Quote:
Originally Posted by Tytaylor77
Usually if you use 2 base ingredients (Perlite and Peat Moss) your mix will work! Just not too much peat! For every % or peat add double that amount of perlite! If you follow that rule it will turn out great!
Here is my absolute favorite!
25% peat x 50% perlite x 25% rice hulls!
25% peat x 50% perlite x 25% composted manure. (Bag or off the farm)
Other one if you don’t have rice hulls or composted manure.
25% peat x 50% perlite x 25% composted bark (I prefer pine)
Perlite will make any soil light, fluffy, airy, and well draining. It is all natural!! It’s not styrofoam! It’s popped volcanic material. Popped like popcorn! If you grow bananas long you will learn that bananas LOVE perlite!
I NEVER use sand in a mix! It will make your pot crazy heavy! It makes it very hard to water and while in sand the plant will have no nutrients! When you transplant, it will break apart your rootball ans roota! This will set your plant back by 2 weeks +! I use coarse sand to root corms when I need to. I also grow in sand! Native sand in ground! But I never use sand in a pot!
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That is an awesome mix.
Rice hulls...nowhere to be found for me, bark fines however is another story.
I must add that a few forum members whom had switched to a container sand mix a few years ago are having a fit keeping their plants healthy over the winter months indoors.
But when their plants are in the ground the plants are beasts.
There is an Okie member that tilled in a few tons of sand in an island garden feature and his bananas are remarkable.