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[INDOOR-GARDENING:32] Re: Water and soil hardening

At 11:48 PM 1/16/99 -0500, you wrote:
>Hello, my name is Helen and I am recently wondering about my water...  Is it
>possible that the water is responsible for the soil in my pots becoming very
>hard and dry after awhile?  It's actually a kind of "shrinking" - despite
>the vermiculite and sand I put into potting soil, after awhile it seems
>there's less of the stuff in the pots and it's feels hard and light, almost
>like styrofoam.  Is it due to some sort of chemicals in the water I use?

The water can contribute, but the main culprit is likely to be vermiculite,
which breaks down after a while and starts to pack down.  A better potting
mix addition is Perlite (the white stuff), which will preserve the crucial
air spaces in the soil over time.

Personally, I stopped using commercial potting mixes years ago for this
very reason.  I mix my own combination of 1:1:1 sterilized soil, milled
peat moss (not the cheap black sludgy stuff), and Perlite.  Plants thrive
and the mix holds up well over time.

-- Karen
Listmom, Indoor Gardening Mailing List

Karen Fletcher                                   kef@prairienet.org
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