Re: The Innes potting mixes.

Michael, et. al.:

Here's an interesting timeline...

The John Innes Horticultural Institute in England
developed their first mixes in 1939.

Not even a handful of years later (1941), the
University of California started developing their "UC
System" of mixes.

They did their work because the original John Innes
mixes were difficult to reproduce (the "loam" was an
English specialty), the sterilizing process led to
some dangerous residues, the mix was heavy, and labor
was intensive.

The "UC Mixes" were various ratios of fine sand and
peat moss with a number of fertilizer variations.

This "system" "hit the market" in the 1950's and is
still used by many large-size container plant growers,
particularly in California.

Then in the 1960s, the good people at Cornell
University introduced Peat-Lite mixes with half peat
moss and half vermiculite or perlite, along with lime,
nutrients, and wetting agents.

For the bedding plant, small pot plant, and "color"
industry, the Cornell mixes are the formulas of
choice.

What I've found in my many years in the commercial
plant industries, is that the big guys almost always
use these big time formulas.  The little guys, who
grow barely 20% of the plants produced but who
represent 70%  of the growing companies, almost always
develop their own "custom" mixes that frequently have
nothing to do with ANY of the professional formulae.

With all due respect to the halls of English gardening
education, there are plenty of good books in America,
written by smart Americans, that offer all manner of
suitable soil mix formulas, based on our conditions
and available resources.

Joe Seals
Santa Maria, CA
Between Santa Barbara and Monterey, about 15 minutes
from the rocky coast.

--- Michael Barclay <operatic@earthlink.net> wrote:
> Dear Medit-Planters,
> February 21, 2001
> 
> One can not even read a good British nursery's
> catalog without constant
> references to Innes #2,  Innes seed mix,  Innes
> plus...etc.  I'm sure
> there isn't a British gardener worth his salt that
> doesn't know the
> Innes formulae by heart,  perhaps at birth.  They
> also know sequestrene
> and don't even bother to state that it's a brand
> name.
> 
> I'm sure I can find complete information about John
> Innes and his potting
> composts on the web and I'm not being lazy BUT would
> one of our many UK
> members post about how these mixes were developed, 
> where and when, and
> what an ignorant Yankee can substitute to achieve
> the intents of the
> various formulae.
> 
> It would be great if it were someone who has
> gardened in both the UK and the
> USA but any attempt to help the benighted will be
> greatly appreciated. 
> By the way here in the US we have a product called
> Vitatone which is
> "citrate" of
> iron and beats Sequestrene to a pulp when one is
> trying to grow acid loving
> plants in California's airless, alkaline, sticky
> clay in a district
> where the water
> is buffered up to a PH of 8.6 "to prolong the life
> of the ubiquitous copper
> water piping."
> 
> A tip from me via Judith Beresford.  If  you are a
> tea drinker save all
> your used
> tea leaves and cold tea and dump them around acid
> loving shrubs and trees
> like Japanese maples or rhododendrons.  It is an
> outstanding soil
> acidifier and
> tonic-though it may keep certain delicate species up
> too late at night.
> 
> Cheers-
> 
> Michael D. Barclay, "America's Garden Wizard"
> opga@wenet.net
> better: operatic@earthlink.net
> www.operalover.net
> 
> PS-Could our helpful expert state the ingredients in
> the Innes formula
> first,  and then suggest American alternatives, 
> perhaps more than one.
> Blessings!
> 


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