Is Expensive Potting Mix Worth the Cost?
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 12 ส.ค. 2022
- There are many options when choosing potting mix for filling pots and containers. Some potting mixes are expensive, others are cheap, and making your own is an option. Gardener Scott shows his experiment of growing different plants in different planting mixes to see if there are big differences in the results. (Video #390)
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Another variable that I noticed was that the top level dries out while the bottom layer can still be wet. Again a difference too is that the top layer will bleed down into the layer beneath it. this may be a washing out so to speak of nutrients.
Came to the comments to say this & you were the first comment to show up. I was wondering if that was the reason. I think he should re do this with all the pots on the same level.
Forget about cheap! My fixed income falls below the poverty line. Videos like this one are hugely helpful! After watching this one I plan to invest in amendments like worm castings and save on the mix. I expect to be happy with the results. Thank you Gardener Scott!!
Made all of my own mixes for 1st time grow bags. When I started getting low on compost, leaf mold and worm castings had to buy some commercial potting mix. I still had enough of my own materials to incorporate into the grow bags, but I did mix in whatever I picked up at Costco on sale. Everything is growing fine, although the grow bags with all of my own mix are doing better. In fact the bag with zucchini was mostly store bought mix and have had only 6 zucchini so far.
My own mix is 1/3 leaf mold 1/3rd finished compost and 1/3rd native soil. To this mix I added~ 64 oz. of fresh worm castings (top 1/3rd of bag) / 25 gal grow bag. As the season progressed and settling set in, I continued to top dress the grow bags with mostly finished compost and worm castings.
I greatly increased the volume of leaf mold in production along with compost and worm bins this year. Hoping next year I will need to purchase ZERO.
Enjoy your videos!
Reading the tomato leaves at the beginning of the season people were comfortable with the stay green...so it's good it appears people found a cheaper option.
In this particular case, more expensive potting soil is not necessarily better. Thanks for sharing this. Cheers, Scott!
Wonderfully informative video! Many years ago I realized that I could easily do trials like this to try out all kinds of garden-related things: from germination mixes, raised bed mixes, soil additives and supplements, compost teas, azomite, etc. etc. I think you could call my veggie garden one, big field study.
I applaud your efforts and I encourage other gardeners to try these kinds of simple experiments. It's well worth your efforts. Cheers.
Thanks!
Great vid! Thanks Gardener Scott.
Thank You for all your information on this experiment. Everything has it's own variables.
Wow, this is a truly awesome video, Gardener Scott - especially the surprising results. I have two GreenStalks - have only used my own mix (which likely was influenced by you!), and all my plants absolutely thrived. Thanks for fantastic video! A must watch!
This is a cool experiment . So surprised at the difference at 6 and 9
Weeks.
Having the advantage of livestock, who are happily producing an ENDLESSSSSS supply of fertilizer, I have found making my own this year, gave me much better results than my store bought potting mix or compost, and I had the expense of perilite and a little extra sweat equity.
I made my own mix this year with peat moss perlite and osmocote fertilizer. I found those plants did best too. Ironic since it is cheaper. I also have found varieties of plants change growth heavily or even how big the roots are to begin with. I planted 2 cherry trees in pots last year. The varieties were a Utah Giant and Rainier. Last year my Rainier put out a very little grow while my Utah Giant with a massive root system put out lots of growth. This year the Rainier cherry tree outpaced the Utah Giant in growth and either caught up to it or is now bigger. What made it change so much I cannot say. It could be my Rainier got more light, it could have been the root system or the variety or other reasons. Either way in the long term if you plan to continue to reuse the potting mix you will have to fertilize anyway which is 1/3 of a potting mix.
I started keeping track of potting mixes that don't work well. There are a couple of bagged composts that I'll never buy again. They don't improve the soil at all. One of them actually seems to repel water! I wish I had the room and raw materials to make enough of my own compost. It works so much better.
Great information!
I make the best soil, I just harvested my garlic and then removed all the soil from the raised bed mixed in 3 bags of compost and then put it back in the bed. I threw in some fertilizer and will plant garlic at the end of September.
Another great video. I'm with you I like making my own mix mix. Even if it costs me the little extra money I still enjoy making it . Pretty interesting results thing results though if I have to buy soil I'm going to buy the cheap stuff.
