Re: CULT: ?help - potting mix

In a message dated 9/6/2007 9:06:58 AM Eastern Daylight Time,  
lmann@lock-net.com writes:

<<No help from you guys when I asked before, & cruising the  web didn't 
turn up much.  So I'll pester you folks again: I'm using  Miracle Gro Potting 
Mix for an emergency planting bed (unexpected bunch of  extra plants).Have 
any of you used it for growing irises and if so, is there  anything 
I need to add to it to adjust pH or  fertility?>>
 
Let me speak to the question generally, then specifically.


I've used Miracle Gro potting soil for various things, and  I've used an 
equivalent product to grow mature bearded irises once in  pots, and my experience 
suggests that you will find that  independent of the question of nutrients, 
the product is too light and  friable to support the growth of mature irises. 
 
Unless they can get their roots far down, which they may  or may not be 
inclined to do if down is harder going, they will spread  those roots laterally and 
tend to topple as they are subjected  to wind. One of my beds has a soil 
mixture that is too light, and  this is what I see, even though my light soil is 
rich, amended with sand,  topdressed annually, and cultivated to a depth of 
eighteen inches. My rizomes  tend to pull themselves under to a depth of about 
two and half inches in this  bed. 
 
I trust you are speaking of the regular MiracleGrow stuff?  As I have 
mentioned,  I consider  the MoistureControl a  bad product because it stays too wet. 
Of the Miracle-Gro potting mix  generally, I have mixed opinions and I am 
looking for an alternate  product to use next year. My last two bags were riddled 
with fungus gnats,  which may be the fault of the nursery storage, although I 
suspect not,  and another bag bought somewhere was laced with the spores  of 
some really bizarre mushrooms. Lavender cloud ears and little liver colored  
gumdrops. All of this suggests poor hygeine somewhere in the  system. I used to 
use Peters' but can't find it and the Fafard crap is  nothing but peat and 
perlite, neither of which I have any use for in the  garden. 
 
So, back to your question: I would not use that in a bed  unless I added 
amendments to improve soil density and add  nutrients and physically integrated it 
into the existing  soil/terrain. 
 
I do not think you can just spread it out on the surface and plant, even  in 
an emergency situation. 
 
I would run a wide tined tiller through the bed after I spread, or  fork it 
over roughly if there are too many rocks to till, then  I'd add sand, possibly 
even gravel, some lime since it is likely to be  about 5.5 ph--check the bag 
label-- , a lot of alfalfa, a bag  of Plant-tone or some composted cow 
manure--Black Kow is the brand of  choice here-- and I'd mix that up roughly. If the 
budget permitted, I'd  add a sufficiency of Osmacote balanced slow release. I'd 
water this mess  and then let it mellow a week or ten days and rake it over.
 
Then I'd plant the rhizomes--you are talking about bearded irises here,  
right?--- and I'd spread a one inch thick layer of pine bark mini nuggets  or 
something similar over the surface, keeping well away from the  actual rhizomes. 
Not a thick layer, just enough to break the force of falling  rain and retard 
washing, which is likely to be a problem with that  light stuff unless you 
manage the surface grade just right. 
 
Speaking from experience in Richmond, VA.
 
Anner Whitehead  





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