Perry Staltic
Member
- Joined
- Dec 14, 2020
- Messages
- 8,186
Any not fully decomposed organic matter doesn't really concern me because I fertilize with urine and chicken poop. Plenty of nitrogen to feed the plants and break that stuff down
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Ask anyone who has grown squash on a compost pile. The plants love it! I have planted in semi-finished vermi-compost and it works, too.
I have noticed that on spaces where compost was added to the top layer before planting, that the plants were shallow-rooted. I have seen quite a few videos on youtube where gardeners with clay soil dug deep holes and filled them with compost before planting. I think I will try this the next time. Another problem I have run into with my don't disturb the soil approach was that I couldn't get on top of plants like corn thistle and such until I really disturbed the soil and removed most of their roots.
the reason they do relatively well in compost in the first place is because they go after the nutrients
Yeah, it’s an interesting thing about people who have trouble growing stuff. They’re willing to try anything, (except any of the conservative, simple suggestions you make)… lolGary's gotta be right cause I see his ideas in nature everyday. Some plants grow fine in compost especially for a year or two or three or longer. I've seen compost destroy or stunt certain plants.
Years ago I got a backhoe and removed my lawn and landscaped most of the yard. Thinking I was awesome I deeply amended the soil with lots of compost and installed sod. It seemed to work awesome for 2 years and then my lawn went to hell, especially in the shade where the water stayed the longest not draining and not getting oxygen to the roots. The grass thinned out and I got invaded by weeds that can handle that environment. As Gary has said, having a sand silt clay soil you don't have to worry about overwatering, only underwatering. Having compost soil you have to worry about both. In the most shady area of this yard I thought I would make my life easy by falling for the weed barrier fabric scam. Laying that down and covering it with and 1-1/2" thick of 1inch clean gravel (because it was free) and turns out weeds loved growing in it because of the oxygen and moisture in the shade damn it.
Some of the plants I installed were grown in compost/woodchips, they did good for a year and then some of the tall ones fell over and I noticed their roots did not do much. I also mixed in compost into the holes where I planted them. I wish I had just mixed different sands into the area. Some of the shrub trees were grown in regular dirt wrapped in burlap and those grew just fine.
I yanked a coupe house plants out of their pots cause they looked like crap and as I removed the rotting organic matter from them they perked up in front of my eyes just as Gary has witnessed. Planted in them in a homemade Gary style mix and they completely sprung back to life in a few days. They still look good today.
Eastern Washington my dad had a cabin with a perfect yard. He probably overwatered everyday with the sprinkler system he had, but the sandy loam soil was perfect and it all seemed effortless. This perfect soil was covered with ground cover plants growing around the trees and in some areas volcanic rock, grass, shrubs.
Now I have escaped the westside muzzle wearing idiots and temporarily live on a ranch in Eastern Washington where the ranch owners have no clue what they are doing with their garden. Raised garden beds with some type of horrible store bought mulch/kind of compost. not sure what it is but their garden sucked last year. They fill up these big translucent tanks with fresh well water and let it drip for the week because they aren't around much as the ranch is their second home. The tanks warm up, the water is pretty void of oxygen, the soil sucks and their plants all sucked except for squash which grew like crazy. Their tomatoes are planted in the same spot every year which is a no no and they maybe got like 3 barely ripe tomatoes. the carrots grew like 3 inches long. The fruit trees here don't function, they need consistent oxygen rich sprinkler watering and they would like a foot of woodchips, but they just get a few drips of water. The people who own this place already know everything there is to know in the world and could care less about listening to any ideas from another person! They complain about not getting any tomatoes and I tell them I'm learning lots from this nursery owner and list out potential problems and solutions...their eyes glaze over. The guy is on one full pill of T4 first thing in the morning and tested negative for wuhan wiggle last week...twice. I gotta get outta here and get some land this spring hopefully.
Back to Western Washington I built a house in a forest near the city where this area happened to be mostly large/medium grain sand with some river rock and some fines. It was pretty compacted once you got down a ways but it's still sand and still had air. It had a forest duff layer with plenty of fungus trading the plant roots nutrients and water for sugar. Massive happy trees and lots of native organ grape/holly looking things everywhere. We drilled a 10ft deep hole for a power line utility pole and I was shocked to see roots down 10ft deep. This was right when I learned of Gary's knowledge and everything in nature started to make sense.
I think it would be pretty satisfying to have a garden with sandy loam soil and layers of duff on top that you move aside and insert the plants and as they grow you move it back. Water once in the morning perhaps. and fruit trees with a foot of chips over the soil.
Not so much on the Pink Lady, (hasn’t woken up yet?).
Potatoes looking good!
View attachment 49163
Plan is to continue to stagger the potatoes so that I’m harvesting almost monthly. We’ll see though with the ice age we seem to be heading into? (Kidding…kinda…)
I watched some video where a guy said the potato sends out new spuds pretty much on the level that it is planted. So he planted at multiple levels. I'm not sure if how true that is or how high the potato can punch through the soil, but maybe it can do it even if it's deep. He was planting in big black trash bags.How high can you make a potato container like that? I cut a plastic 55-gallon barrel into 3 parts and plan on planting potatoes in the bottom section and adding sections as the plants grow taller. Just an experiment; I don't know if it will work.
Roots seek water, not nutrients, and they grow where they can best, which is loose media.
Years ago I got a backhoe and removed my lawn and landscaped most of the yard. Thinking I was awesome I deeply amended the soil with lots of compost and installed sod. It seemed to work awesome for 2 years and then my lawn went to hell, especially in the shade where the water stayed the longest not draining and not getting oxygen to the roots. The grass thinned out and I got invaded by weeds that can handle that environment. As Gary has said, having a sand silt clay soil you don't have to worry about overwatering, only underwatering. Having compost soil you have to worry about both.
Couldn’t say for sure. Potatoes are interesting in that I’ve had luck with them when I had no idea what I’m doing, and challenges when I attempted stuff. All in all, they seem to grow relatively easily. I wouldn’t be surprised if you have luck with that idea. Im sure you’ve seen the essentially neglectful ways these things are fine with being grown in.How high can you make a potato container like that? I cut a plastic 55-gallon barrel into 3 parts and plan on planting potatoes in the bottom section and adding sections as the plants grow taller. Just an experiment; I don't know if it will work.