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| Hello Everyone,
I'm starting a container garden for an apartment patio. Right now I will just be starting with one 2x4x1.5 container but if things go well I would like to add another two containers. I wanted to follow Mel's mix with 1/3vermaculite, 1/3peatmoss, and 1/3 compost. I need ~12 cubic feet per container and I'm looking to save a bit of money. I have no compost started but I will have kitchen scraps and coffee grounds this season. I have a friend who will have a new neighbor soon. they're building a house on some prairie land and I have the chance to get some free soil. I am wondering if I would be missing out if I went with 1/3 vermiculite and 2/3 top prairie soil. This soil looks very rich and is a good consistency. Will I have any problems if I skip the peat-moss and pure compost? Thank you, Andrew |
Follow-Up Postings:
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| Without having that prairie soil in hand, I don't think anyone can really comment on its quality. Prairie soil is supposed to be really good, but a lot of that "goodness" is in the fact that the plants have drilled holes in the soil and that the soil life is essentially undisturbed. Once that soil is scraped off and transported, where do the soil pores go? It's unlikely that you will really know what you are getting until you get it. With housing developments, I've been told that the contractors take that nice topsoil off and sell it. Whether or not you could get topsoil, you're planning on gardening in a small container. In a small container, drainage and having a light growing medium are going to be ultra-important. Even if you got topsoil, it's not going to be lightweight, nowhere near as light as the perlite, vermiculite, and peat mix. The plants won't do as well in a container of soil as in a container of a nice, light soilless mix. In a container garden, you're growing intensively, and you're only talking about 36 cubic feet of material. I think you should spend a few bucks and buy the materials for the mix. Success makes you happier than failure. |
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| With native soils you don't know what you're getting without a test. Three things you will definitely get is an unknown population of organisms, some of whom might find your plants delicious, an abundance of seeds from the native plants, commonly referred to as weeds, and weight. There are a lot of unknowns already, so it is risky to be adding more. I would get a small amount of the prairie soil and do a container to test how it works, but stick to the formula for food crops. |
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| Using soil in containers is not recommended by anyone that has done it because those soils tend to pack too tightly and inhibit good drainage. That is why none of the commercially available potting "soils" have any soil in them and are either peat moss, finely shredded bark, coir, or a mix of those along with perlite or vermiculite. Stick with something like Mels Mix. |
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| Container culture and growing in the ground are two entirely different animals and require different approaches ...... and it sounds like you're approaching on the wrong track. Nutrition isn't important as an inherent part of container soils - it's very easy to address efficiently as an issue apart from the soil. How well you're able to grow in container soils is determined more by their structure than any other consideration - within the limits of being reasonable. All that's important is, the soil holds enough air (a critical consideration) and water, and remains well structured for the intended life of the planting. You can learn a lot more about container soils and how to make them if you follow the link provided. Al |
Here is a link that might be useful: More, if you click me ......
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- Posted by tn_gardening (My Page) on Sun, Feb 12, 12 at 15:49
| Some folks plant directly in hay bales. Might not be so attractive, but one benefit is that it can be tossed in to your compost pile at the end of the season. As I understand it, you make a root-ball hole and put in some compost. |
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