Past mistakes and testimonies? Appreciate replays.

[Jacob554]

Hey people.
Has anyone ever made the own soil from native dirt? I'm thinking of just digging holes and using some of native dirt also. I have a product called quick start. I have 2 cuft of perlite, I have mulch. I have a peat mixture designed for seeding but isn't much more than only peat.
I have a leaf pile we have used for 10+ years some suggest this should be rich soil under, has anyone tried this sort of natural compost?
Any advice or opinion is appreciated
Most of my natural soil is black not really clay or anything in most parts.

 

[Jacob554]

I also have a blood meal and a few pounds of high phosphorus organic fertilizer called bloom booster. This soil in this pic is similar, its from a garbage trucks rut

 

[DblBrryInvestments]

Not sure if I would ever use native soil. It doesn't cost much to make a base mix either.

Google LC's soiless mix, its pretty simple and really cheap.

5 Parts spaghnum peat moss
3 parts Perlite
2 parts EWC

Few other things as well, but doesn't get cheaper and easier than that.

 

[Larry {the} Gardener]

I could use your dirt to fertilize my sandy ass land. That looks great. It might be a little heavy and need some perlite, but it looks really rich. With the compost, a little peat moss, blood meal and other amendments added, dig holes at least 36" across and you will do well.

I grow in the ground, and do everything as cheaply as possible. My el cheapo soil mix is mushroom mulch, peat moss, cow manure compost, chicken {or turkey} manure compost, potting soil, lava rocks, blood and bone meal, Epson salts, lime, coffee grounds, 13-13-13 farm fertilizer and some time release fertilizer. The further I have to walk, the less soil mix and more fertilizer I use. I do buy good potting soil to start the plants in though. Fast root development will translate into weight at harvest time.

 

[Humanrob]

I could use your dirt to fertilize my sandy ass land. That looks great. It might be a little heavy and need some perlite, but it looks really rich. With the compost, a little peat moss, blood meal and other amendments added, dig holes at least 36" across and you will do well.

I grow in the ground, and do everything as cheaply as possible. My el cheapo soil mix is mushroom mulch, peat moss, cow manure compost, chicken {or turkey} manure compost, potting soil, lava rocks, blood and bone meal, Epson salts, lime, coffee grounds, 13-13-13 farm fertilizer and some time release fertilizer. The further I have to walk, the less soil mix and more fertilizer I use. I do buy good potting soil to start the plants in though. Fast root development will translate into weight at harvest time.

I'm curious, why do you use coffee grounds and lime, don't they sort of cancel each other out? Or is there something that they add beyond acidity/alkalinity?

 

[Jacob554]

Not sure if I would ever use native soil. It doesn't cost much to make a base mix either.

Google LC's soiless mix, its pretty simple and really cheap.

5 Parts spaghnum peat moss
3 parts Perlite
2 parts EWC

Few other things as well, but doesn't get cheaper and easier than that.

Yeah I understand, but I'm not really after cheap, or easy..

 

[Jacob554]

I could use your dirt to fertilize my sandy ass land. That looks great. It might be a little heavy and need some perlite, but it looks really rich. With the compost, a little peat moss, blood meal and other amendments added, dig holes at least 36" across and you will do well.

I grow in the ground, and do everything as cheaply as possible. My el cheapo soil mix is mushroom mulch, peat moss, cow manure compost, chicken {or turkey} manure compost, potting soil, lava rocks, blood and bone meal, Epson salts, lime, coffee grounds, 13-13-13 farm fertilizer and some time release fertilizer. The further I have to walk, the less soil mix and more fertilizer I use. I do buy good potting soil to start the plants in though. Fast root development will translate into weight at harvest time.

I like this reply.
I agree with the starting thing too. I just find it hard to believe theirs a forest their for millions of years but it's a bad environment for plant life. But I do understand the difference(s). I have a few I am going to update this thread with. Take a look. Ones a decades old pile of leaves from the yard.

 

[Larry {the} Gardener]

I'm curious, why do you use coffee grounds and lime, don't they sort of cancel each other out? Or is there something that they add beyond acidity/alkalinity?

Coffee grounds are high in N. If my little town had a Starbucks I would be signed up with their grounds for gardeners {or some such} program. As it is I hit up any restaurant I eat at for grounds.

Here is a link that will explain it better than I can.

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/soil/qt/coffeegrounds.htm

 

[Humanrob]

Coffee grounds are high in N. If my little town had a Starbucks I would be signed up with their grounds for gardeners {or some such} program. As it is I hit up any restaurant I eat at for grounds.

Here is a link that will explain it better than I can.

http://organicgardening.about.com/od/soil/qt/coffeegrounds.htm

Thanks for the link. I've always put them around my blueberries for the acidity, but did not realize their other benefits.

 

[Jacob554]

this soil it's self is so unbelievably light. And every plant I pulled up had massive healthy roots, (I do realize I'm referring to 2 different species)

 

[Larry {the} Gardener]

Leaf mold is the shit. I try to add an armful of leaves to my plants every time I go to them.

 

[Jacob554]

Leaf mold is the shit. I try to add an armful of leaves to my plants every time I go to them.

What do you use it 4?

 

[rikdabrick]

You should be good to go with that soil. It looks great and there's plenty decomposition going on supplying a continual supply of nutrients. It would be cool if you could get a soil test to see if there's any particular nutrients that could use a bump and also to see if there's nutrients you shouldn't add. Most deficiencies occur because of too much of one (or more) mineral cancelling out the uptake of another mineral. If you're not going to do a soil test, I'd take it easy on the nutrients and top dress as you see problems arise or amend as you would, but give the soil some time to break everything down. Most people say 4-6 weeks.

And I use my native soil continuously and just top dress or amend in between plants and my plants stay happy and the soil texture keep getting better, though my soil didn't look as nice starting off as what you have to work with.

 

[Larry {the} Gardener]

What do you use it 4?

Most years in late summer it gets really hot and dry down here. Leaves on top of the ground will help with soil temp and water retention. By the end of the season, I will have a good pile on my plants. Some of my patches are just too far to carry water, so I do all I can to stretch the rainfall. That is what the lava rocks are for. They soak up the rain {like the two inches we had last night} in all those little holes, and let it out a little at a time.

 

[Jacob554]

You should be good to go with that soil. It looks great and there's plenty decomposition going on supplying a continual supply of nutrients. It would be cool if you could get a soil test to see if there's any particular nutrients that could use a bump and also to see if there's nutrients you shouldn't add. Most deficiencies occur because of too much of one (or more) mineral cancelling out the uptake of another mineral. If you're not going to do a soil test, I'd take it easy on the nutrients and top dress as you see problems arise or amend as you would, but give the soil some time to break everything down. Most people say 4-6 weeks.

And I use my native soil continuously and just top dress or amend in between plants and my plants stay happy and the soil texture keep getting better, though my soil didn't look as nice starting off as what you have to work with.

I'm thinking about the same, as I put the shovel into the dirt in this 30+ year old leave pile it didn't even take my foot to put it in, and also the dirt starts about 2 in down, but it isn't natural, the pile is definitely older then I am.

 

[Jacob554]

Most years in late summer it gets really hot and dry down here. Leaves on top of the ground will help with soil temp and water retention. By the end of the season, I will have a good pile on my plants. Some of my patches are just too far to carry water, so I do all I can to stretch the rainfall. That is what the lava rocks are for. They soak up the rain {like the two inches we had last night} in all those little holes, and let it out a little at a time.

I think I will also put mulch

 

[CallinCarRamRod]

I use my native soil. I amend it with some bag soil and fertilizer. But not much.