Thanks will711 , I could not get the link to come up, but I found an article from Clemson, was that theirs? The latin names I'm seeing for sale are Monstera adansoni Monstera Obliqua Monstera Friedrichsthalii I ended up purchasing the adansonii, fingers crossed it's the correct one.
Hi Hoarders, help with potting soil please? For a couple decades a local nursery would sell me a 3.8cu ft bale of compressed Sunshine potting soil that I bought almost every year, I cannot remember the mix#, possibly #3? I don't live there any more and need more potting soil. The last 2 bales of hyponex were bad, not sure if end of a run or a bad run, but looking now (did not notice at the time) there's a ton of twigs in it and it dries out almost immediately. A really dirty trick on me as I just got back into house plants and now have to nurse those with bad soil constantly. I went to the Sunshine site, professionals only, but they do have a retail line. My horticulture class in college was 25 years ago, confused with the different components now except I do recall that perlite aids in O2, but dries out quickly. I'm hoping for moisture retention and nutrients instead of firewood cutting or slashpiles like the last two bags I have too many house plants in here at the moment
I've been using Miracle Grow moisture retention , and I believe it has a slow release fert in it . I've had very good results with it , but I do supplement with a soluble fert here's a pic of one of my planters from the "Office "
I have a cement mixer, but honestly use it more as a general mixer than to produce concrete. One of those major jobs is producing starter mix for my wife's gardening needs. If you do not have one, may I suggest you get one; and they can bought cheap and small now at Harbor Freight for like $170. Well worth it in my opinion. Here, I use a mixture of perlite, sand, fertilizer (05/13/41 which is a starter fertilizer), sheep manure, and then soil from an old growth area of our farm. I mix it really well and have had really good results from it. If you are organic, you can bypass the starter fertilizer, though the sheep manure can be any kind of manure to get the organic matter up.
Well... Its that time of the year... We are about T minus 2 weeks when I'll be trying to be putting in Potatoes, Onions, and Garlic.... Hopefully will be getting the garden tilled up this weekend.... I've been debating on what this years garden will look like... I'm think I will be looking at all early produce (all those mentioned earlier and Broccoli, cauliflower, and maybe a row of green beans) except sweet potatoes... That way I can be closed out of the garden by August, as that seems to be the busy season...
Can you get peat moss where you are? I buy those by the bales (3 cu feet) not the bags, they are pressed squarish cubes. Be careful though, the quality varies. Feel for sticks and things, you want the soft kind. Also you are a firewood hoarder right - what do you do with all your saw dust? Compost it for next year it's great just don't use cedar, black walnut and some other kinds that inhibit other plants from growing, pine is great. Presoak the peat moss thoroughly then mix it in.
I am so envious of all of you. Garden fever has set in here very contagious. Catalogs and plants every where. Our house is sitting where my garden used to be and i have to create a new one from scratchit'll take years to get it right.
Thanks Lucy It's not here at our Walmart (yet? maybe in May?) but Ace online says 3.8 Cu for $18 can be delivered in 7 days to the store and there is always Amazon) Somewhere in the last 10 years I confused peat moss with the decorative green stuff on top of floral plantings, but that is another story lol. For the amount of gardening (or anything for that matter) that I can do anymore and more importantly the low humidity here, it should be so helpful for both my house/outdoor plants for me to keep up with keeping them watered and healthy with extra peat moss. I too am starting over after 21 years at our previous home, I cannot take on the scale I did there back in the day but I am determined to have a bit greenery in this nasty climate and short growing season not to mention we have to haul water here ... Very little sawdust here at the moment, we burned wood for many years, left all our dry wood with the sale of the house when we sold our previous home (99% lodge pole pine both homes). We have been mostly pellet stove since fall 2014, then Husband cleaned up the small cut/split pile we had here from 2013/2014 winter (it was a BRUTAL one) and spread it out on the property when we rented a bobcat last year or year before last for landscaping (new dog yard) and some minor excavation. Long story short, thank you for the no-nonsense suggestion and helping me remember basic stuff like peat moss (vs decorative spanish moss) !
They use the spanish moss a lot to line flower baskets and then put peat moss mixes in. Starting a new garden is a bi... The area is cleared sort of still has lots of tree roots and endless weeds. the blackberries and green briar are also going to be a real pain. I'm thinking of just killing the whole area with round up several times and then bringing in a truckload of chicken manure. Think that will kill blackberries and green briar? I've got some compost but not much it all disappeared with the building. I may just clean a small area for now to put in a few things just for eating and yellow squash for the Lucy girl. her diet is almost half veggies now and she is doing a lot better. She must be absorbing enough nutrients because she is gaining too much and her fur is silky shiny.
