Specialty Gardening: Can potting mix be re-used?, 1 by tobee43

tobee43 wrote:
tiger, i'm certain is just fine that you reuse your soil. especially, since you get the good results that you do. it's that i know i do not get the same results when i do. i just prefer not to take any chances.

since you and i are both in business and know that sometimes people may judge our work by what they see...i just made sure i can count on the having the best results possible. our marketing consists of many of the photo's taken of my personal containers, since many of next years offerings are experiments that i do at my personal residence, and if successful used for examples in aug. for the following year. most of our orders are taken in the fall for the upcoming spring based on the grown and style seen in the pictures. people that buy from me want the exact results. (you landscape more than i, i'm a plantscaper, container and bed designs...not landscaper...although i have a huge landscaping job next spring...couldn't pass it up, and i think you should come up and help me with it!).

the time release i use is not retail market available....N-20 P2O5-7 K2 O -14. however, i always recommend to use osmocote which i think is 16 6 13.....close enough. since what i use is heat released you can observe if you place some on the top of a pot in 90 degree weather, by week's end most have been released. of course when you plant some in the dirt itself, it will take longer since the dirt's temperature is lower than that of the surface, yet of course warmer than used directly in ground soil. now we did an "official" study about soil conditions vs fertilizing and i did post it somewhere, sometime. but here's how it went:

using the exact same cultivar of plant, 2 small plots were utilized. plot 1 used the past years previously used soil obtained from numerous containers laying about the campus, which was amended for "perfect" soil and ph conditions best suited for this cultivar. plot 2 was left in it's orginal condition, which was a hard clay soil, it was impossible to use a shovel on this plot, only a pick was able to loosen the clay. each plot had the same size plant placed in it. with plot 1 absolutely NO fertilizer was used. the second plot however, the time fertilizer i listed above was applied weekly. photo's were taken on a weekly basic to calculate both growth rate and overhaul health of the plants. bi-weekly testing of plot 1 were assessed and nutrients were added when needed. plot 2 was never tested and no nutrients added whatsoever during the study. by the end of the 13 week study, the plant in plot 2 had outgrowth the plant in plot 1 by over 70%. that was a substantial finding. the conclusion was that using proper fertilizer was far more important and effective than ph and chemically perfect measured and maintained soil conditions.

in taking the experiment to the next level and using absolute "perfect" new rich soil and adding the same fertilizer, wow....is all i can say.

view the picture below as a large container. new fresh soil is brought in annually, feeding is once a week. keeping in mind, our growing season is based solely on a 12 week time period, results are substantial growth and color. now of course remember, temperatures and other factors are still implied as having a direct impact on the results.

so i think the conclusion is basically, what may work best for one, may not necessary work best for others. it's that what makes gardening such a extraordinary fun challenge