Hello! Does anyone here make their own soil mixtures without purchased materials? If you look for home made soil, its usually just a mix of bought ingredients like peat moss, coco coir, perlite etc. Peat moss is fossil, coco coir and perlite is certainly not from around here so definitely transported long ways.
Now, I’m no gardener but I can see that all the native plants around me don’t have any of that luxury, yet they thrive. Compost is the next obvious answer, but if you haven’t yet had time to establish one, what options are there?
I’ve successfully grown plants like tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and salad in a mix of gravel, local manure, topsoil and rotted wood.
I am looking for recipes and information on such mixes as I often struggle with drainage which killed my cucumbers. I need huge amounts of gravel to keep the silty manure from clogging up my pots but 3kg pots become quite silly too and the gravel makes repotting an almost sure death to any roots I want to move.
What are the consequences of using uncomposted organic materials? Some gardeners say soil acidity usually solves itself through microbes, yet the common saying is that it must be composted first.
Happy gardening Cheers
As you already said, compost would be your top choice. You don’t even need your own compost bin, as you could buy some from local composting facilities or neighbours. Or, you can start small with a worm bin (vermicomposting).
As far as drainage, using just rocks isn’t the best idea imo. Perlite or LECA are great, but pumice for example is a bit more environmentally friendly if you don’t reuse it.
They all have a thing in common: they create air pockets that prevent the soil from being waterlogged. Gravel makes the soil store less water, increasing aeration, but you need to water more often.
One completely different suggestion from my side would be to try !hydroponics@slrpnk.net That way, you don’t need any soil at all :)
I’m intensively staring at the compost to make it go faster, alas, it’s not ready yet :( And since I don’t yet have killer slugs I’m very hesitant to buying even local organic matter.
Pumice, perlite and leca are all mined products which I don’t want to spend money on. Looking for naturally occurring analogs. Unfortunately i haven’t found any clay on the property or I would try making my own.
Im sure their environmental impact varies but regardless I find it so silly that whatever’s already growing doesn’t care but when we go to plant stuff these things become necessary.
Im considering charcoal as i have an abundance of wood. Make a fire and just extinguish it mid blaze. The potash should help with acidity too, no?
And I forgot to mention that I’ve been crushing up old terracotta tile trying to emulate terra preta, which appears to remains fertile for a very very long time.
Hydroponics are super cool but get expensive fast and I have several hectares of useable land.