Can you swing one of the small bales of plain peat? $7 at Walmart. If so then I would mix 1/3 peat, `1/3 compost, and 1/3 perlite. As an alternative I often see bark fines suggested on the Container forum as a sub for the peat. Don't know the price off hand.

But either way, regardless of what you are growing, if it is in a container then it needs to be as good a container mix as you can swing.

Dave

Dave,
What are bark fines? I never see anything bagged with that name in our local stores. Lots of bark nuggets, though.

I've seen potted orchids planted in some sort of nugget heavy mix and since I have a bag of them on hand, have thought about using them in my last round of container mix.

But they are really meant for landscaping. It seems like they would be nitrogen thieves since they have not been composted.

What are your thoughts about them?

thanks,
jan

Jan,

Bark fines, as the term is used in container culture, refers to the bark of conifer trees only, not to hardwood barks. Pine and fir would be the most commonly found.

They are called fines because they are much smaller than the typical landscape mulch one finds everywhere. The mean particle size would be dime sized or smaller.

The reason they are used in place of peat is that they decompose much more slowly and therefore are able to maintain good aeration in the container longer than peat can. Conifer bark will easily outlast peat by 4 or more times.

Due to their slow decomposition N immobilization isn't an issue.

Usually these aren't labeled as fines, but as soil conditioner or aged pine bark or some other name. The name isn't important, just that it be all bark, no sapwood and the size is appropriate for container use.

Seedmama,

The only ingredient you have on hand that I would consider ideal for container usage is perlite. The masonry sand may or may not be large enough in particle size to drain well. The compost would be OK for a season if it is fairly coarse to begin with.

I would suggest seeing if you can swing a bale of peat and using that as the basis for your mix. Then be generous with the perlite and the compost, if you need more volume would be OK, but personally I would keep it at less than 20% of the total volume because it's going to break down the fastest and thus rob the mix of aeration.

Having said that, if you are growing larger plants as opposed to the compact plants in 5 gallon buckets you can get away with heavier mixes due to the plants consuming 1-2 gallons of water per day once they get to a good size. This tends to reduce the problems associated with heavy/fine particle sized mixes which is primarily holding water to the exclusion of air for too long.

Dave and Justaguy,
Wanted to stop back in and say thank you for your input. I'm going to figure out a way to swing one more bale of peat.
Thanks again,
Seedmama

Seedmama- as an alternative, Walmart or Lowes sells 2 cu.ft. bags of pine bark mulch or mini-nuggets, for $2-3/bag. I've found aged pine bark fines at Walmart this year.
Two bags will fill 6-7 5 gal. buckets. Mix 1 cup pelletized lime or similar per bag and add 5 gallons compost

I think the original proposal is rather good and the ingredients are already available.

I would go with:

1/3 soil/sandy loam
1/3 compost
1/3 perlite

I started my tomato seedlings in a similar mix (a little less soil) and they are doing just fine.

I don't trust municipal compost because you don't know what is in it. Even the certified organic compost I get has stuff in it that I don't consider organic and that's just what I can see.

However three years is enough time to break down a lot of stuff.

Zeuspaul

Thanks again to all!

Absolutely do not put any sand in the mix. There are other cheap "fillers" that work just fine (peat, some types of bark/mulch, etc.). I use these sometimes so my wife doesn't freak out with me spending $30 on "soil" at Home Depot for 5 plants...lol. Bags of manure, compost, etc. are all quite cheap at about $1.50-$4 per 1 cu ft bag.

Seedmama,

Lowe's in Georgia sells a product called Soil Conditioner which is actually pine bark fines. $2.77 for 2 cu.ft.

Don't know if Lowe's in Oklahoma sells the same product by same name, but it may be worth checking out if you want to try digdirt's suggestion.