Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

homestead - [Homestead] Potting soil

homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Homestead mailing list

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Gene GeRue <genegerue AT ruralize.com>
  • To: homestead AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: [Homestead] Potting soil
  • Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2009 08:52:03 -0700


On Feb 9, 2009, at 7:50 AM, Clansgian AT wmconnect.com wrote:

I want to throw out another observation in the 'for what it's worth'
department. One hears a lot about potting soil formulae. The uber- rich potting soil,
says I, is a mistake. I believe it was Rudolph Steiner that promoted the
breakfast-lunch-dinner pricincple of plant propogation. . . .

So the potting soil I use is peat with a little wood ashes in it, or creek
sand with a very little compost added.

Seeds want to live and will sprout and attempt to live no matter conditions. All they need in the beginning is moisture, then a rooting medium and light. The roots are programmed to go to depth and width that has proved successful--alas, we don't always know what those successful conditions were. But that is one of the pleasures of gardening, the certain accretion of knowledge that comes each year to the observant gardener.

That moist beginning is the critical one. When you make your potting medium, include peat or screened woods duff and you will be fine if you water every day until the water runs through. Should plants show weakness, add a touch of compost tea to the water.

I never do the lunch period. The rooted plants go directly into garden soil in their final growing place.

Rudolph Steiner was a very intelligent, creative and productive dude who did much good work and inspired many people to do more. Keep in mind that he is also the one who advised gardeners to make compost elixer in a cow's horn under strict conditions. He also liked astrology and planting by various planetary alignments. I know people who do all that, for whom biodynamic gardening is as a religion. Among them were the neighbors who came to my garden one summer to harvest my excess tomatoes because their crops failed.

Gene GeRue
www.RURALIZE.com








Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page