Katie and I were talking about this just yesterday, and that is how Walmart, Lowes and Home Depot...with their southern roots dictates what their stores do and so already grills, trees and the outdoor centers are fired up when it will be another two months before anything can even start to be planted here. It is just too cold. But we can start indoor stuff, and soon every south facing window in the house will have flats of plants and veggies in in, getting ready for Katie's garden!
Ha! There was a wild rose when we bought our previous home (93) that I could never kill. Would not surprise me if it came back up even after the new owner excavated and landscaped Starting small for some squash sounds like a good idea, heck, even a couple containers? I saw a cool idea, they used 5 buckets and leaned a panel of wire weld fence at a 45* angle the zucchini crawled up it and it kept them off the ground (guess they were from a wet area and they had some sort or rot), you wouldn't even need to pick up a shovel hee hee. I'm so glad to hear Lucy is feeling better!! LodgedTree , I actually went to our walmart last spring a couple times, they had cart after cart of damaged plants from freezing and wind and snow on both visits a few weeks apart. I also noticed when I lived where there were big box stores with garden centers is plant selection is dictated for the south as well. The two I remember that were staples in Colorado are not sold anymore because in the south they are considered invasive.
Coconut Coir? I just scared up a block of coconut coir I bought years ago for a long forgotten project. Thinking about trying some of this instead of buying peat moss? Thoughts? Mix it in my crappy soil? Mix it with some of the compost I bought at the landfill last summer?
So Neat!! How is it going so far? I sure do want to try that, have for a long time but funny logistics here are challenging.
We'll be germinating plants indoors in the next few weeks before transferring them into flats. On Johnny's select seeds website they have the growers library to take some of the guesswork out of when to start seeds depending on your zone. Really put together well. Even helps figure on how many plants/ seeds per row. Planning Tools & Calculators | Johnny's Selected Seeds
Cheapest, quietest, most productive, lowest maintenance pets I've ever had! Not very interactive though. They're eating everything my wife and I can throw at them. We eat a lot of fresh produce, about a plastic grocery bag full of scraps every week or so.
Amending a good potting soil with it won't hurt. Potting mix is mostly peat moss and vermiculite - allows plants to grow roots easily and maintains and waters easily - Note peat moss by itself is a PITA to "wet" initially. Most potting mixes incorporate a wetting agent so the soil doesn't just float. Its good for starting seedlings with a vermiculite top dressing, transplanting established annuals into containers, it just fails to provide longterm food to plants. Potting soil - is mostly a soil/compost mixture and tends to have a long term fertilizer depending upon brand. Not good for starting seedlings, good for established transplants with long term growth in mind. On the farm we used a 3/8" chicken wire screen on top of an apple bin to break up #2 potting mix bales and remove roots -smaller version could be made for a wheelbarrow for peat moss bales. When I repot house plants I get the cheapest compost bags and use them 10-1 to peat moss bale mix in a few TB of Osmocote in the pot and possibly some 13-13-13 depending upon species
SCORE!! (I'm holding my arms up like a referee) A very nice city arbor manager gave me some great suggestions for trees that might actually live out here. Tried to order, (I don't live with in city limits and 2 of the 4 species were already sold out for pick up in June anyway even if I fudged addresses ) Hello-oo?!! ? I went back to the University Coop Exchange from my previous home of 21 years where I bought several native species, and FINALLY found the link from backtracking from there that I have googled for before. YEP, have some both native and/or others that might make it out here under adverse conditions. Hopefully some neighbors are interested in buying some from me as I had to order a flat of each kind, but realistically it would have cost us that much in time/gas/travel/retail prices to get a fraction of the same. Here's the best part (and sorry for those of you I pestered about snow fences here in the past), they have a particular member on staff that knows my area well and will do a free consultation (tree survival in these winds/wind breaks for summer/living snow fence/shade/soils/etc...)
Hey wildwest I can't recall that Coco coir retains any moisture really, I know it's used quite a bit in hydro setups. As you stated previously, perlite is good for soil aeration, as I don't believe that absorbs moisture at all. basod touched on that with the vermiculite, that will absorb moisture and release it later back to the roots. I have a steel barrel with clamp on lid that I always used to mix soil. I could tip it on it's side and roll it back and forth to mix things well. Always sprayed a bit of water in also to help 'pre-moisten' everything, as well as keep down dust levels. Oh, and I believe it is Perlite dust you should avoid breathing, IIRC it's carcinogenic and has probably been known to cause cancer in California. Good thing you're not in Cali eh? I also would mix in some bone meal and blood meal for long term nutrients. I'm probably telling you things you already know, but figured I'd do my best to help out.
