DooZer RoCk
Member
Hello RIU! I am into the organic way of life. In my research of organic potting mixes and garden soils I came across this site with 35 recipes. Hope this is helpful.
DR
Recipes for Growing Media
These recipes come from a variety of sources and present a wide range of options for working with organically acceptable materials. Because the sources are diverse, units of measurement are also different. When the origin of a recipe is known, or further details and recommendations are known, they have been provided. Note that several recipes are intended for use with Ladbrooke "soil blockers." Soil blockers are hand tools designed to form free-standing blocks of potting soil, which serve as a substitute for peat pots, seedling flats, etc. The system has been popular among small-scale producers. One source of soil blockers is:
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
P.O. Box 2209
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 272-4769.
The first recipe shown is a classic soil-based formula; the second is a soilless recipe based on the Cornell Mix concept.
Classic soil-based mix
Organic substitute for Cornell Mix
Seedling mix for Styrofoam seedling flats
Prick-out mix for growing seedlings to transplant size
Classic planting mix
One part each by weight:
Simple soil flat mix
Equal parts by volume:
Classic formula for horticultural potting mix
The following four recipes are credited to Eliot Coleman. The first was published in the Winter 1994 issue of NOFA-NJ Organic News, in an article by Emily Brown-Rosen. The remaining three are adapted from Coleman's book The New Organic Grower (see Appendix 2).
Organic potting mix
Blocking mix recipe for larger quantities
The next recipe and details come from John Greenier, of Stoughton, Wisconsin. They were published in the January 1996 issue of Growing for Market.
Seedling mix for soil blocks or seedling flats
The next two recipes were published in the September 1990 issue of Greenhouse Manager in an article entitled "Recipes for Success in Media Mixes," by Kathy Z. Peppler.
Growing mix for packs
Growing mixes for pots and baskets
The following recipes and instructions are from a workshop entitled "Getting Started in Organic Market Gardening," which was offered as part of the March 2001 "Organic University" program sponsored by Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES) in conjunction with its Upper Midwest Organic Conference. The first is credited to Tricia Bross Luna Circle Farm, Gays Mills, WI; the second is credited to Steve Pincus, Tipi Produce, Madison, WI.
Luna Circle recipe
The following three recipes are adapted from a subchapter entitled "Using compost for container crops and potting mixes" in On-Farm Composting Handbook, by Robert Rynk, (ed.). 1992. PublicationNRAES-54. Northeast Regional AgriculturalEngineering Service, Cornell Cooperative Extension,Ithaca, NY. 186 p.
Vegetable transplant recipe
Equal parts by volume of:
Equal parts by volume of:
Dominican Republic mix
Equal parts:
Recipe #1
By Georrge Kuepper
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
and Kevin Everett, Program Intern
September 2004 ©NCAT
Reviewed October 2010
Paul Williams, Editor
IP112
Slot #61
Version 102810
DR
Recipes for Growing Media
These recipes come from a variety of sources and present a wide range of options for working with organically acceptable materials. Because the sources are diverse, units of measurement are also different. When the origin of a recipe is known, or further details and recommendations are known, they have been provided. Note that several recipes are intended for use with Ladbrooke "soil blockers." Soil blockers are hand tools designed to form free-standing blocks of potting soil, which serve as a substitute for peat pots, seedling flats, etc. The system has been popular among small-scale producers. One source of soil blockers is:
Peaceful Valley Farm Supply
P.O. Box 2209
Grass Valley, CA 95945
(530) 272-4769.
The first recipe shown is a classic soil-based formula; the second is a soilless recipe based on the Cornell Mix concept.
Classic soil-based mix
- 1/3 mature compost or leaf mold, screened
- 1/3 garden topsoil
- 1/3 sharp sand
Organic substitute for Cornell Mix
- 1/2 cubic yard sphagnum peat
- 1/2 cubic yard vermiculite
- 10 pounds bone meal
- 5 pounds ground limestone
- 5 pounds blood meal
Seedling mix for Styrofoam seedling flats
- 2 parts compost
- 2 parts peat moss
- 1 part vermiculite, pre-wet
- 5 parts compost
- 4 parts soil
- 1 to 2 parts sand
- 1 to 2 parts leaf mold, if available
- 1 part peat moss, pre-wet and sifted.
