Soil for Successful Peppers

[SunBakedParadise]

I thought it would be cool to get everyone to list their own personal soil mixes(container or in-ground). My first few years growing peppers was spent experimenting with different ratios and components. But the scientist in me is always looking for new ideas and ways to experiment.

In my containers I use:
2 parts peat moss
1 part leaf and wood mulch
1 parts compost
1 part perlite
1 part worm castings, kelp compost, bat guano
mycorrhizae

Feeding with a worm casting tea bi-weekly and I have had some incredible results

[rainbowgardener]

I've posted this elsewhere, but I'll do it again for your thread.

I'm not very scientific and don't measure, but my potting mix (which I use for everything from seedlings to potted trees) is about

2 parts mushroom compost
2 parts coconut coir
1 part or a little less rice hulls
1-2 cups (out of about 3 gallons total mix)
expanded/ soaked alfalfa pellets

Last year it was perlite, but the rice hulls are a more eco-friendly alternative. Perlite is mined and then heated to 1600 degrees. The rice hulls are just a waste product of milling rice.

I only recently started using the rice hulls, so can't say a whole lot about them yet.

Somewhere down the road, I plan to experiment with using leaf mould as a substitute for the coconut coir (which is a substitute for the peat moss I used to use). Coconut coir is also a very renewable agricultural by-product, but since we don't grow coconuts, it is shipped half way around the world from where-ever they do grow them.

I may supplement with a handful of this or that, whatever else I have on hand to juice it up a bit, like used coffee grounds, worm castings. I will make compost tea occasionally and water with that.

[rainbowgardener]

Anyone else? I know there's others of you out there that make your own potting mix!

[SunBakedParadise]

I had hoped this would gain more steam, thanks for your input rainbowgardener. I had never thought about the sustainability of the materials I have been using. Really has me rethinking my soil mix for this year.

[rainbowgardener]

Glad you picked up on that. Yes, I've been working over the past few years to make my home made potting mix more and more eco-friendly/ sustainable. At this point all the main ingredients are agricultural byproducts that would otherwise go to waste.

Don't know why more people haven't chimed in. I know imafan has posted that she uses just a 50:50 mix of peat and perlite.

To fill in, here's a couple of previous threads we have had about homemade potting soil recipes:

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=50409

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=40745

https://www.helpfulgardener.com/forum/vi ... hp?t=18691

if you put homemade potting soil into the Google custom search box above (which only searches THG), you will find lots more

[Bobberman]

Trying several new things this year. I still like the strained garden soil but I am planting seeds in a layer of potting mix a inch thick above the garden soil mix. What this does is keeps most of the small weeds from growing from the garden soil below.

Another thing I am doing is straining the potting mix with a fine strainer to have about a 1/8 inch of strained very fine potting soil over the one inch thick potting soil. This works great for small seeds because you can see them in the fine mix. I then cover the seeds with more strained potting soil. I have 4 flats I did that with tonight!

The miracle grow potting soil has so many big limbs and lots of junk in it and its really looking bad.. I bought it because that is all they had. Its nice strained with a flower strainer! It looks just like coffee when strained! Once the seeds sprout they root into the garden soil that keeps nice moisture and they grow well! Besides I have living things in the mix!

[beakhouse]

One of my standard go-to mixes is one third compost, one third vermiculite and one third top soil. I like to add a little something extra in the form of aquarium water every so often, once things get rolling.

[jeffsturgeon53]

I love all of the great ideas on the site. I am experimenting with coffee grounds and fermented yeast. I do quite a bit of home brewing and I figured I would see how that yeast would do.

I will experiment with 6 plants, 2 plants per container, and use my regular soil. Pot 1 will use the yeast without any other products. Pot 2 will use a coffee ground compost which also contains leaves and grass clippings. This has been composted already. Pot 3 will contain regular soil with manure and miracle grow. I will log the results and look to experiment more.

Thanks for the great posts.

Jeff