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mixing potting soil - coco and soil conditioner/mulch

SivadSivad Posts: 6
in Problem solving

Dear Fellow Gardeners

I have a small area of concrete I want to fill with containers and I'm trying to think of how to mix up some slightly acidic potting soil.

I have 5 bags of Pro-grow soil conditioner which is mulched/composted garden waste by a company in Hampshire.

I was thinking the basic ingredients could be about 33% soil conditioner mulch and 50% coconut husk fibre, with perlite for aeration and a little vermiculite making up the rest of the soil. I have some miccorrhyzae to increase micro-biology activity and a few other bits like rock dust and kelp meal. I will have gypsum to add for calcium as I know coco based soil often lacks calcium.

Can any experienced gardeners out there tell me if I absolutely must have a third component in a bag of compost to stabilise things and is it a bad idea to have half the mix coco fibre ?

I think the ph of the soil conditioner is about 8.3 and coco is about 6 so what ratio would they go well together at ? and do I need compost rather than coco as the abundant ingredient?

Thanks to anyone with the time to give a good answer !!!

Sivad

Posts

  • LoganLogan Posts: 2,532
    It has to be sterilized soil based,if you google it you can find out thereimage
  • SivadSivad Posts: 6

    I see, I've used coconut fibre and washed it with water and a bit of eucalyptus oil and hydrogen peroxide to kill any pathogens so that's part of the way there.

     

  • SivadSivad Posts: 6

    I was thinking something like this:

    image

     The stuff on the left is his homemade compost but it looks a lot like my soil conditoner that I could use in this way.

    I think

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