Prick-out mix for growing seedlings to transplant size
- 6 parts compost
- 3 parts soil
- 1 to 2 parts sand
- 1 to 2 parts aged manure
- 1 part peat moss, pre-wet and sifted
- 1 to 2 parts leaf mold, if available
- 1 6-inch pot bone meal
- 1 wheelbarrow-load sifted soil
- 1 wheelbarrow-load aged manure
- 1 wheelbarrow-load sifted old flat mix
- 5 shovelfuls sifted peat
- 2 4-inch pots bone meal
- 2 4-inch pots trace mineral powder
- 2 4-inch pots blood meal
Classic planting mix
One part each by weight:
- compost (sifted, if possible)
- sharp sand
- turf loam (made by composting sections of turf grass grown in good soil)
Simple soil flat mix
Equal parts by volume:
- compost
- bed soil (saved from a biointensive production bed during double-digging process)
Classic formula for horticultural potting mix
- 1/3 mature compost or leaf mold, sieved
- 1/3 fine garden loam
- 1/3 coarse sand (builder's sand)
- 1/2 cubic yards shredded sphagnum peat moss
- 1/2 cubic yards horticultural vermiculite
- 5 pounds dried blood (12% N)
- 10 pounds steamed bone meal
- 5 pounds ground limestone
- 20 quarts black peat with 1/2 cup lime
- 20 quarts sand or calcined clay
- 20 quarts regular peat with 1 cup of greensand, 1 cup of colloidal phosphate, and 1 cup blood meal
- 10 quarts soil
- 10 quarts compost
The following four recipes are credited to Eliot Coleman. The first was published in the Winter 1994 issue of NOFA-NJ Organic News, in an article by Emily Brown-Rosen. The remaining three are adapted from Coleman's book The New Organic Grower (see Appendix 2).
Organic potting mix
- 1 part sphagnum peat
- 1 part peat humus (short fiber)
- 1 part compost
- 1 part sharp sand (builder's)
- 1 cup greensand
- 1 cup colloidal phosphate
- 1 1/2 to 2 cups crab meal, or blood meal
- 1/2 cup lime
- 3 buckets (standard 10-quart bucket) brown peat
- 1/2 cup lime (mix well)
- 2 buckets coarse sand or perlite
- 3 cups base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand mixed together in equal parts)
- 1 bucket soil
- 2 buckets compost
Blocking mix recipe for larger quantities
- 30 units brown peat
- 1/8 unit lime
- 20 units coarse sand or perlite
- 3/4 unit base fertilizer (blood meal, colloidal phosphate, and greensand mixed together in equal parts)
- 10 units soil
- 20 units compost
- 16 parts brown peat
- 1/4 part colloidal phosphate
- 1/4 part greensand
- 4 parts compost (well decomposed)
The next recipe and details come from John Greenier, of Stoughton, Wisconsin. They were published in the January 1996 issue of Growing for Market.
Seedling mix for soil blocks or seedling flats
- 2 3-gallon. buckets sphagnum peat moss
- 1/4 cup lime
- 1 1/2 cups fertility mix
- 2 cups colloidal (rock) phosphate
- 2 cups greensand
- 2 cups blood meal
- 1/2 cup bone meal
- 1/4 cup kelp meal
- 1 1/2 buckets vermiculite
- 1 1/2 buckets compost
- Add peat to cement mixer or mixing barrel.
- Spread the lime and fertility mix over the peat.
- Mix these ingredients thoroughly.
- Add the compost and vermiculite and mix well again. When done, examine the distribution of vermiculite to ensure that it has been mixed in evenly.
The next two recipes were published in the September 1990 issue of Greenhouse Manager in an article entitled "Recipes for Success in Media Mixes," by Kathy Z. Peppler.
Growing mix for packs
- 40% topsoil
- 40% Canadian-type Michigan peat
- 20% perlite
- 5 pounds lime per cubic yard
- 3 pounds dolomitic lime per cubic yard
Growing mixes for pots and baskets
- 30% topsoil
- 60% peat
- 10% perlite
- 5 pounds lime per cubic yard
- 3 pounds dolomitic lime per cubic yard
The following recipes and instructions are from a workshop entitled "Getting Started in Organic Market Gardening," which was offered as part of the March 2001 "Organic University" program sponsored by Midwest Organic and Sustainable Education Services (MOSES) in conjunction with its Upper Midwest Organic Conference. The first is credited to Tricia Bross Luna Circle Farm, Gays Mills, WI; the second is credited to Steve Pincus, Tipi Produce, Madison, WI.
