The thing about well-rotted manure and garden compost (home-made in a compost bin, not bought potting compost) is that they are good for improving any soil type - clay, sand, whatever - so can be recommended for any garden. I suspect that some of the not-very-good woodchip/bark/green-waste peat-free potting composts might be OK as soil conditioners if someone can't get rotted manure and hasn't got homemade compost, but I haven't tried them in earnest.
Grit might help to open up some soil types but I think it would take a lot - I amended some potting compost to plant sempervivums recently and it was about a third grit before it drained any differently, even in pots, so I think you'd need a trailerload to make any difference to anything but the tiniest area of ground.
Doncaster, South Yorkshire. Soil type: sandy, well-drained
@Jac19 I appreciate your private message but prefer to make up my own mind on people Thanks. Please try and play nicely as my old mum used to say.
I sincerely hope that the moderators are aware of all the disruptive behaviours that this otherwise good forum, new posters and regular members are being subjected to by Jac19.
Mine is to use them scientifically in the best place and as the best part of the process. I mulch in farmyard manure immensely, at the top where it can use atmospheric N2 using beneficial bacteria in the manure to convert it to ammonia.
@Jac19 I'm sorry but I think the last link you posted is still about container gardening - I see no reference to digging JI No3 into borders.
The John Innes recipes are just that - they are recipes. In the same way that a recipe for a traditional victoria sponge is the same whether Delia, Nigella or Jamie makes it so JI Nos 1, 2 and 3 are a laid down recipe.
You can play around with a victoria sponge recipe but then it's no longer a traditional victoria sponge.
Similarly JI No3 in a container will be all the right ratios of ingredients for supporting plant growth as researched by the JI Institute.
Once you add JI to border soil you destroy all those ratios so what is the point of using a carefully researched recipe?
Heaven is ... sitting in the garden with a G&T and a cat while watching the sun go down
Absolutely not ever about container gardening. Never occurred to me. Someone grabbed onto it from something in a link, where I never talked anything about it.
JI, only 1 of several things I use, was originally developed for planting. Adapted later for potting. H grit/sand for ground planting. Worms for ground planting. Fertilizer for ground planting.
I never use JI on its own for planting. With Grit/sand, manure, compost and fertilizer as I posted.
I'm pretty sure the recipes were always designed for container planting, to give the right balance of ingredients for raising different stages of plants in containers. I've never seen any reference to it being used in the ground, and as Topbird says, that would defeat the point of a recipe.
Scroll down to section on The development of the composts where you will read that the composts were developed for seed sowing and potting ….. straight from the horse’s mouth.
Now that has been incontrovertibly established let’s move on …
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
JI is just mixed up compost and H. grit/sand and the valuable loam mainly. The part I value most from JI is the loam. You can mix it up as separate things if you want, like I mix in H Grit/sand and compost separately also to the mix. I take the valuable loam from JI which is superb for plants, easier than buying separately. Only 1 ingredient of many I mix up at the right place.
Sounds like the equivalent of watering your garden with premier cru champagne because it contains water 🤣
Bags of sieved topsoil are readily available from garden centres and bulk suppliers at a much more reasonable price than JI potting composts, and if you’re going to be adding horticultural grit it will do the same job as loam.
Now let’s move on …
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Posts
Mine is to use them scientifically in the best place and as the best part of the process. I mulch in farmyard manure immensely, at the top where it can use atmospheric N2 using beneficial bacteria in the manure to convert it to ammonia.
Attacks trashing talking proven milk into dog poo are yours.
I'm sorry but I think the last link you posted is still about container gardening - I see no reference to digging JI No3 into borders.
The John Innes recipes are just that - they are recipes. In the same way that a recipe for a traditional victoria sponge is the same whether Delia, Nigella or Jamie makes it so JI Nos 1, 2 and 3 are a laid down recipe.
You can play around with a victoria sponge recipe but then it's no longer a traditional victoria sponge.
Similarly JI No3 in a container will be all the right ratios of ingredients for supporting plant growth as researched by the JI Institute.
Once you add JI to border soil you destroy all those ratios so what is the point of using a carefully researched recipe?
JI, only 1 of several things I use, was originally developed for planting. Adapted later for potting.
H grit/sand for ground planting.
Worms for ground planting.
Fertilizer for ground planting.
I never use JI on its own for planting. With Grit/sand, manure, compost and fertilizer as I posted.
Have to work.
The development of the composts where you will read that the composts were developed for seed sowing and potting ….. straight from the horse’s mouth.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
Bags of sieved topsoil are readily available from garden centres and bulk suppliers at a much more reasonable price than JI potting composts, and if you’re going to be adding horticultural grit it will do the same job as loam.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.