Thank you! :)
This is needed 😊
Thank you for the video. Last year I used my own mix in my GreenStalk ... not very successful. This year I mixed some of last year's soil, Happy Frog, Ocean Forest and Fertilome all together. My GreenStalks look great!!
A side note on watering ... on one GS the water runs straight through and out the hose and the other GS the water goes through slowly.
I did take a soldering iron and made some more holes on the top gray watering tray (not the reservoir) of the one that now waters slowly. Because my bottom tiers always seemed too dry out ... I may do the same to all the gray trays for next year. I'm "up the hill" from you in Cascade.
Commenting before the end because I have a poor memory, so its possible you end up covering this: But I notice that the miracle grow is on the bottom and doing the best. I do have to wonder if this isn't a skewed result because of runoff from the top transferring nutrients to the lower levels, thus giving them a bit of an extra feeding?
The internal watering system of the GreenStalk provides pretty even water between the tiers and there is very little leaching to the bottom.
@@GardenerScott Oh neat! Thanks for the reply!
I prefer making my own soil, but I recently filled two 4' x 8' x 11" raised beds with the Sta Green mix due to a time factor. I'm going to amend the beds with bio-char and compost tea, These beds will be my fall gardens.
I make my own potting mix. Mostly for cost as I mainly do sip container gardening. But if I run out of compost and its near the end I have bought bagged stuff. Mostly the Menards store brand (Master Gardener blue bags). Its about middle ground on cost. I never buy the cheapest and I dont buy the highest. The cheap $2-$3 bags are not that good, and the $15 and up just cost to much. One thing I learned in my first year is never ever buy potting mix from the Dollar Tree. Its cement.
Excellent 😊
Sometimes I've had to buy just what is available. In that case, I usually mix with the "good" potting soil I still have on hand. I've also mixed in worm castings and compost (I use cotton burr compost) into the cheaper soil. I've used Miracle Gro for years and never understood why it got bad reviews, until this year when I've found large chunks of wood pieces in it. I like the Pro Mix bales of potting soil sold at Walmart (no fertilizer added) and Black Gold, both of which are less expensive or about the same price as Miracle Gro.
Hello Gardner Scott this is Tim Gehlbach from Frankfurt Kentucky. I do hope that you share your soil recipe of your personal mix I’d really like to try it. Thanks again for everything I hope you have a blessed day.
Hi, Tim. I share a couple recipes in this video: th-cam.com/video/k1ovhhJriJI/w-d-xo.html
Honestly as long as the mix you’re getting has the best NPK levels for whatever you’re going to plant/grow then it’s fine.
This is why a lot of people make their own. It’s cheaper, you know what it’s made of, and it can be used for a vast variety of plants (from flowers to vegetables), all you have to do is add the ratios of NPK to whatever your growing. :-)
Dude what an intro, I’ve always wondered that
This kinda shows what I was thinking all along. The sta-green to me is a very raw potting mix. Plants do alot better when a couple months go by and it has time to start breaking down.
Thanks for that analysis Scott! I was thinking of purchasing a green stalk for my strawberries next year but I'm afraid they would just freeze and dehydrate in the winter months. Have you had any success in your climate with green stalks and strawberries?
I tried strawberries in my zone 5b but they didn't survive the winter. As I looked into it more, they do well in zone 7 and above.
@@GardenerScott I'm right on the border of 7a and 6b so maybe I'll give it a try next year. Thanks.
Wow thật là tuyệt vời
Really interesting episode mr Scott.🤔 I purchased a bunch of 50l bags of miracle grow this spring on 50% reduced price. Every plant I tried to grow from seed in that potting mix,turned yellow and died. Now I’m quite hesitant to use the rest of the mix I bought. It has a very high proportion of wood product in it. I’m wondering if I should just add it to my compost to over winter? What do you think about that?
Some times there is too much fertilizer in the mix for starting seeds. I've had the same problem before. Adding it to compost can be a good way to get organic matter in it and the nitrogen from the fertilizer can help keep the pile cooking.
Oh good experiment. I love this stuff, it's really interesting - and I'm still jealous of you guys being able to buy greenstalks. I can't believe you have broccoli in it?!?!
I wonder though, could the positioning have made a difference? Possibly as you water, that is leaching nutrients from above and "feeding" the plant below? Maybe next year's experiment could use both your green stalks and have them planted up in opposite directions?
