Now Hiring: potting soil expert

Deputy of Dirt
Senator of Soil
Monarch of Mud
Preacher of Peat
Compost Czar

I had to contract out my soil making adventure. It is just to hard for me. I have hired my husband and he is bouncing-off-the-walls excited about his new assignment. His old job, shelf hanger, has been eliminated due to lack of work so he was officially unemployed anyway.

Aaaaah, it is so nice to get that off my mind now I can focus on the planting.

Three days ago Maddie and I put our new seeds in wet paper towels to sprout. I thought she might appreciate seeing the seed break open and grow the roots. I certainly love seeing it. No matter how many times I witness a seed becoming a plant it never ceases to blow me away. How does all that fit in the seed you can hardly even see? I seems like magic. Anyway we pulled out our plastic baggies and investigated each seed. She has always loved how they all have different shapes and sizes and colors but was even more excited to see them sprouting roots. We put them under Miles' microscope to see the tiny, spider web-thin roots growing off the main root.

I planted the sprouted seeds in potting soil in hopes that they will be ready to move into 4" pots by the time it's tomato-planting time. This is what we have so far:

Painted Daisy
Pansy
Gaillardia
Yellow Primroses
some climbing plant (I will have to check on the name)

I went through my seeds from last year. This year I am trying to use up all left over seeds before they go bad. I chose a bunch of other flowers to start. Hope to get this done over the weekend!

Please let me know if there are any of these flowers that you want - I am certainly not going to have room to give them all homes.

Bioassays

‘Bioassays’ are also a great way to test the quality of a potting mix. All you have to do is sow some fast-growing crops in the mix several weeks before you plan to use it. Cress, oats, beans are just a few to consider. Some growers also like to test their mixes with slower-growing crops. Onions can be useful for bioassays as they seem to require a very high quality mix for good germination and growth. It makes sense to include any key crops that you grow as part of your bioassa

So- I need to get this going now so that I can start my Bioassa - what shall I use to test my new soil? Another question: what if it does not work? How will I know how to proceed?

I think I'll start something fast like beans and then also I'll throw in some perennials that I have starting in paper towels right now. I can do the same in regular potting soil right next to it. Pictures to follow -

Alright, last year we started seeds in a ½ sand and ½ peat mixture. I was not a fan of this because those little plants had nothing at all to eat after they sprouted so it was important to get them moved up to the next pot asap. Not to mention the formula was heavy and itchy. We then transplanted the little seeds into a regular potting soil and watered with fish emulsion every week.

This year, after receiving a question about planting mix from a friend, I think it is time we did a little research on making our own seedling and potting mixes. A quick google search turned up THOUSANDS of recipes and it quickly became VERY complicated indeed.

So I delve in and get up to my ears in info about bone meal and lime, blue sand, chicken manure and worm castings….. ugh. Perhaps I start slow on this project. I found a pretty good recipe that uses pre-made compost and fertilizer. I can get into making my own fertilizer another day. Chemist I am not.

For starting seeds there is no sense in wasting a bunch of time since they just need some kind of light, water holding, air breathing, mix.

I found this:
1 part potting soil mix
1 part vermiculite

I think I will add in
½ sand
½ peat

yeah, no real reason, just for kicks and to make that potting soil go further.

I found this recipe for growing seedlings.
• 6 parts compost -
• 3 parts soil
• 1-2 parts sand-
• 1-2 parts aged manure
• 1 part peat moss, pre-wet and sifted-
• 1-2 parts leaf mold, if available
• 1 6" pot bone meal







I am going to make these adjustments:
• 6 part compost
• 3 parts soil -
o I am going to purchase top soil so I do not have to bake it cause really? I am also going to add the seedling mix to the “soil” after each seedling moves to it’s new home in potting soil.
• 1 part sand (cause the seeding mix will have sand)
• 1 part peat
• 2 parts manure
o chicken manure purchased cause mine is not aged long enough yet 
• pre-made organic fertilizer as directed on packaging

I need to get a cost comparison going – our “new and improved” soil vs just plain ol’ organic potting soil which did work fine last year and did not require mixing…


Frankly this just might be a math problem that is over my head – all this “parts” business and the fact that all of this stuff is sold in cubic feet argh.

To break it in to nice round numbers for calculations I am going to make the following assumptions

1part=1 cubic foot – even though that would be too much potting soil for this operation at least I can figure out costs easily…. Right?

Using that figure each recipe here would make 13 cubic feet of “soil”
Organic Potting soil costs about $5.50 per cubic foot that would be a total of $71.50 spent on dirt. This leads me to believe I would use this much cause last year I SWEAR we spent hundreds on dirt but who knows. My memory is not the best.

So here is my costing as recorded on my little scrap of paper while in Lowes yesterday

• 6 part compost = $5.34
o organic compost bought in bulk
• 3 parts soil = 11.94
• 1 part sand = $2.00 (this is a guess I forgot to check)
• 1 part peat =$2.89
• 2 parts manure = 7.44
• pre-made organic fertilizer as directed on packaging – yeah not sure would have to check this better

Wow – I am fairly surprised that I total only $29.61 so far…. That IS a savings, I had assumed I would break even at best.

Jan 19, 2010

I am just sure spring is right around the corner. J and I are picking thru seed catalogs and taking inventory of the seeds from last year. The two of us decided on a blog for a few reasons; first, we give away our plants to friends and family and thought they may enjoy checking in to see how thier future tomatoes and peppers are coming along. Secondly, I am hoping to make a record of what we did in order to avoid making the same mistakes year after year. Finally, I got a new camera and this seems like a pretty good way to use it.

This year know I need to make a few changes.

• No one needs as many petunias as I tend to start. The first seeds sown are so much fun that I get a little bit carried away. By the time they are in the 4" pots there are so many it is ridiculous.


• I am not going to harden off plants for anyone but me It is just way to difficult. Now, if someone were to donate a greenhouse I would certainly reconsider...


• I am going to reduce the number of plant varieties and of plants generally. Again I get carried away and by mid summer I have a garden that cannot be accessed without heavy machinery. This leaves me feeling overwhelmed and I abandon the place altogether. It is no surprise then that veggies go unharvested and/or never ripen because they end up in full shade due to the surrounding jungle.


• We will start plants a bit later to avoid having to plant spindly plants that take a long time to recover from transplanting.


• Along those same lines I will not rush the transplanting and/or hardening off timing. Last year I drug what seemed like thousands of plants in and out of the garage a few times trying to avoid a few cold spells.

Now that I know what I am NOT going to do this should be a peice of cake. Right?