Soil mixtures

[Tommy89]

If you don't find what you are looking for online look at more sites. I found this in about 10 seconds

How Can I Test My Soil pH Without a Kit? | PreparednessMama

Want to test your soil pH? You can do it without a special kit! Follow this guide to find out about the most common and efficient DIY methods.

preparednessmama.com

Just go get a cheap Ph test kit. It will have directions. I help folks with gardening problems. I don't do online work for them.

Hi again. I'm sorry if I came across that way. I didn't want to work to be done for me. When I started gardening a few months ago, I had a bad experience with trusting an article that I saw online. I saw that you help people every day, that's why I decided to ask you. Also, I wanted to be really sure that I got the potting mix right since I was gardening with 100% topsoil before, and it failed miserably, but I know now that that's completely wrong.

 

[Tommy89]

I haven't responded for the past few days since I've been getting the compost, vermiculite, and litmus strips. I went to Home Depot (two actually), but they ran out of Black Kow. I had no choice but to get Timberline compost and cow manure, it had 4-star ratings, but it only is a 0.05-0.05-0.05. I also was able to do a pH test. The Timberline was a 7.5 pH (give or take 0.5) and my plain nutrient-void soil was 5.5 pH (give or take 0.5). Could you please help me continue from here @Chuck? I really appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[Tommy89]

I was also able to get Vermiculite.

 

[Chuck]

I haven't responded for the past few days since I've been getting the compost, vermiculite, and litmus strips. I went to Home Depot (two actually), but they ran out of Black Kow. I had no choice but to get Timberline compost and cow manure, it had 4-star ratings, but it only is a 0.05-0.05-0.05. I also was able to do a pH test. The Timberline was a 7.5 pH (give or take 0.5) and my plain nutrient-void soil was 5.5 pH (give or take 0.5). Could you please help me continue from here @Chuck? I really appreciate it. Thanks.

Compost is usually slightly alkaline to slightly acidic. I think your Ph test was probably .5 too high. And forget about the NPK numbers on any compost. So that would make the compost about neutral and the soil 5.0 which is fairly high in acidity. The first thing you do is mix 20% compost, 10% vermiculite and 20% coconut coir. Don't use peat. And then mix in 50% soil. Mix it up well and take three (3) tests of the mixture and average the three. When this is completed post back the results on this same thread.

 

[Tommy89]

Compost is usually slightly alkaline to slightly acidic. I think your Ph test was probably .5 too high. And forget about the NPK numbers on any compost. So that would make the compost about neutral and the soil 5.0 which is fairly high in acidity. The first thing you do is mix 20% compost, 10% vermiculite and 20% coconut coir. Don't use peat. And then mix in 50% soil. Mix it up well and take three (3) tests of the mixture and average the three. When this is completed post back the results on this same thread.

Okay. I have a question, hope it's not too obvious. Should I buy a small amount of coconut coir just for the test, or in bulk for everything I'm going to use the potting mix in? Basically, should I assume that around 20% of my total potting mix for all of my pots will be coconut coir, so I can buy 20% of the total volume of my pots? Also, does this item of coconut coir look good for my uses: click here? I know it says potting mix but if you look at the bottom right of the packaging, it says ingredients 100% coco coir. Lastly, I was wondering what purchases I will need to make after this, in terms of soil and nutrients for the soil so I can budget accordingly. I know you said we haven't gotten to nutrients left but what else would I need to buy after coconut coir including things for nutrients? Thanks again for your patience.

 

[Chuck]

Okay. I have a question, hope it's not too obvious. Should I buy a small amount of coconut coir just for the test, or in bulk for everything I'm going to use the potting mix in? Basically, should I assume that around 20% of my total potting mix for all of my pots will be coconut coir, so I can buy 20% of the total volume of my pots? Also, does this item of coconut coir look good for my uses: click here? I know it says potting mix but if you look at the bottom right of the packaging, it says ingredients 100% coco coir. Lastly, I was wondering what purchases I will need to make after this, in terms of soil and nutrients for the soil so I can budget accordingly. I know you said we haven't gotten to nutrients left but what else would I need to buy after coconut coir including things for nutrients? Thanks again for your patience.

