For anyone who's turned a load of compost by hand even once knows that it's a labor of love. To do it over and over again and have it not work is beyond disappointing. For now I'll stick with ocean forest and try to keep making more soil with store bought compost until I get it right. Does anyone know if a soil analysis is useful in this situation?
Hard to see anything in the pics. I let my VC sit dormant for 6 months longer if I can. Gotta wait it out over the winter.
The pictures show loss of rich green color, purpling of stems, burning leaf tips, and early yellowing down low. When they go into flower they get progressively yellow and lose nearly all fan leaves prematurely
The current plants are in 2 gallons. The plant with flowers is in 10 gallons. Initially I expected a pH issue because I had not been checking pH at all but the runoff pH at the time was 6.4.
Hey All, Upon rechecking my soil, my 2 large batches of ITGs mix had pH of 7.2 and 7.5. The ocean forest I tested was 6.8. What should I add to my soil? Some type of sulfur?
kelp + peatmoss tea let steep overnight 1/4 cup each to a quart jar. dilute tea into 2 gal water water that in. You need larger than 2 gal containers I think.
Hey All, Just following up on my soil building problem. I had 2 near identical plants and I place one in plain ocean forest and the other in ocean forest mixed with about 20% of my homemade compost and the plant in my compost is clearly falling behind its sister in growth so I think I've isolated my problem. Sadly, I'm going to stick with store bought compost until I can get the soil building dialed in. In the meantime I brought one of my outdoor plants which was in ITGs mix with my compost and was yellowing and not looking healthy at all (pic 1 bottom left). After a week in ocean forest the plant has bounced back. New problem, the plant I brought inside has the slightest amount of WPM. I sprayed with green cure and will continue with weekly neem. Should I keep going with sprays or just get rid of the diseased plant. I've never dealt with WPM before so I don't know how aggressive this stuff is.
Bottom left is the yellowing I see in ITGs mix. Top right is also in the same soil but not doing as bad but still way behind the others (to left and bottom right) which are in ocean forest
Bottom left plant no longer looking sick after transplant into ocean forest. Still don't understand if that means my soil has too much or too little of something. Would a soil analysis help in troubleshooting organic soil problems?
As an outside grower Powdery Mildew is just part of the things I have to fight so I spray Cure or it's equivalent once a week start to finish of the plant's lifecycle. The mildew spore is everywhere so I've just learned to live with it. As long as I stay on top of my weekly spraying I never see a trace of it. PM and Caterpillars are the two things I must spray for. BNW
Did you add any estra perlite to the pot you added compost to. Aeration / drainage is important too. Gluck Cheers Os
Wow, Thank you for the thread and the original post/ recipe! First posted in 2012 and still going strong. What a great bunch here…
I just stumbled onto this, being a new convert to organic myself. I've just popped about $200 in raw ingredients, enough to make a new planet almost and I’m very interested in the answer to your question. Sorry to hear about your soil problems. I would hate to add $100 bucks in seeds plus electricity and weeks of heartache to my list and find out my new planet sucked. I feel your pain. It wouldn’t be much of a stretch to pay the $15 for a soil analysis through your County Extension!
Yeah I'm just not sure if a traditional soil analysis will work in the setting of organics. Anybody know?
Yes of course. Soil test is testing soil.... has nothing to do with how it was made the tests are showing you whats in the soil and how to manage it going forward. When I get my report they usually suggest some sort of fertilizer IF its needed.