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23 Comments
Well, my native soil is 80 % sand. Living in central East Florida is hard to find good native soil. So we have to relay in bags of dirt, compost with cow manure and others to fill my raise beds.
Thank you! I learn so much from your videos.
Thanks 😊
I pot a bunch of flowers every spring as well as some herbs and odds and ends around the patio. At the end of each year I take that spent potting soil and throw it in my garden beds, and turn it in with about 2x as much high quality compost as spent potting soil to help aerate my heavy clay soil in all my in-ground garden beds.
This is great advice. Potting mix is NOT soil (or what some professionals call "mineral soil"). Potting mix is usually just peat, perlite, and wood chips like Luke said. Whereas TRUE soil has broken down minerals (rocks that were eroded for millions of years), humus, microbiota (fungi, beneficial bacteria, protozoa, beneficial nematodes, etc), even charcoal (a result of natural wildfires). Trying to grow plants long term in potting mix is like trying to sustain your body solely on sport drinks, meal replacement shakes, and vitamin infused smoothies alone. There's a channel called Gardening in Canada where a soil scientist talks in detail about mineral soil vs potting mix.
Important video.
In Florida I cannot use native soil as our soil base is sand. I have used raised garden bed soil and compost. I am now dealing with bad nematodes in my garden and fire ants – they killed all my plants
You are not getting to the point you want to teach plant science which I don't understand I just want to know what medium to use for long term
So i got these white eggs on the under side of my watermelon vines anybody know what that could be and how to get ride of them i got them growing in a raised bed with 2 different pepper varieties,a blueberry plant a passion vine and some Egyptian spinach underneath a shade cloth but the watermelon has overtaken the shade cloth so it had way too much foilage for me to check every square inch 😅
When I amended my garden soil with humus and manure before planting, the plants did really well. When I didn't amend with anything, the plants grew poorly.
My garden soil looked worse than that. So many wood chips. Will NEVER go that route again.
I've tried everything. Nothing has been acceptable. I mix potting soil in what I have to fluff up my soil, garden soil too compact. Leaf grow was so dry it ruined plants this year. The kind I bought is pretty clean– no wood chips. I haven't use potting mix until this fall. I do mix leaves and this year I'm planting cover crops.
Thank you.
I 100% agree that native soil (as amended is best)! Just 2 things to add 1) Potting mix often contains a fair proportion of peat moss, which doesn’t offer nutrients 2) If using “elevated” garden beds (ie 2-3 ft off the ground) – be careful as they will typically Not support the weight of anything more than potting mix. I have elevated garden beds, and now accept the fact that with potting mix aka “growing medium” I am essentially Hydroponic growing- I cannot expect any nutrients from the “growing medium “ and am resigned to fertilizer
I know miracle gro potting soil when I see it. So many wood chips
Ok so I did the Mels Mix thing with peat moss vermiculite and 3 different composts – earthworm castings cow manure and mushroom – and then topped up every year with the three composts. Yeah my garden is pathetic. Always problems and low yields and bitter lettuces
TLDR; skip video if you’re based in a big city, don’t have a large space, can’t raise chickens, small backyard, cement backyard, only plant in containers.
What about leaf mulch? I'm hearing a lot of people say they top their beds off with several inches of leaf mulch and plant in that mulch. How do you feel about planting in deep layers of leaf much?
really good
I only learned the difference between potting mix and potting soil a couple of weeks ago. Now I only buy potting soil. Potting mix has no soil.
Bought 3 different brands of potting mix this year and they all had big chunks of wood in them. None of them looked good. Mixed it with half or more compost. The potted plants did ok. But not as well as those in the ground. I also add fertilizer 1 to2 times a months
so they get some nutrients.
I try to turn my compost pile every fall. I have to add new stuff in the front til Fall cause I grow pumpkins and squash on top the pile on the summer.
Thanks for sharing !!!!! 😊🙏👍❤️