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Hi, I'm brand new to gardening and I'm in a bit of a panic. I purchased a bare root hybrid tea rose and just planted it yesterday. While watching a you tube video last night I discovered I should never use planting mix in the ground. Unfortunately I used Kellogg planting mix to amend my sandy soil, I live in Tampa Florida.
Should I dig up the planting mix and add some other soil amendment and if so can you recommend what I should use? Or since it is a rose and they like good drainage will it be ok?
Any help or suggested references would be greatly appreciated as I'm mee to this and very interested in reading anf educating myself as much as possible.
Regards, Kristin

Hi and welcome to the Forum!

I'm not sure what "planting mix" means and there are all kinds of bagged soils/ soil amendments etc. Potting mix as the name suggests is generally used for pots/containers, but it would be fine mixed in with your sandy soil, add some moisture holding capacity. Stuff that is called "topsoil" or "garden soil" can be all different kinds of stuff, generally very lacking in nutrients (which is also the problem with sandy soil) and sometimes very rough.

Does your "planting mix" give you any idea of the ingredients? What brand is it and exactly what is the name on it.

But probably you are panicking more than you need to and everything will be fine!

Thanks so much for the welcoming I'm so happy to find a forum with so much experience and expertise.

The brand is Kellogg's organic raised bed potting mix
Ingredients:
(one or more of the following: processed forest products, recycled forest products, arbor fines, peat humus or compost)
also contains horticulture perlite, coir, composted poultry manure, sphagnum peat moss, ground dolomitic limestone, gypsum, worm castings, bat guano, kelp meal and organic fertilizer
Total nitrogen 00.30%
Available phosphate 00.10%
Solvable potash 00.10%

Do you think it will be ok? Should I add anything additional like cow manure? I also added red mulch to top, is that good or should I put something else? I've been watering it every morning as it's already pretty hot here in Tampa.

Thanks in advance,
Kristin

Ktray wrote:Hi, I'm brand new to gardening and I'm in a bit of a panic. I purchased a bare root hybrid tea rose and just planted it yesterday. While watching a you tube video last night I discovered I should never use planting mix in the ground. Unfortunately I used Kellogg planting mix to amend my sandy soil, I live in Tampa Florida.
Should I dig up the planting mix and add some other soil amendment and if so can you recommend what I should use? Or since it is a rose and they like good drainage will it be ok?
Any help or suggested references would be greatly appreciated as I'm mee to this and very interested in reading anf educating myself as much as possible.
Regards, Kristin

I never use any soil amendment on the ground, but that's (in part) because of what I read here: https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/upl ... dments.pdf

I wouldn't bother digging up you rose bush, I'm sure it'll be fine, but I would heavily mulch. I also live in Florida with very sandy soil and my only soil amendment is compost and mulching -- I never buy fertilizers or any other types of nutrients. However, if I were, I'd spread it over the top of the soil, not mix it into the soil, let the rain/watering bring the nutrients down to the roots.

I currently have a very lush garden that is packed full of plants and I don't water much of it, including the broccoli plants which are still flowering. And we are in a drought here in Jax.

john gault wrote:

Ktray wrote:Hi, I'm brand new to gardening and I'm in a bit of a panic. I purchased a bare root hybrid tea rose and just planted it yesterday. While watching a you tube video last night I discovered I should never use planting mix in the ground. Unfortunately I used Kellogg planting mix to amend my sandy soil, I live in Tampa Florida.
Should I dig up the planting mix and add some other soil amendment and if so can you recommend what I should use? Or since it is a rose and they like good drainage will it be ok?
Any help or suggested references would be greatly appreciated as I'm mee to this and very interested in reading anf educating myself as much as possible.
Regards, Kristin

I never use any soil amendment on the ground, but that's (in part) because of what I read here: https://puyallup.wsu.edu/wp-content/upl ... dments.pdf

I wouldn't bother digging up you rose bush, I'm sure it'll be fine, but I would heavily mulch. I also live in Florida with very sandy soil and my only soil amendment is compost and mulching -- I never buy fertilizers or any other types of nutrients. However, if I were, I'd spread it over the top of the soil, not mix it into the soil, let the rain/watering bring the nutrients down to the roots.

I currently have a very lush garden that is packed full of plants and I don't water much of it, including the broccoli plants which are still flowering. And we are in a drought here in Jax.

What a beautiful garden. I so admire your talent. What kind of mulch amd compost do you use? Do you make your own or buy it? I'm curious where I can buy something organic without added fertilizer. Can you recommend?

[/quote]
What a beautiful garden. I so admire your talent. What kind of mulch amd compost do you use? Do you make your own or buy it? I'm curious where I can buy something organic without added fertilizer. Can you recommend?[/quote]



I simply compost my kitchen waste, everything. I've replaced much of my lawn areas with heavy mulch of leaves and other yard waste, which I've collected around my neighborhood. I would drive around and pickup bags of leaves and lay it out (It's important to not visit houses that look trashy, because there's a good chance there's trash mixed in their yard waste ). BTW, that's assuming your city provides a dedicated pickup for yard waste. I hardly do this anymore, because I have enough of my own yard waste to keep everything heavily mulched.

I like using yard waste, because you get so much 'ingredients' mixed in, I.e. not just leaves of one species, but various species and not just leaves, but all kind of things, like seed pods, twigs, etc... I don't like using a single ingredient mulch, because it's not conducive to adding to the biodiversity of your biome that you're creating. Mulching is so much more then protecting soil and moisture from evaporation, it's about creating habitat and that habitat is what creates the rich soil. Mulch, especially multi-ingredient mulch creates/produces compost, you don't need any kitchen waste, but since I don't like stinky trash, I throw no food away; it all goes into the heavily mulched areas. I even wash out all food-containing containers in my mulch before throwing in the recycling bin.

P.S. I can't recommend where to buy "organic" anything, because I never have bought any type of soil amendment. I would like to say I make it all, but in reality it's all the little critters that make my soil