Farm Ken's Recipe For Best Potting Soil

[brahmburgers]

rake cut grass in a pile - as big as a VW bug if possible . damp it down liberally. After a week, turn the pile inside out. Continue to damp it down often. After about 2 months you should have a much smaller pile of greyish mulch.

Take that mulch and mix it half and half with soil - even if all you've got is red clay. If you have some decomposed (flaky) manure around, mix in some of that also. You can even add a bit of powdered fertilizer (rock dust is best, but a bit of limestone is ok.) Now you've got potting soil that as good or better than anything you can buy. It's friable (but not fryable) with just enough (but not too much) tilth - so new roots will get going vigorously - and it retains moisture (like your girlfriend's posterior) while also providing essential minerals.

[tutsiwarrior]

proper drainage for potting arrangements is always a concern...just like with a girl friend's bum...how are we to know that your suggestion should be suitable for both?

[brahmburgers]

the decomposed grass/weeds retain moisture and allow new roots to readily spread through the potting soil. And yes, drainage is good for all but plants that like standing water like lotus. In clay pots with a too-small hole, I arrange small rocks around it to increase the drainage ability. I've got some culvert-type cement things (used for hand dug well casings) that I fill with good soil for planting. For the ones with cacti and succulents (which don't need much moisture at all) - I knock additional holes in the sides of the casings - to get as much water as possible to run off in monsoon season. Incidentally, a good soil mix for succulents: 1/2 course sand (ideally with the fine sand sifted out), 1/4 earth, and 1/4 humus or compost. Actually, you can use nearly 100% course sand, as succulents are amazingly hardy. Some of my fondest memories are spacing out in Baja California (NW Mexico) where large and robust cacti grow in pure sand - naturally spaced far apart to allow their feeder roots to spread in the nutrient poor firmament. Could be a useful tidbit of info when we get ready to terra-form Mars in decades to come.

[tutsiwarrior]

yeah...I agree that gravel in the pots helps the drainage...but I live inna shop house and have no room to mulch. Would be nice to know where to look to find commercially available compost...do garden centers do their own or is there a place to buy it from?

[chownah]

If you can get some well rotted cow or kwai manure you can us it in place of the compost.....well rotted cow and kwai manures do not smell like manure at all, they smell like earth. Generally speaking it is easier to find well rotted manure than it is to fine compost for sale.

Chownah

Edited December 26, 2006 by chownah

[tutsiwarrior]

If you can get some well rotted cow or kwai manure you can us it in place of the compost.....well rotted cow and kwai manures do not smell like manure at all, they smell like earth. Generally speaking it is easier to find well rotted manure than it is to fine compost for sale.

Chownah

thanks, mate I'll keep that in mind when on the road and lookin' for materials...probably would need to mix it with a sand type element for the proper drainage?

[Tony Clifton]

I'm farming earthwoms to give our lawn and plants a boost.

[tutsiwarrior]

I'm farming earthwoms to give our lawn and plants a boost.

ye could probably throw a handful into the wok for a thai culinary delight as well...

Edited December 26, 2006 by tutsiwarrior

[chownah]

If you can get some well rotted cow or kwai manure you can us it in place of the compost.....well rotted cow and kwai manures do not smell like manure at all, they smell like earth. Generally speaking it is easier to find well rotted manure than it is to fine compost for sale.

Chownah

thanks, mate I'll keep that in mind when on the road and lookin' for materials...probably would need to mix it with a sand type element for the proper drainage?

Yeah, for containers I use about 1/3 sand. You can use more sand but sand has no nutrient value so the more sand you use the more you need to remember to add a bit more well rotted manure every so often to give the soil a boost. How often?...it depends on alot of things so what I do is watch the plants and if it seems that they're slowing down or looking tired I might give them some....and it should be done at least once a year...maybe every three or four months? I don't do alot of container gardening so I haven't developed any rule of thumb for this sort of thing. If/when I start doing more containers I might experiment with manure and compost tea as a regular fertilizing regimen....if done properly I'm reasonably sure that you could grow stuff in pure sand...sort of like organic hydroponics.....

Chownah

[sbk]

Its also possible to create your own compost from kitchen scraps. Worm bins can be kept in the house if properly maintained.

Google Vermiculture or worm bin and learn how to build your own.

[tutsiwarrior]

Its also possible to create your own compost from kitchen scraps. Worm bins can be kept in the house if properly maintained.

Google Vermiculture or worm bin and learn how to build your own.

I've thought about this as there is plenty organic type scraps around. Trouble is the guy from the pig abbatoir comes around every day to collect them for pig slop. Falang organic farmer vs the thai pig stickers war...only in Thailand...