Colander Questions

[Johnathan]

One of the benefits is air flow through the substrate not sure that mixture would facilitate that. I have straight pumice in a pond basket. I also have them with straight 8822. I even have them with straight DE from @milehigh_7 . I love the basket/colander.

I have used pond baskets along with straight 8822 and I love the roots it produces. I'm planning on putting some grow outs into something next spring, and I believe it will be pond baskets, I'm just wondering if the fertilizer cakes, and liquid ferts would be enough to offset the nutrients in compost manure and potting soil. I plan to give them a year or two in the baskets to develop a nice root mass and then plant into a raised grow bed for thickening.

 

[AZbonsai]

I use 2x Miracle grow and humic acid. My plants seem healthy. That may defeat the purpose of the baskets. Its my understanding baskets step before pot so you can refine the root base.

 

[atlarsenal]

@AZbonsai what kind of humic acid are you using? I have been studying on it and plan on trying it next year on development stuff that I am feeding with miracle grow.

 

[herzausstahl]

@AZbonsai what kind of humic acid are you using? I have been studying on it and plan on trying it next year on development stuff that I am feeding with miracle grow.

If you wanna know more on humid acid @Bananaman is the one to ask if I remember correctly

 

[AZbonsai]

If you wanna know more on humid acid @Bananaman is the one to ask if I remember correctly

Can I tell him what type of humic acid I am using or should I let Al handle that?

@AZbonsai what kind of humic acid are you using? I have been studying on it and plan on trying it next year on development stuff that I am feeding with miracle grow.

I use TeraVita SP-90 I ordered from Amazon. It is 2 pounds. Unless you run a nursery you are probably not going to need that much. From that bag I mixed a one gallon mixture that is the concentrate (I have a bunch left over) I use 1 ounce of that per gallon to feed the plants. From what I hear you have to be very careful with it as far as strength. I probably have enough to feed a million trees.....give or take a few thousand!

 

[Anthony]

Food for thought -

https://www.gardenmyths.com/humus-does-not-exist-says-new-study/#more-3384

excerpt -
"Humus Does Not Exist!
A very interesting paper was published in Nature, December 2015, by Johannes Lehmann & Markus Kleber, called “The Contentious Nature of Soil Organic Matter”, ref 1. For those not familiar with the magazine Nature, it is one of the top scientific magazines that tends to publish the creme-DE-la-creme of new discoveries. It is extremely well respected.

I’ll explain the details below, but what this paper says is that we have been looking at humus the wrong way for 200 years. Humus does not exist in the soil. Humus is created during the pH 13 extraction process. The strong alkali creates humus.

There is organic matter in the soil. When it is treated with a pH 13 solution, it goes through a process which creates the large humus molecules."

 

[atlarsenal]

Thanks, that is the latest one I was looking at.

 

[milehigh_7]

One of the benefits is air flow through the substrate not sure that mixture would facilitate that. I have straight pumice in a pond basket. I also have them with straight 8822. I even have them with straight DE from @milehigh_7 . I love the basket/colander.

This is exactly right.