Soil free fertilizers?
Chris Mason
Posts: 159
in Plants
In regards to my last post, I'm now getting my materials together plant the currents, all I need to do is get my hands on soil (450L) as I'm wishing to use my own fertilizer I do not wish to use a soil which contains fertilizers, as you can assume, all the soils I'm finding contain fertilizers.
My question is: Can anyone recommend a good soil which does not use fertilizers.
Thank you
0
Posts
Chris, This must be impossible as all soil will contain some matter which could be classed as fertiliser. You would need to prove where the soil came from, a lot comes from new build fields that are stripped down to clay and the soil sold, it could contain anything.. A very deep dig would probably get you some virgin soil which would contain practically no nutrients and would be virtually useless as a growing media. Why must it be your own fertiliser and where does that fertiliser come from that makes it special, I fail to see the point and having never heard of any one supplying this type of soil cannot help, just very curious?
Frank.
Hi Chris - just a thought - are we getting confused with our terminology here? Are you confusing 'soil' and 'potting compost'?
You certainly do not want a soil that has no basic fertility. Pure peat is the nearest you will get and aside from the ecological considerations it has inherent problems as to drying out and shrinkage.
Perhaps I have nothing to fear but im, worried that I will get my hands on a potting soil which contains a fertiliser and then ill add more (blood,fish,bone) which may make the soil 'too rich' is it possible to make this mistake?
Im a newbie so excise and correct my ignorance.
Ive got two bags at the moment, one is 'canna - terra professional' and the second bag is 'oak tree productions- horse poop compost' it also contain a little lime
Chris, where are you planting your currants - straight into garden soil, or a raised bed or other container?
I'm planting them in a galvanised water trough (obviously ass add holes)
So pretty much the same as a raised bed then - when I filled my raised beds I used a mixture of about half and half topsoil and well-rotted farmyard manure - both bought in bags from the GC.
I then treat them as I would the rest of the garden, adding Fish, Blood & Bone at planting time and later on using tomato or other fertiliser as appropriate.
Each year in the early spring before planting/sowing time I dig in another bag of FYM as I do with the ordinary veg patch.
In the past I've found that if you use bagged potting compost from the garden centre for long term jobs like raised beds the structure breaks down and it becomes thin and dusty after a couple of years.
Hope that helps
Yeah that's very help full!
Would the plants still grow if the compost became thin?
Sorry for asking another question but would topsoil - rotted manuar and a fertiliser work for currents? (long term)
Q. 1 - They wouldn't grow very well in thin and dusty compost - that's why plants that are in containers long-term either need a soil-based John Innes type compost (which would be expensive in large amounts) or they need repotting with fresh compost - I would say annually.
Q 2 - Yes, that's what they would get if planted in a patch isn't it? If you were planting them in a veg garden you'd dig lots of organic matter (manure) into the soil and then plant.
My only concerns about your container are: