Suggestion on source for small quantities of the "meals"

[cythaenopsis]

I'm not on target to become a prolific tomato grower because I don't really have the space to become one. So, buying large bags of kelp meal, bone meal, crab meal, etc., to mix up for potting just doesn't make sense. In my casual shopping around, I've not yet found any reasonably priced mixes for these meals in smaller quantities. In preparation for planting next season, I'd like to get some ideas of a good economical way to achieve a really good potting mix and fertilizer combination that will give my growing an excellent boost.

Anybody have some suggestions? Thanks!

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by cythaenopsis

I'm not on target to become a prolific tomato grower because I don't really have the space to become one. So, buying large bags of kelp meal, bone meal, crab meal, etc., to mix up for potting just doesn't make sense. In my casual shopping around, I've not yet found any reasonably priced mixes for these meals in smaller quantities. In preparation for planting next season, I'd like to get some ideas of a good economical way to achieve a really good potting mix and fertilizer combination that will give my growing an excellent boost.

Anybody have some suggestions? Thanks!

Make your own. You undoubtedly have food scraps. Since you are small scale, that should be enough to more than accomplish your goals without purchased inputs. If they are too rich, then mix them with leaves and/or grass clippings.

Usually you want to keep the animal products out of the compost. However, certain things can be used in moderation. For example, egg shells, the peelings from peel and eat shrimp, the shells from snow crab legs, etc.... Just put them in the blender and grind them up, and mix them with plenty of vegetative material....add to your compost.....and your compost will have all the benefits of the fancy purchased additives.

[cythaenopsis]

^ Thank you, Scott!

A while back I had considered getting into composting, but wasn't quite sure of how to go about it. Most of what I'd seen are these large drums that people keep outside, which would be too much for me. However, I found a couple of tidbits about doing smaller quantities, "apartment composting", so I'll start looking into that further.

I had saved a large number of eggshells that I eventually pulverized into powder. I added that to my potting soil to help contribute extra calcium. And I've heard banana peels can be an excellent source of potassium and some smaller amounts of phosphorous (you dry them out and then pulverize in a grinder). I'll definitely look into collecting some shells. Lobster would be easiest, because I enjoy eating it and I could just save the shell parts.

Would you also say that this negates any need for something rich in trace elements like Azomite powder?

[carolyn137]

Originally Posted by cythaenopsis

I'm not on target to become a prolific tomato grower because I don't really have the space to become one. So, buying large bags of kelp meal, bone meal, crab meal, etc., to mix up for potting just doesn't make sense. In my casual shopping around, I've not yet found any reasonably priced mixes for these meals in smaller quantities. In preparation for planting next season, I'd like to get some ideas of a good economical way to achieve a really good potting mix and fertilizer combination that will give my growing an excellent boost.

Anybody have some suggestions? Thanks!

A couple of questions/

Are you talking abut a seed starting mix or a potting up mix from the seed starting mix, or a container gardening mix.

And will you be growing your plants to maturity inground?

I would answer differently depending on what your answers might be.

Carolyn

[Redbaron]

Originally Posted by cythaenopsis

^ Thank you, Scott!

A while back I had considered getting into composting, but wasn't quite sure of how to go about it. Most of what I'd seen are these large drums that people keep outside, which would be too much for me. However, I found a couple of tidbits about doing smaller quantities, "apartment composting", so I'll start looking into that further.

I had saved a large number of eggshells that I eventually pulverized into powder. I added that to my potting soil to help contribute extra calcium. And I've heard banana peels can be an excellent source of potassium and some smaller amounts of phosphorous (you dry them out and then pulverize in a grinder). I'll definitely look into collecting some shells. Lobster would be easiest, because I enjoy eating it and I could just save the shell parts.

Would you also say that this negates any need for something rich in trace elements like Azomite powder?

For plants in the ground? 99% of the time yes. In containers? I am not sure. Probably should ask one of the container experts about that. You have more container experience than me. I only grew in containers once. about 40 plants in grow bags. I used exactly 50% black cow composted manure and 50% vermiculite. Plants grew good. But.... That was over 20 years ago and I never grew in containers since.

[spacetogrow]

You might look into bokashi if you're living in an apartment. It's a way to turn your food scraps into growing medium, but operates on a different principle than regular compost. You can do an online search and discover both expensive (relatively) and cheap (but more time consuming) ways to make it. Some of the benefits over composting are that you can include moderate amounts of animal products, you don't need a large amount of scraps to really get it going and - if you do it right - it doesn't smell at all like rotting garbage.

