Print

[Radium]

Does such a thing exist at all?
Only using common mineral additives? (like gypsum)

Loose soil lets plants shoot roots rapidly and fastens their growth.
But eventually watering will compact any soil I've seen, and turn it rock hard.

How can one prevent it?

[LSoares]

I'm not sure I understand your question. When you say "rock hard", you mean turned into a solid mass that you need to use force to break apart? That will happen if you have too much clay in your mix. Peat is also prone to "caking" if you don't use some sort of surfactant agent, either when mixing the soil or when watering. These are the ones I can remember, so the answer to your question would be to go easy on clayey components and/or keep your peat content low. An alternative to peat is coir, but I don't have much experience with either of them, I mostly use mineral mixes.

Since you mention "soil mix" I'm assuming you are talking about culture in pots, right?

[Radium]

Yes I'm talking about mixing soil for pots.
And yes, it was a fluffy nice and loose compost-rich soil, but after just one watering, it turned into a hard lump, which needs needs force to break.

What if I want to improve the soil I already explained instead of discarding it?
What can I add to the mix? more compost? gypsum? gravel? ash? charcoal powder?

[mj]

I have recently made a switch to a growing mix based upon 60% shredded Sphagnum Moss and 40% worm castings. You can adjust this with grit/sand or more organics if desired and you can substitute the worm castings with a high quality compost to suit your needs. The Sphagnum moss will hold lots of water but it never fully saturates like coco coir can. I read somewhere that even when totally saturated Sphagnum Moss still manages to be 22% open for air so that the roots always have fresh air to breath. There are other benefits to Sphagnum Moss if you read up on it. I find that the basic mix with worm castings is very good for rooting cuttings.
   I was using the moist paper towel in a zip lock baggie to root my leaf cutting. I found this very convenient and handy but I found that the roots of the cuttings would weave themselves into the wet paper towel and I would often damage the roots when trying to extricate them from the paper towel when it was time to transplant. Now I use shredded Sphagnum rather than paper towel and there is zero issue at transplant time, any moss on the roots can stay where it is when the cutting are placed into the pot. No shock of changing mediums either as the cuttings were rooted in Sphagnum and the potting mix is 60% sphagnum. I am delighted with the results so far. Regards mj.

1 Like Radium likes this.

[LIBERTYNY]

 I think we should touch on the time-frame that amendments take to break down, and what they break down to . . .

 Ricehulls are great amendment but decompose within a year or 2
 feathers (not feather meal) works well also and partly decomposes within a year, then the rest hangs around for atleast 5 years (in my experience)

1 Like Radium likes this.

[Radium]

Oh feathers?? 
Does that work by being hydrophobic? like the famous duck feathers?

How about human hair? curly coiled balls of it, like shaved pubic hair?
It is not hydrophobic, but still the complex net it builds would trap some air, and also prevent soil fragments to unite into clumps.
All while releasing good old N for plants slowwwwwly, like a time-release fertilizer,
And oh, it's free and available even at Antarctica 

1 Like LIBERTYNY likes this.

[Radium]

I made a thread solely about pubic hair
http://sharetheseeds.me/forum/index.php?topic=3881.msg29235;topicseen#msg29235

1 Like LIBERTYNY likes this.

[Sunshine]

Try adding some cedar mulch to your mix. It's a natural pest repellant and will help the soil stay fluffy. It slowly breaks down over time allowing for some 'give'.  Coco coir is a great soIL additive as well. Plus it's antifungal.

Ocean sand will help prevent clumping if you have access to it.

1 Like LIBERTYNY likes this.

[LIBERTYNY]

 Im not realy sure how feathers work, besides the general texture and mayabe thermo expansion / contraction ? ?

Feathers , and human hair are both composed mainly of keratin so they should have very similar quality's Like a fair amount of silica

1 nice thing about human hair is it can repel animals (Im guessing that does not apply to hippy hair) 

 Cedar is great stuff, thats what thay make some of those essential oil plant tonic's from like "HB-101 Plant Vitalizer"  Free Sample  by the way   ---   http://www.hb-101usa.com/

Theirs also something called ' RAMIAL CHIPPED WOOD' which is susposto be much better than standard wood chips. Check it out ---   http://www.dirtdoctor.com/organic/garden/view_org_research/id/69/

[Sunshine]

Rubber mulch like the stuff found in playgrounds could work. It won't decompose for a long time too. I haven't tested it though...

[TBM]

Ah rubber mulch, made of old shredded tires iirc. Might want to look into if it's synthetic or natural rubber being used to make the mulch. I remember there was a playground that had rubber mulch when I was a kid, smelled like tires on a hot day. Rubber mulch might emit noxious compounds into the soil depending on what kind it is, if it's natural rubber it would likely breakdown faster (but still take forever compared to other soil additives).

[Hummingbird]

Seems to me that most soils get compact after it dries too much, and stays that way for some time.
I used styrofoam as a last resort for that problem, it works fine but only short term. And I'm not sure how it affects the microflora.
 Perlite should be better because of the greater water retention, but I never could find it here.
Sand and gravel mixed with some random potting mix I used for my cacti didn't get compact over time. Coco coir helps.
Also found that some soils are naturally expansive when watered, so they don't get as compact over time - for example Substral Terra Magma (with lava granules),
maybe Terra Osmocote too (with perlite), but I only started using this one recently.

[Pflanzenfreund]

This year is the first one, i mix perlite in my soils.
Until now, i'm very happy with that solution.

Dont know where you all live, but maybe this will help someone.
I bought my perlite here: http://www.growland.net/Perlite-100-L
Found some on amazon but pretty expensive, if i compare.

1 Like Hummingbird likes this.

[Radium]

I took some stuff from an abandoned construction project near my place.
Can you tell me if it's indeed perlite or not?
It's light weight, and brittle (can be crushed into powder by fingers)

If so:
- does it change soil pH?
- what happens if I add it tooooo much?

[Pflanzenfreund]

mine looks like this.

I'm not an expert, but if i do understand well it does not affect the ph.
I mixed 1 part perlite on 5 parts soil, i just felt it that way.