there might be a hydroponics store that caters partly to marijuana growers, but offers good access to bulk perlite. One of my coworkers does huge container gardens each year. He alternates layers of compost and sand. River sand from a friend's property, and compost he makes himself. Here's a website that has a ton of potential recipes.
http://www.backyardgardener.com/soil.html Alice |
Here is a link that might be useful: Backyard gardener's soil recipes
