I haven't grown any vegetables before, I'm planning on growing tomatoes in 10 maybe 15 gallon buckets.
I want to make 80 gallons of soil I want to have extra just in case. I have made the following calculations to decide what I need. I wanted to make a simple mix. From what I've looked up ice decided to do.
50%, 30% peat/coco mix and 20% drainage pearlite/ vermiculite mix.
How is this mix will this work, I'm planning on doing organic growing.
The 3 varieties I've decided to grow are Matt's Wild Cherry, garden gem, and last is undetermined still maybe a determinate that's known to do good in containers.
by IllUnderstanding4878
4 Comments
Be mindful of the peat not acidifying too much, you might want to leave it out or get it well mixed with the right amount of lime and leave it for a year
I see no issue with peat if you balance the acidity with lime. 50% compost sounds heavy. Root compaction can be a real problem in containers if the soil isn’t light and fluffy.
Is there a reason for you to mix your own growing medium? I know it’s pricey at this scale to buy growing medium, but unless you somehow already have a sufficient amount of finished compost on hand you’re still going to be paying a decent amount to make your own. For a new gardener I would recommend just buying your potting medium.
I would just leave out the coco. If your already getting peat why bother with the hassle.
My recipe I made and used last year was beautiful and grew amazing plants, it was:
2 parts compost (1 part mushroom compost + 1 part composted manure) to 2 parts peat
1/2 part perlite
1/2 part vermiculite
1 Part worm castings
1 tbsp dolomitic lime per gallon of soil.
I just used a large Folgers coffee container to measure out all my parts and hand mixed it.
I would recommend going for 20G containers/grow bags for tomatoes.