Just what is this "nutrient void soil" you have? Is it just dug up in your backyard or something? The stuff you sent a link to is NOT what you want. It is a potting mix and not even a good potting mix. It appears we are going to have to start from scratch on building you your garden soil.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

How does one know which way to go if they don't know what they have. If you are purchasing " so called top soil " you don't have anything but the seller's word about it and believe me there are entrepreneurs that will call anything TOP SOIL. Consider reading reply #7 again. There is nothing complicated about that test if you can take a half dozen samples at random areas, mix those with water in a jar, shaking vigorously for a minute and allow to set over night. After that advance to the nutrient testing and PH testing if you like.

 

[Tommy89]

How does one know which way to go if they don't know what they have. If you are purchasing " so called top soil " you don't have anything but the seller's word about it and believe me there are entrepreneurs that will call anything TOP SOIL. Consider reading reply #7 again. There is nothing complicated about that test if you can take a half dozen samples at random areas, mix those with water in a jar, shaking vigorously for a minute and allow to set over night. After that advance to the nutrient testing and PH testing if you like.

Thanks for the suggestion but I have already done a pH test.

 

[Tommy89]

Just what is this "nutrient void soil" you have? Is it just dug up in your backyard or something? The stuff you sent a link to is NOT what you want. It is a potting mix and not even a good potting mix. It appears we are going to have to start from scratch on building you your garden soil.

It is something that was sold as a medium to grow in pots. I bought it a few months ago. It was unbranded, and the guy who sold it didn't speak very good English. I've tried growing in it, but things grew well in the beginning, and then failed after a few weeks. This is why assumed it was nutrient void and didn't trust the source. Was that a wrong assumption? I also found rocks in it.

 

[SeniorCitizen]

That test has nothing to do with PH or Nutrients.

 

[Tommy89]

That test has nothing to do with PH or Nutrients.

Then what is it for, I read #7

 

[Chuck]

It is something that was sold as a medium to grow in pots. I bought it a few months ago. It was unbranded, and the guy who sold it didn't speak very good English. I've tried growing in it, but things grew well in the beginning, and then failed after a few weeks. This is why assumed it was nutrient void and didn't trust the source. Was that a wrong assumption? I also found rocks in it.

If you don't know what it is don't use it. This makes things simpler. So, basically you don't have anything and must start from scratch and I presume you will be buying all of the products needed from a big box store? If so, you will need gardening soil, compost and maybe vermiculite. 20% compost, 10% vermiculite and 70% garden soil. Make sure that the soil and the compost have OMRI somewhere on the bag. You can get a manure based or plant based compost. Just make sure that it is OMRI and of a texture that doesn't have a lot of large pieces in it. There will be a label on the bag saying what is in it and the NPK ratio's if any. Once this is done you will have your base growing medium and time for your three Ph tests taken from random samples in your growing medium. It will probably average out around 6.8-7.2. When this is done post back. Just remember that you get what you pay for. Something cheap is going to be cheap and will not give you expensive results. When I must purchase anything related to gardening I NEVER go to a big box store like Walmart or Lowes. I either go to a dedicated gardening center or a nursery. Usually all you will find at the BBS is garbage like Miracle Grow products

 

[SeniorCitizen]

Then what is it for, I read #7

The test is to determine the physical make up of the dirt ( structure if you will ).

Here are more examples: The dirt with the orange hue is from a local Quarry that is used for a compact-able base for concrete pours and used exclusefully in the area.

The brown sample is top soil that our daughter had delivered via dump truck at her house. Note the very similar color in the jar but if we look closely where I drew the green line we can actually see a difference. You probably won't be able to see this difference because of the new up-dated pic system every site must have.

So to further test, when I dumped that into Terracotta saucers it actually separated. Sandy soil on the bottom and Clay just above it. The real story was evident when I allowed to dry and break each patty with a gardening trowel. The sandy soil is on the bottom. That soil delivered to our daughter was run through a rotary sieve and the clay percent didn't surprise me because in th pile I could see a few Clay balls.

Unless you are willing to do this there will be people selling you ocean front property in Arizona.

 

[Chuck]

Try @SeniorCitizen test on that soil that you have. I would guess that you have a lot of sand in it. If so there are ways to work around this and it might be less expensive than purchasing bagged soil.

 

[Tommy89]

Okay I will do at @SeniorCitizen 's test. Thank you to you both!