Modifying 5-1-1 mix for container lychee in Houston

7 years ago

last modified: 7 years ago

I'm looking to modify the 5-1-1 mix for growing container lychee in Houston. The 5-1-1 mix seems like a very good start for lychees. they love water, well draining soil, aeration.

i would like to have a soil that can hold more moisture and more acidic soil

I'm considering replacing perlite with sphagnum peat moss, so my question would be:

1. what happens with adding more peat moss?

2. what happens with removing perlite? the perlite I have access to is not course, most of it is about 2 mm.

3. does more peat moss affect soil temperature (in summer or winter)?

My guess is that adding the peat moss should make the soil more acidic, hold more water but will it decrease aeration and drainage? will it also move up the PWT?

lychees also need slightly acidic soil, exact pH varies between sources, but I think i want to shoot for lower side of a 5.5-6.5 range.

i also need a soil that will never need to be watered twice a day. have rain barrels catching water because city water pH is 7.5 and fairly high Calcium.

The containers will be in 20 gallon black injection molded planters. the canopy will get partial sunlight during sunrise and sunset, but full sun the rest of the day. so, it's going to be hot in the summer. if needed, I might be willing to move the trees to receive partial shade during mid day.

for those in Houston, I found pine bark fines, sold as Soil conditioner (Lanscapers Pride brand). Southwest fertilizer had them but I needed to ask for it since it was hidden out back.

unsifted. penny in the middle for scale.

Featured Answer

garybeaumont_gw

7 years ago

You could replace the perlite with expanded shale. Texas A&M really seems to like it and it will improve drainage and add a little weight to help the plants from tipping over. You may be able to get by with using fertilizer for acid loving plants to help keep the pH down. Or you could add sulfur. I don't have a problem with keeping pH down but my tap water is probably lower in calcium.

I try to use a 3:1:1 and have pretty good luck with it. We usually need higher water holding retention than other parts of the country.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

Sandra
7 years ago
Could you post a pick of the bag you purchased?

I would like to see if the bag I got elsewhere is the same as yours...

Mine sail "mulch"
Andi C
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
here's a pic from their website. the bag looks the same . if a pic of the actual bag will be helpful I can take one this week

i was in a hurry to make some potting soil for a two plants that needed to be repotted asap. I'm going to sift the rest of the bag through a 1/8 in screen and see how much is lost.

i saw a couple pine bark mulch brands but the particles were larger than I wanted
Related Professionals
Londonderry Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Alpharetta Landscape Contractors · Cary Landscape Contractors · Crystal Landscape Contractors · Kearny Landscape Contractors · New Braunfels Landscape Contractors · New Cassel Landscape Contractors · Plymouth Landscape Contractors · Yukon Landscape Contractors · Tucson Window Contractors · Pacifica Window Contractors · Fountain Hills Fence Contractors · Maywood Fence Contractors · Midvale Fence Contractors · Rutherford Fence Contractors
Sandra
7 years ago
What is the difference between the "Soil Conditioner" & Pine Bark Mulch?

Here is a bag I purchased as "Pine Bark Mulch" and I screened it for the 5:1:1 mix for my plants recently. It took quit a bit of time searching for this product in so many places here in Houston and I finally found it, but the one I found is Mulch. It's a little crazy how hard it is to find a decent material (PB) in the Houston area. I'm just curious about your Soil Conditioner.
Sandra
7 years ago
Here is a pic of the Pine Bark Mulch
Andi C
Original Author
7 years ago
last modified: 7 years ago
the soil conditioner is labeled as being screen pine bark. pbm looks pretty similar but maybe pbm wasn't screened? how much of the pbm was larger than 1/2 inch?

i don't think the name of the product matter much. just the size. some pieces of the pbm color also appears a little lighter colored so it might be fresh instead of composted pine bark.

but I agree it's crazy how difficult it is to find pbf in Houston but at least there's one store. I bought as many bags as my little car could fit.

@gary. thanks for the tip. I ran across 3-1-1 mix on another forum but didn't think about it much.
Sandra
7 years ago
That is unscreened straight out of the bag, nothing in that bag over 1/2".. Just took out the few pieces of sapwood I came across. I used this in a 5:1:1 mix for for indoor plants. I want to be able to find pb larger in that I can use for the 1:1:1 mix for my large container plants and I want to make it for my fruit trees in containers for the coming Spring next year.
litterbuggy (z7b, Utah)
7 years ago
Only he can say for sure, but I think Al's recipes call for pine bark because it's pretty easy to find good bark on the east coast. He also recommends fir bark, which seems to be more common around here right now, but that may be because everything is scarce off season. Some members have posted about finding something called mini nuggets that were just right for 5-1-1.

There's no standard terminology for this stuff, so the only way to tell if it's right is to open the bag to get a closer look. A guy at HD was happy to do that for me and even had a bunch of tape 'patches' to close the bag when I was done. Mulch can be completely uncomposted, slightly composted, or so broken down that only a small portion of a bag is usable. "Soil conditioner" is often exactly the kind of bark fines that work in 5-1-1 or even gritty mix, but I've seen bags labeled soil conditioner made of all kinds of things that wouldn't act like bark fines in either mix.
Andi C
Original Author
7 years ago
lychees been doing well. today repotted a 1 yr old sweetheart 3g from the nursery and grown in 15g container this past year. now going to a 45 gallon container w 3-1-1.

very surprised there were a lot of encircling and matted roots. cut some of the worst roots back but left a lot. hopefully this 45g container will be its home for a couple years