I already know how to make compost so my learning curve for composting isn't as steep, but I did try the bokashi recently one winter. It worked quite well. I made a container from 2 empty icing pails I got free from my grocery store's bakery. I made my own inoculent (google on "extreme bokashi - make your own"), at which point it's probably not technically accurate to use the term "bokashi".

I tried vermiculture twice but managed to kill off my "herd" of worms both times. Some other people who can't have a compost bin report great success with it.

As for supplaments, I hope you're not overlooking your own or other people's used coffee grounds (UCGs). They're high in nitrogen and usually don't need composting. Many Starbucks stores give them away to customers. Does your workplace or church generate UCGs that you can have? I even bring a plastic container with me to empty out the coffee maker when I bring my car in for an oil change or other care.

If you know anyone who makes their own beer, I've heard that the residue from that is great for plants, without needing to be composted.

Are you allowed to keep animals? Both rabbit and guinea pig poo is great for plants without further processing. These animals can also eat many of your vegetable scraps, if they're not spoiled.

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

A couple of questions/

Are you talking abut a seed starting mix or a potting up mix from the seed starting mix, or a container gardening mix.

And will you be growing your plants to maturity inground?

Thanks a lot for stepping in to help, Carolyn. I hope you're feeling better!

Good questions and I now realize I should have clarified. It would be a container gardening mix, something to grow a seedling up to maturity. I won't be doing any in-ground.

But I'm curious... is there a particular fertilizer composition that works best for seed starting up to seedling? I'm going to try doing that next year.

Originally Posted by Redbaron

For plants in the ground? 99% of the time yes. In containers? I am not sure.

I've heard that eggshells and banana peels take a while to decompose, so pulverized helps a good deal. I'd put crushed eggshells in my potting medium, but next year it'll be eggshell dust and banana peel particles, in addition to whatever else I learn from now to then.

Originally Posted by spacetogrow

You might look into bokashi if you're living in an apartment. It's a way to turn your food scraps into growing medium, but operates on a different principle than regular compost. [...]As for supplements, I hope you're not overlooking your own or other people's used coffee grounds (UCGs).[...] Are you allowed to keep animals? Both rabbit and guinea pig poo is great for plants without further processing.[...]

I had heard about bokashi but wasn't sure how effective it was for the costs. If it's good about not making a stink and there are some economical ways to do it, then I may give that a go. I don't drink coffee very often, but I do drink tea quite a lot (a black tea that leaves behind tea grounds that look like coffee)--I've already started saving my strained tea in a bag. My neighbors love coffee so I'll see if I can convince them to save off some of their grounds for me. As for animals, I'm thinking it might be worthwhile to check with the local pet stores and see if they do any kind of consolidation of waste from certain animals prior to dumping.

[carolyn137]

You wouldn't want to sow seeds in a large container to grow a plant to maturity. That's b/c it's necessary to sow seeds first in a smaller container, we can talk about that, and then transplant the small seedlings to the large containers.

it's necessary to do a transplant b'c only by doing that do the roots form the fibrous structure that you need/ Sowing directly in the large containers gives you a root structure that is not fibrous, rather, it's a taproot structure such as beets and carrots have, for example/

You only need a small bag of seed starting mix and we can talk about that as well.

As for the container mix IMO there's no need at all to add anything complicated,just half a good grow mix such as ProMix or Farfard and half dry composted cow manure sold in bags everywhere, mixed together.

Carolyn

[cythaenopsis]

Originally Posted by carolyn137

You wouldn't want to sow seeds in a large container to grow a plant to maturity. That's b/c it's necessary to sow seeds first in a smaller container, we can talk about that, and then transplant the small seedlings to the large containers.

Oh yes, I am aware of the different sized containers involved, but not about the mix used for the smaller ones. I had seen seedlings started in very small containers, then after a certain size transplanted into the 1 quart seedling container, and once established enough moved to the big container. I'll have to read up on the posts about seed bags.

As for the container mix IMO there's no need at all to add anything complicated,just half a good grow mix such as ProMix or Farfard and half dry composted cow manure sold in bags everywhere, mixed together.

I'd seen the Premier ProMix HP getting good reviews, so with your nod I'll cement my choice for that. As for composted manure, I didn't realize you could buy it from the big stores. I just spotted a 25lb dehydrated manure sold at HD for just $5.77. What do you think of those "cow pots" that are made from composted cow manure fiber? Looks interesting. They decompose well under way by 3-4 weeks, so they should provide good material for the growing season.