Hi, Planting outdoor plants 4 my first time. I was wondering, I've seen conflicting information on how deep to dig your holes. Do you dig 1 ft deep x 1 ft across or 3 ft. deep x 3 feet across? 4 x 4? more? I'm putting my own soil in & using gardener lining to outfit the holes. I dont wanna go too crazy on depth cause I'm on state property (less work=faster,etc) so please give me what the bare minimum required is to have a decent well-rounded plant. I'm not shooting for excessive buds (although that'd b nice obviously) just an average plant with an average amount of buds! Also, I'm confused on what order to put everything in the hole in. For example, here's all the stuff I got so far for what I'm planning on filling the holes with: - Gardener lining (or trash bags) - GardenTone Potting Soil - Fish Hydroslate (or i might just throw a gutted trout in each hole) (N) - polymer crystals - Worm Casting (N) - Bone Meal (P) - Molasses (K) - Peat Moss (surface material) - Egg shells (lime) I also have some neem oil & ladybugs in case I notice pests trying to overtake my plants. So with all those ingredients, what is the best stack order when filling the holes?? Also, I'm confused about liquid nutrients vs the nutrients that already come inside your soil. After your plants are transplanted to your soil, do you still need to buy liquid NPK nutrients to supplement the soil or does the soil alone offer enough of the NPK without buying extra liquid NPKs? Any help much appreciated, thanks!
Dig your holes 2x2 or 3x3 and 16-18" deep. Do not line the hole with plastic bags. Mix your base soil with 3 parts, 1/3 peat, 1/3 of the potting mix (mix your EWC with the potting mix 50/50) and you need some sort of drainage like perlite or lava rock at 1/3 part. If using the molasses, put it in the water when irrigating. You would benefit from adding kelp meal and alfalfa to the list of original amendments. Add 1/2 cup of lime per cuft of soil mix to adjust the acidity of the peat. Add the rest of your amendments together and use at a rate of 2 cups/cuft of soil mix. Do not layer the ingredients, mix all portions of the mix well before adding to the hole. Fill the hole back in with a mixture of your soil mix and the original soil removed from the hole, 1/2 soil mix and 1/2 original soil. Water, then let this cycle for a couple of weeks before planting, then plant the new plant into the hole. You should not need to use bottled nutrients if you include enough organic fertilizers in the beginning of the planting. Here is a good organic thread on building soils: Easy Organic Soil Mix for Beginners PW
Why don't U want to use garden liner? Sum1 told me that it helps keep foreign roots from invading? And egg shells good enough for the lime, right? I'm assuming since you didnt mention anything that they are.
The liner will inhibit the roots from spreading out into the natural soil and will not drain well. If your plants grow well, they could get root bound in the liner. This would be like a landscaper planting a new plant with the pot still on, you always remove the pot when planting. The egg shells are liming agents, but are very slow release and not enough to buffer the peat at first. I would still add more lime. EWC is earthworm castings. I am suggesting to mix 50/50 with the potting soil for that 1/3 part of the recipe. Do not worry about competing roots, plant in an area away from large shrubs that would compete. Here is a pic of plants from last year only a few feet away from large cedar and pine trees: These planting holes only had compost, perlite, and alfalfa hay scraps from the barn floor plus two handfuls of a dry fertilizer mix like Dr Earth or Espoma brand dry organic fertilizers. These do not look stunted from nearby roots and have no liner in the hole. At harvest they grew to 10'. PW
Awesome! Those plants look maaad healthy too! I pretty much got everything U recommended, maybe just switch out my egg shell idea with an actual bag of dolomite. If U have any time/knowledge on this thread, I would much appreciate any help U could give too Rockwool cube lighting/water schedule? I'm a little confused on watering & lighting for my initial startup.