Brian,

concerning mel's mix how much of the mix did you mix together? did you dump in all 5 bags, all the peat moss and vermiculite? I don't want to mix anything until i figure this out.

John

I followed what he said in the book.
In a nut shell...
Get a large tarp, dump all the composts on it, and mix them all together.
Then dump the Vermeculite and Peat and contunue mixing untill its all mixed. Its pretty easy to tell when the mixture is properly mixed as all the ingredients(Peat,Verm.,and compost) are all different colors.
The method of mixing by rolling the mixture in the tarp works quite well. I finished it off by using a trowel to mix her all up.

So, anybody got any ideas on my two probs???

JOhn
If your asking how to calculate how much of each you need.
Just mulpiply the length and width of your box times the depth.
For example...
My box was 4'x4' and 9" inches deep.
So I knew I needed 12 square feet of mix
(4'x4'x.75) 9 inches is 75% of 1 foot
So, I needed 4 cubic feet of Vermec. 4 cubic feet of Peat, and 4 cubic feet of compost.
I'd recomend to make more than your calculation says you need, as my mix has settled down a bit.

Brian: Just from the thread title I *knew* you'd used mushroom fertilizer. Yes, if they didn't sterilize it well before reselling that could very easily be the source. Get a positive ID from a practiced mushroom collector before eating them.

Me too. I live in Santa Cruz. Didnt use a mushroom compost. Only one mushroom so far, but I concur that the plants look yellowish and seem slow to take off. Made my boxes and planted beans, tomatoes, squashes, chard and so on-a month ago. Am new to the Mel's Mix. Is it really the ticket?

Am trying to get a fix on the watering cycle. It seems I need to let it dry on the top and only water when the soil is dry underneath?

Will use fish emulsion if needed. Did it work for you-mushroom guy from norcal with the yellowing plants?

first year gardening in my life, and first year square foot gardening as well.
i made mel's mix with a wide-ish variety of composts (manure, lobster, pine, crab, shrimp, seaweed, and one other thing i can recall) i also messed up a little on the math so my mix is a bit compost heavy.
i put the seeds in the ground and assumed nothign would come up.
well since planting about a month ago, we have had spinach for dinner, and many radish and butter sandwiches, as well as lettuce for salads and sandwiches...
everything seems healthy and happy- the only probs i have had are with bugs.
i say mel's mix works- and i was skeptical to start.

i had great luck with Mel's mix last year. so far, so good this year. i didn't use mushroom compost last year, though i am trying some in 1 of 6 boxes this year. i think i had a few mushrooms grow last year under some plants when we had a lot of constant rain. they were only where it was damp and shady, so i am not totally surprised. it only happened that one time.
personally my compost mix was a blend of what i could produce at home (leaves, grass, vegetable scraps) supplemented with some from nurseries. i pretty much stayed with the plant composts. i'm vegetarian and didn't really want to deal with cow or chicken waste mixed into my food. i have a bit of paranoia about what those animals are fed and what comes out. that's just me, but even with my relatively selective compost mixtures i got great results with Mel's Mix.
the soil in my yard is not any good for growing (clay) and this is a lot easier than trying to change the ground.

one thing in support of Mel's Mix (for the suspicious types).... got to any garden place and look for the (organic?) Miracle Grow garden/vegetable soil. if you read the ingredients you will see that it is not "dirt". it's a roughly even mix of peat moss, compost and perlite. perlite is similar, in function, to vermiculite. the square foot gardening site and books have a lot of their explanations as to why they feel vermiculite is superior to perlite (basically it holds a lot more water). anyway..... the point is that one of the biggest commercial sellers of gardening soil is basically selling some that is very close to Mel's Mix in ever gardening center, hardware store, Walmart etc across the country.

if you have a need for any substantial quantity then you can see how much cheaper it is to make your own mix. i have not had your issue with the plants being yellow. as far as i know they all seem healthy. some plants seem to be slow to grow at first, but other are not, so i am guessing it's just that plant? i do not have a lot of years experience, so i can not compare it to proper traditional row planting. that was always a mess for us (due to clay like soil).

Could it be that the Mel's Mix is retaining more water and thus your plants are too wet? Just an idea.

My dog goes mad every time I open my bottle of fish emulsion.
Not entirely on topic...

Some folks make the mistake of adding something like shrimp compost, which is actually about 50% peat and usually also contains cow manure, without taking these ingredients into account. It's possible to end up with the peat ratio being too high if it isn't taken into account which would mean not enough actual compost in the mix.