Luna Circle recipe
- 2 buckets black peat (1 bucket = 8 quarts)
- 1/2 bucket compost
- Fertility mixture:
- 1 cup greensand
- 1 cup rock phosphate
- 1 cup kelp meal
- 2 buckets sphagnum peat moss
- 1 bucket sand
- 1 bucket vermiculite
- Screen the peat and the compost and combine with the fertility mix.
- Mix well.
- Add the sphagnum, sand, and vermiculite.
- Mix well again.
- 2 bales sphagnum peat moss (3.8 or 4.0 cubic foot bales)
- 1 bag coarse vermiculite (4.0 cubic foot bags)
- 1 bag coarse perlite (4.0 cubic foot bags)
- 6 quarts of a fertilizing mixture comprised of:
- 15 parts steamed bone meal
- 10 parts kelp meal
- 10 parts blood meal
- 5 to 10 parts dolomitic limestone (80 to 90 mesh)
The following three recipes are adapted from a subchapter entitled "Using compost for container crops and potting mixes" in On-Farm Composting Handbook, by Robert Rynk, (ed.). 1992. PublicationNRAES-54. Northeast Regional AgriculturalEngineering Service, Cornell Cooperative Extension,Ithaca, NY. 186 p.
Vegetable transplant recipe
Equal parts by volume of:
- compost
- peat moss
- perlite or vermiculite
- 25% compost
- 50% peat moss
- 25% perlite or vermiculite
Equal parts by volume of:
- compost
- coarse sand
- peat moss or milled pine bark
Dominican Republic mix
Equal parts:
- fine loam soil
- sharp horticultural sand
- well-finished leaf mold
- 2 parts well-finished compost
- 2 parts good topsoil
- 1 part leaf mold
Recipe #1
- 50 to 75% sphagnum peat moss
- 25 to 50% vermiculite
- 5 pounds ground limestone per cubic yard of mix
- 6 gallons sphagnum peat moss
- 1/4 cup lime
- 4 1/2 gallons vermiculite
- 4 1/2 gallons compost
- 1 1/2 cups fertility mix made of:
- 2 cups colloidal (rock) phosphate
- 2 cups greensand
- 1/2 cup bone meal
- 1/4 cup kelp meal
- 10 gallons sifted two-year-old leaf mold
- 10 gallons sifted compost
- 5 to 10 gallons sphagnum peat moss
- 5 gallons perlite
- 5 gallons coarse river sand
- 2 cups blood meal
- 6 cups bone meal
- 40 quarts sphagnum peat moss
- 20 quarts sharp sand
- 10 quarts topsoil
- 10 quarts mature compost
- 4 ounces ground limestone
- 8 ounces blood meal (contains 10% nitrogen)
- 8 ounces rock phosphate (contains 3% phosphorus)
- 8 ounces wood ashes (contains 10% potassium)
- 9 quarts compost
- 1 cup greensand
- 3 quarts garden soil
- 1/2 cup blood meal
- 3 quarts sharp sand
- 1/2 cup bone meal
- 3 quarts vermiculite
- 1 part peat
- 1 part bone meal
- 1 part perlite
- 1 part compost (or leaf mold)
- 1 part worm castings (optional)
- 2 parts vermiculite
- 3 parts peat
- 2 parts perlite
- 2 parts cow manure
- 3 parts topsoil
- 1/2 part bone meal
- 15 quarts screened black peat
- 15 quarts brown peat
- 17 quarts coarse sand
- 14 quarts screened leaf compost
- 3 ounces pulverized limestone
- 9 ounces greensand
- 3/4 cup dried blood
- 3 ounces alfalfa meal
- 3 ounces colloidal phosphate
- 9 ounces pulverized bone meal
- 10 pounds compost
- 30 pounds sphagnum peat moss
- 60 pounds white sand
- 8 pounds calcium carbonate
- 4 pounds soft rock phosphate
- 2 pounds sawdust
- 70 pounds white sand
- 25 pounds sphagnum peat moss
- 5 pounds chicken manure
- 8 pounds calcium carbonate
- 4 pounds soft rock phosphate
By Georrge Kuepper
NCAT Agriculture Specialist
and Kevin Everett, Program Intern
September 2004 ©NCAT
Reviewed October 2010
Paul Williams, Editor
IP112
Slot #61
Version 102810