GROWING IN PEAT

nannymouse

nannymouse

Well-known member
What is your experience growing in peat moss, as a base?

What did you add, and why?

Special treatments? (Like how coco is loaded with calcium, at the start)

I'm considering starting all my veggies and houseplants in peat. Why? Tired of the commercial potting mix that is full of bugs, maybe contaminated with virus and other things. I really don't want to use perlite with it. maybe lava rock.
 
Almost all my grows have been with ProMix...3 to 5 parts peat to 1 part worm castings (for microbes, trace element, moisture retention, etc.).
Usually watered in nutes, but did organic mixes a couple times.
Is an extremely good medium to work with.
Would usually use it 2 or 3 times, and then dispose in the veggie garden outside.
 
Thanks, @Butcher Bob . We have a couple of bokashi buckets that have been going all winter. I wonder if that has enough 'live' stuff going on, to give the peat a good start. Not really sure how much of the juice to add, so will be researching that, maybe all that i have to do is get the juice to the correct pH, by adding water, i dunno. Worm castings is a fave, and i need to get another bag. I also have a bit of Rasoul clay, and might add just a tad. Plus, i have been using an old bottle of hydroguard, which all the plants seemed to like, so will probably be adding that to the initial mixing.

I also made some 'cal', by doing the eggshell-vinegar thing, and might add a bit of that.
 
I have used promix bx for years and ive thought about adding w/c or other organic or knf amendments but never did. I keep it simple, 8ml Floranova Bloom per gal H2O and I skip the FNB every 3 feeds and go plain H2O with 1 tsp Ca & small pinch of boron per 5 gal H20. This gets used in veg & flower.

This works for my busy schedule


peace
 
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Pro-mix blends are great, except for the perlite, which sticks out like a sore thumb if you dispose of your soil in the outdoor gardens. I use it anyway! I use 4 parts Pro-mix HP + 1 part worm castings. The castings provide most of the N needed for veg; after veg I start applying PBP Bloom, Soil formula (it has less N than their regular Bloom formula). I add gypsum, fish products, epsom salts, molasses during flower. Always at less than the recommended strength; usually about half-strength on the PBP.
 
Here’s what I do that’s worked for me
I just switched to pro mix myself and used to grow with sunshine #4. I add dr. Earth compost, pure gold worm castings with rock phosphate and add compost teas once a month or every week if the soil mix gets tooo dry(flower stage). I do two methods of feeding super soil powder nutrients (outdoors) And bottled nutrients for indoor (heavy 16 and NFTG) and have had amazing reults IMG_5522.jpegIMG_4965.jpeg
Motor breath OG x animal cookies (pic) and motorbreath x purple punch (nug pic)!! I am in love with the motorbreath
 

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Fucking love peat. It’s the base of my mix that I’ve been reusing for almost 4 years now. Pumice/pea gravel for aeration. Compost, initially. “Modified Cornell mix” Plus oyster shell flour to buffer pH. Eventually I mix a shitload of malted barley (literally 1 cup/gallon of mix) into my ‘spent’ peat based medium and let it get fuzzy and rest for a couple of months, then back into the rotation. I bought one of those bricks of sphagnum peat at Lowe’s in 2021 for like 9 bucks and still have a bunch left in the bale. Don’t forget to don an N95 before working with it.
 
i dumped almost a bale of peat in a trash can, and added a bunch of bokashi bucket juice, a while back. Smells...um, like stinky socks, but then after stirred a little, smells sorta more like pickles or sourkraut, but maybe better. It's a start. I have used it for a few little 'up pottings' and the plants are going great, so far. It hasn't really had much time to 'work', needs more 'air' for larger pots. Need some worm castings, too.

Almost time to order some red wigglers. Been wanting to start a bin for a long time.
 
Not really an aversion, i still use it, if i can find the larger bags on sale. But, usually can't find the BIG bags, and those little ones are frightful price, and sometimes too much dust in the bag. Lava rock is actually easier to find (not haul around, tho) , gives a little ballast to light containers, and seems to last longer. There are scoria pits that are less than a hundred miles away, and i might check out how that works, and think about a trip to the pits. We have landscaping that is ten years past 'due', so could use extra. Lots extra.
 
Our water is base. In outdoors veggies, if using 'native' soil, that's base, too. We're in an alkaline area. It's glacial dump, and we've found that trees that grow well can be just ten feet from trees that don't. I used satellite images to see that the ground on one side is 'white', the other is dark, and am assuming that the white side is the more alkaline. Haven't done soil test there, yet, but when i get around to it....
 
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