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[Greentoe]

My girlfriend pointed out how silly it seems to spend money on dirt when it is everywhere outside for free. She has a point none of the plants that grow wild outside start off in potting soil.

I'm curious does anyone on here just go out and dig up dirt to pot their plants in? Obviously the contents of your soil will vary considerably depending on where you get it from. My little brother who's going to school for wildlife and forestry managment told me there's a place I can send $10 and a soil sample to have it analyzed. Does anyone here have any experience with this?

Thanks
Greentoe

[New Wisdom]

Depending on where you are and they type of soil. There are many different components. It is not always wise to just go grab any soil outside.  It could contain things that wouldn't be good for the specific plant that you're growing. 

It's good to know what is in your potting soil imo.  The only time i get soil outside is when i go and find loam/topsoil for my peyote mix. But that is not just any old outside soil. i have to go to a dried up creek bed.

[Cane Blossom]

i was told the red dirt out here is FAR too dense and has nowhere near enough drainage, but the mimosa seedlings in red dirt are doing better than the one in potting soil (ofc, i only moved the yellowed seedling into the potting soil).

the general rule i have been using, is if there are similar plants growing wild (there are many mimosoidea related to mimosa growing wild in the red dirt), it can't be too bad.

but for plants not like anything local, it might be best to stick with potting soil.


i too tried growing with nothing but the dirt in my backyard, but ended up caving and buying two bags of soil.

[Mandrake]

Edit - Cane made one point already while I was typing, leaving my post as it was.

My girlfriend pointed out how silly it seems to spend money on dirt when it is everywhere outside for free. She has a point none of the plants that grow wild outside start off in potting soil.

I'm leaving here several possible replies to that, for her to take in consideration as well

1) Among the plants you're growing, few (or perhaps none of them) grow in the wild where you're living. The soil in their habitat and in your area can be very different. Of course this is only relevant if you're customizing your potting soils to your plants.
2) Particularly if you grow indoors, or if you're starting seeds, pathogens are a problem and chances are the dirt you picked outside will have plenty of them. Insect eggs, fungi and even other dormant seeds mixed in the dirt can be a problem. Good potting soils, and of course peat pellets, perlite, vermiculite, arlite, potting grit, etc. are sterile.
3) Plants growing in the wild have gone through a serious selection. A few bushes are the result of many seeds, and often you will have little amounts of seeds to start with. Germination rates are important for you, and controlling your substrate improves them.
4) Dirt from outside will often be very dense and deliver poor aeration to potted plants. This is not an issue where plants have all the room they want to grow and can easily move their roots towards the best direction, but when you have limited space, you need to optimize your resources.

Of course you can go the cheap route and recycle dirt from your back yard if it has a proper composition for your seeds, but in that case sterilization (say, in an oven tray) is a good idea, particularly if you're growing indoors and you're going to sow valuable seeds in there. Also, throw in some perlite or vermiculite for good draining.

I'm personally into making my own potting mixes, particularly for starting seeds or cuttings indoors, but recycling is always a good idea if you're doing it right. I mean, gardeners do use composting bins, right?

Saludos,

Mandrake

[New Wisdom]

Yeah. Like Mandrake said, I make most of my soil mixes.  I have a ton of different basic soil components like top soil, perlite, coir, verm, gravel, sand, clay ect... and I make different mixes depending on what i'm growing.

I haven't started composting though. I really should start to do that.

[Sunshine]

We take leavess in the fall and chop them up with the lawn mower every year and spread them on our vegetable garden. They break down and make good black, aerated soil.

I take 3 parts garden soil and mix it with 2 parts organic potting soil and 1 part perlite. This mix makes a great all purpose potting soil for most of the plants I grow. It has good aeration, is high in nutrients, cheap, and drains well yet it also holds moisture well too. I use this for almost all the plants I grow, aside from cacti.

Macro nutrients play a pretty big role in how well plants grow. In my opinion, it would be best to gather soils from a multitude of different areas(forest, field, riverbank, etc) and mix them together, along with some perlite for water retention and aeration to provide the widest array of nutrients possible to your plants.

I agree with your girlfriend, it is silly to pay so much for dirt when it can be got for free from nature. However, sometimes soil is too compact and doesn't drain well such as the red soil mentioned by a previous poster, as well as having other problems. To be honest, I don't have red soil around here but I would love it if I had access to it to add it to my mix.

Unless its a specialty plant like a cactus or an orchid, chances are it will do well with my home mix.

@cane, If I were you I would mix some of the red soil with the potting mix you bought. Not only will it stretch it, but it will provide nutrients not present in the store bought mix.

The cheapest way to get top quality dirt is to take dried leaves, grass, and other organic material such as vegetable scraps(no onions or meats), and mix it with handfuls of dirt from different parts of your area,  some perlite, then make a make-shift compost bin and put some night crawlers in it it help break everything down and get worm castings.

[Greentoe]

Thanks for all the feedback. I actually have repotted a couple psychotria albas and a few brugmansias in dirt I dug around my dads house. I dug it up where we used to throw fallen limbs and sticks after storms. Now it's all decomposed into nice dark soil. The picture of the larger psychotria alba I posted in the plant gallery is actually in some of that dirt and it seems to do pretty well.

I've also planted brugmansia cuttings in hard red soil and was suprised at how good they seem to grow in it. I could see that it might be good to add to a mix.

[Cane Blossom]

also, microwaves are a great way to sterilize soil (Assuming it is moist)

[TBM]

also, microwaves are a great way to sterilize soil (Assuming it is moist)

I've used a microwave once before with success, took less than 5 minutes to heat the water in the soil to steam, I used a glass Pyrex bowl which has a microwave safe lid, that way the steam stayed contained in the soil instead of boiling off