Triple mix??

[budboy299]

gonna try and make the switch from chems to organic....


My local agricultural place has "triple mix" which is 1/3 topsoil, 1/3 peat, and 1/3 compost

does anyone see any problems to use this as a base to start? obviously some ammedments would be added....perlite, or coir, oyster shell flour etc.

My only concern is that it is stored outside and could bring in pests. Other than that is there any consensus as to whether this is a decent starting point?

 

[slap14]

Hard to tell what is in the topsoil and i would personally like less peat but overall but not a bad starting point as long as you add quite few other items and let it all cook for awhile. The number one thing I would add is an equal amount of worm castings, so say you have a 2 cubit foot bag of the above mix add about .75 cubic feet of castings. Good luck

 

[Seamaiden]

Tis the soil season, so I'm bumping this. I like going with bulk topsoil and the triple mix budboy was asking about seems a great place to start. I would further lighten it up with rice hulls or similar, and I also like sand to help keep things draining well as well as slowly offering up some minerals. I prefer play (silica) sand to any other sand.

I have not found pests to be the bigger problem with using bulk mixes, I have found the texture to be a problem when using in pots. This is greatly alleviated by adding something like peat and rice hulls. I use the rice hulls as a replacement for perlite, and am also beginning to experiment with using them to make biochar. If going with a potted mix, I understand that using 10% biochar, or a 1:9 ratio (I hope that's right) is a good target.