Author Topic: Best potting soil  (Read 2124 times)

Jamesdeangelo

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Best potting soil
« on: December 03, 2017, 04:55:04 PM »
Ok, so I'm trying to decide which is the best soil to start seedlings in for fruit trees, and I'm wondering whats your all opinions for growing the fastest fruit seeds in pots for up to 6 months? I mainly want my trees to grow fast, maybe a mix of coconut fiber, compost, sand, and worm castings. I'm not really sure what would grow seedlings the fastest. 

sidney

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #1 on: December 04, 2017, 09:09:55 AM »
Truly Tropical has a good video on this using parsley seeds as a test. Lambert’s was best.

roblack

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #2 on: December 04, 2017, 11:59:05 AM »
seems like the "best soil" would depend on what you are growing. some of my plants have grown very well in Fox Farms Happy Frog and Ocean Forest, but some have not fared so well and seem to like a different mix. Palms and cacti do well for me in Miracle Grow Palm Cactus Citrus soil mix.

gozp

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #3 on: December 04, 2017, 01:03:37 PM »
I use 100% clay dirt on mangoes.. i get no problems for the oast 2 years...


greenman62

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #4 on: December 05, 2017, 12:09:23 PM »
agree with roblack
its very dependant on the type of plant.
how much water you want ti to hold
how good you want the drainage.

a growing medium is to anchor the plant
and provide the roots environment to get nutrients.
 
Personally, i like having several size particles. it provides places for water and air to get trapped.
so i use a fine sand (from my yard) a heavy sand, perlite, and compost.
(i like a fine, sifted, well broken down compost)

something like forest farms is very heavy in organic matter, but not much sand or minerals.
it would be good for forest type trees. Probably not so good for things like Jujube or baobob.
i like to lookup the geography, soil, climate... original habitat...
of the plant i am growing, to get a sense of what it wants.
PH is another thing to watch.

andrewq

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #5 on: December 06, 2017, 12:55:33 PM »
you likely will want different soil mediums for starting seeds and then transferring it into another container soil mix for growing.

for container growing, the soil mix will greatly depend on both the plant (orchid, cactus, avocado, etc all have different reqruiemetns) you're growing and how much time you have.

Two related soil properties (for container growing) are water retention and porosity - they are inversely related. High water retention will mean you can ignore the plant more (i.e. water less frequently), but will not be very porous (gas exchange at the roots, more standing water/PWT). If you have a very porous soil, the plant will have lots of room for roots to grow and gas exchange, but you may need to water every day or even multiple times/day.

check out the GW container growing forum megathread

brian

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #6 on: December 06, 2017, 01:41:23 PM »
I've always used sterile seed starting mix (looks like almost pure peat to me) to start seeds in plastic cups, then transplanting to a variety-specific mix once the seedlings get their second set of true leaves.

WaterFowler

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #7 on: December 10, 2017, 01:59:32 PM »
I use 100% clay dirt on mangoes.. i get no problems for the oast 2 years...


I know you're being facetious but I noticed the amateur nursery guy I buy my mango seedlings from has his in 3 gallon containers full of mostly sand and very little organic matter. They are big and beautiful. So as an experiment last February I put 20 12"-18" Guamuchil seedlings in pots full of 3/4 sand/dirt from my front yard and 1/4 steer manure. Then ran a stingy drip system along all of them. At the same time I put 10 in in a mixture of 1/2 Miracle Grow, 1/2 Patio Plus potting soil mix, that I hand water as needed. To date all the seedlings in in the dirt mix are 5-7' tall and still full of red tips growing like crazy. The ones in the potting soil mix are green and beautiful but only around 3 feet tall, and they have stopped growing in the cold. They are half the size of the ones in the dirt mix. They only thing I have added to the ones in dirt is citrus fertilizer every couple of months. They are also covered in grass and have castor bean plants growing above them blocking out a lot of the sun. Confused...

gozp

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Re: Best potting soil
« Reply #8 on: December 10, 2017, 03:38:21 PM »
I use 100% clay dirt on mangoes.. i get no problems for the oast 2 years...


I know you're being facetious but I noticed the amateur nursery guy I buy my mango seedlings from has his in 3 gallon containers full of mostly sand and very little organic matter. They are big and beautiful. So as an experiment last February I put 20 12"-18" Guamuchil seedlings in pots full of 3/4 sand/dirt from my front yard and 1/4 steer manure. Then ran a stingy drip system along all of them. At the same time I put 10 in in a mixture of 1/2 Miracle Grow, 1/2 Patio Plus potting soil mix, that I hand water as needed. To date all the seedlings in in the dirt mix are 5-7' tall and still full of red tips growing like crazy. The ones in the potting soil mix are green and beautiful but only around 3 feet tall, and they have stopped growing in the cold. They are half the size of the ones in the dirt mix. They only thing I have added to the ones in dirt is citrus fertilizer every couple of months. They are also covered in grass and have castor bean plants growing above them blocking out a lot of the sun. Confused...

No reason to be facetious. All nutrients are already in the dirt. U just need to reintroduce the beneficial microbial network to loosen up the dirt &  also break down the nutrients for the plantsts uptake... & yes, i do use filtered water to drench my trees.

If u  go back to  previous timelines, there is no such thing as best potting mix but dirt.  Happy gardening. ;)