Thanks. The nice thing about the GreenStalk is an internal series of water reservoirs so the water drains from the top, to the reservoirs, then from there to each level fairly evenly. There is very little leaching from top to bottom. I like your suggestion, but don't think it would make much difference.
Fox farm is great for house plants.
I'm planning on building wicking beds for my fall garden. Do you have a mix recipe raise beds?
I mix about 25% organic matter with my native soil for raised beds. You can consider Mel's Mix: 1/3 peat, 1/3 compost, 1/3 vermiculite. That much peat and compost can hold moisture better for wicking.
Scott, does letting your mix cook in a yard bin above ground make a difference for decomposition time? Probably an "it depends" question.
While heat is a factor, the ratio of ingredients, moisture level, and bacterial action make more of a difference.
I lost all my peppers and all but two tomatoes. I couldn't figure out what was going wrong as nothing had roots. I then dove head into it to test various things. After saving my last two tomatoes, who were near death but Kratky hydroponics saved them, I tried new seeds and the same thing happened. Light? No. Potting mix? Yep. I transplanted everything to kratky where they took off. edit: The potting mix that did me in was that blue bag of Sta-Green.
What do you think about this potting soil? I use it for fruit trees mainly.
35% Peat Moss
30% Pumice (medium to fine)
20% Perlite
10% Sand
5% charcoal or charged Biochar
Ammendments: Bloodmeal (N), Bonemeal (P) Kelp or Greensand (K)
Mulch with a layer of compost then woodchips.
For solid fertilizer I use Espoma. Plan to switch to organic soon. And for liquid feeding I use a mix of fish emulsion and Kelp/seaweed.
This mix holds moisture very well and is airy at the same time.
I really like this mix since it takes forever to degrade and when it does I can just fill up a little bit more peat moss.
As a potting mix that looks to contain all the necessary ingredients.
Uncanny timing! I just ordered coast of Maine ericaceous soil to grow blueberries in containers and wondering if I got hosed.
I'm curious if you took all those mixes and put them together and planted seeds, what would be the final results if you did that? Scott you should just start making soil and selling it to the public.
Thank you for sharing.
Interesting that you should ask because that's what I'm doing next. I've mixed them together and put the mix in my other GreenStalk to test. We'll see how it goes.
Genius think alike I guess 😁👍
Would the temperature differnce between the lower and upper levels affect the growth?
I haven't noticed that to be a problem.
Scott, after harvesting my onions,, during the drying process WHY do so many of my onions turn to mush? I wait till the tops fall over to harvest,, I'm really perplexed
Mushy rot is a disease that might be present. Look into that for possible solutions.
It’s worth it for the micro nutes if your growing that dank
And I am the second woot woot woot!
I'm the 1st whoot whoot!!
Maybe Happy Frog is not as good as Ocean Forest, but I doubt it is much worse. I have used kellogs and miracle grow many years and the results are not great, but not as bad as those green stalk plants. This year I used Ocean Forest for the first time and my plants are better than any other year.
It would be nice to see the same experiment with 3-5 gallon pots. I am guessing those tiny green stalk slots dried out on top and stayed too moist towards the bottoms. The only downside to the ocean forest is I had to water more often because the drainage is so good. After 3 months I had to amend with top dressing but no potting soil lasts months and months without needing amendments.
Using your own soil is great unless you don't have room for a compost bin. So for me, I will be using Ocean Forest from now on as a seed starter and in my containers. There really is no comparison to the cheap brands. Miracle grow has time release synthetic fertilizer which is why they did better over time. But something was not right with all those plants, my basil I constantly cut because it just grows so fast and huge. My cuttings in water get bigger than those basil.
I swear by ocean forest. My herbs and potted flowers grow so huge! I ran out and used a cheaper mix and they haven't performed nearly as well as ocean forest.
No. And when they let me work and sell it. The potting mixes are bs. Tree soil, potting soil? There are palm trees, live oaks, bottle brush, oleander, several turf grasses all in the same ground beside the store.
I've basil growing like crazy in... black gumbo
I can tell you that I am tired of getting bagged "compost" from quality businesses to get WEEDS from it! bought Whitney farms in the spring- has always been reliable this year I have more weeds than ever and last year hardly any- sigh
synthetic fertilizer allow us to feed the world. NPK is NPK, no magic.
Not at all suprised that the overpriced "look at me I'm organic" stuff did no better than MiracleGro. It's all marketing and feels, not science.