Hello! Does anyone here make their own soil mixtures without purchased materials? If you look for home made soil, its usually just a mix of bought ingredients like peat moss, coco coir, perlite etc. Peat moss is fossil, coco coir and perlite is certainly not from around here so definitely transported long ways.

Now, I’m no gardener but I can see that all the native plants around me don’t have any of that luxury, yet they thrive. Compost is the next obvious answer, but if you haven’t yet had time to establish one, what options are there?

I’ve successfully grown plants like tomatoes, strawberries, herbs and salad in a mix of gravel, local manure, topsoil and rotted wood.

I am looking for recipes and information on such mixes as I often struggle with drainage which killed my cucumbers. I need huge amounts of gravel to keep the silty manure from clogging up my pots but 3kg pots become quite silly too and the gravel makes repotting an almost sure death to any roots I want to move.

What are the consequences of using uncomposted organic materials? Some gardeners say soil acidity usually solves itself through microbes, yet the common saying is that it must be composted first.

Happy gardening Cheers

  • Ludicrous0251@piefed.zipEnglish
    31·
    14 days ago

    You seem to already know compost is the answer - if you have the space it does not take very long to get a good pile going and start seeing some results.

    But if you absolutely need soil now, check if there are any local community or industrial composing facilities nearby and call them to see if they offer fresh composed soil directly.

    For drainage, leaves and sticks are the free option.

    Also if it fits your space, you could consider swapping from hard pots to softer cloth pots which have great drainage and allow air to reach more of the roots.

    For mixing in uncomposted food, it’s easier to balance acidity if you have a bulk compost setup, but if you’re selective about what goes in, chucking a few low-acid veggies in the bottom of your bins probably won’t hurt anything. Hell, some things may even prefer acidic soils. Just bury them deep or critters will come searching.

    • Kaffeburk@lemmy.worldOPEnglish
      2·
      14 days ago

      Yea the pile is cooking but spring is here so seeds got to get planted! I’m very hesitant to buying external anything since I don’t have killer slugs here (yet) and i really really don’t want them.

      Leaves and sticks are the uncomposted (plant)foods I’m thinking of, not so much food scraps.

      Fabric pots sound cool, will look into diy options for that, but yea, that takes time too.

      Thanks for chiming in!