Re: CULT: Potting

From: Linda Mann <lmann@icx.net>

Walter Moores wrote:
> I ran out of four inch plastic pots, and when I went to Wal-Mart to 
> get some more, I found that the price had gone up to $.97 ea.  

Walter, you aren't buying enough big bedding plants in the spring <G>. 
I use the really flimsy little 6-pack type 4 inch pots.  They sometimes
split after several years, but otherwise work fine.  Our local nursery
sells bedding plants for 50 cents to $1.50 in this size pot.  I use them
to start tomatos etc in spring, then to hold irises in the summer in the
shade.  I pack them into flats and put them where they get some morning
sun after they've settled a bit, then soak them with the hose twice a
day when it's hot and sunny if I remember.  I don't trim roots, so they
tend to start growing out of the bottom of the pots within a few weeks,
before they get rootbound.  Usually, I coordinate setting them out in
the row as it rains, setting out the ones with the most roots sticking
out of the pots with each rainfall, but the weather hasn't been
cooperating this year - lots of anxious irises wanting to grow longer
roots.

The mix I use is more or less equal parts of well rotted horse manure,
clay fill or seived garden soil (to get out the rocks >3/8 inch), and
creek sand (handy fresh deposits from the creek under my driveway with
every heavy rain), with very generous additions of alfalfa pellets and
potting mix from the above mentioned nursery (their special
concoction).  A dash of ground limestone and a taste of 6-12-12 with
micro-nutrients.

Linda Mann east Tennessee USA
cloudy, muggy, and migraine


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