I don’t see Top Pot specific ratios or charcoal in the mix. Is it listed on the bag?
Our custom potting soils also contain peat moss. However our 2 soils are 50%:50% peat:pumice and 60%:30%:10% pumice:peat:sand. Our soils perform much better after 1 year than the others primarily because they contain much more material that is permanent.
Pure sand is still the best long term potting soil (for pots taller than 12”) but the weight can be a problem. At my home we like a mixture of roughly 50% sand, 25% peat, and 25% pumice. This is essentially mixing plaster sand with our Laguna Hills Nursery Acid Mix Potting Soil in equal parts. The plants that we grow here at our store are grown in a very similar soil.
There’s a mixing/potting station at the nursery and I recall that this was what was on a laminated flyer by the station. The peat moss heavy soil is probably the “Acid Mix” bag.
Another +1 to Laguna Hills Nursery’s “Top Pot” soil. His soil philosophy is no organic material / compost inside the potting mix or in the ground and that it should be on top of the soil. I use it in all my potted plants and have 5 avocado trees on their 3rd year in grow bags which I am letting the fruit hold this year.
How large are your grow bags for Avocados and how many fruits/ flowers do you get? Nice to see this.
A lot of folks seem to have an allergic reaction when I mention I want to try some Avos in grow bags or pots - I mean I only have a small yard so at some point if I want more varieties it’s gotta be a pot. I totally get that it would be “ideal” to put all Avos and probably most other things straight into the ground. But space… remains … the final frontier
Peat moss doesn’t count as organic? Anyway Coco coir is probably a reasonable substitute. I use it in a lot of my larger pots (mixed with compost and pumice). Had some avocados in a coir heavy potting mix in the greenhouse and they did really well. Only had them in pots for about a year though.
My trees were all in 15 gallon grow bags OR plastic pots before planting in ground 1-2 years ago… Some of them hated being in bags, probably because they all differed on tolerance to drought.
Lamb on zutano - grow bag, hated it, kept aborting fruit (this probably also because it was a young tree)
Reed on zutano - grow bag, hated it
GEM on dusa - grow bag, actually got a few fruit on it!
Lamb on dusa - 15 gal pot, fruited but very few fruit
Reed on dusa - hated being in bag, always aborted fruit
Reed on Zerala - was okay being in a 15 gal pot
Bacon on dusa - grow bag, this one grew the fastest and was the most tolerant of my trees, it always slowly shed its leaves vs the other trees dumping their leaves all at once
Ettinger on dusa - pot, this one fruited fine in a pot, and was tolerant of dry spells (makes sense, as it was bred in Israel)
If I could do it all over, I’d put them all in pots, and make sure to paint the pots with white paint. Being in pots means you can easily plant them into the ground later (with help from another strong person, don’t try it alone).
I bought 5 gal trees and then put them into 25 lb grow bags. Last year I grew the Brokaw liners and went to 5 gal then 15 gal plastic pots. 25 lb grow bags are pretty tough to move around, and it gets sketchy lifting from those handles. Feels like they are going to rip at any moment .
Last year I had all fruit drop on all but one of my trees. They were on their second year so I wasn’t planning on letting them hold fruit anyway. All except my Stewart which has grown over twice as fast as the others. I think it must have superior rootstock. It held about 20 avocados that I was waiting to get to size but surprisingly they started to darken up during the fall. They turned out to be cukes with no seeds and were delicious lol.
I sold my condo and was growing in pots to wait until I get a place with more land but that is seeming unlikely these days with rates and home prices. You and I have no other choice but to grow in pots
He says peat moss breaks down slow enough that it doesn’t go anaerobic. He also doesn’t like coco coir because of tannins or whatnot and has said the avocados he’s grown in it have been yellow. I’ve actually never used coco coir so can’t comment on it
Interesting results! I agree with the pots and painting them white. Easier to water and to move around. Uppotting grow bags is always a pain, too.
After reading his philosophy on soil systems, seems like he doesn’t like compost, one funny quote “Don’t grow plants in dead plants” however there is merit to his advocation of using media that breaks down slowly. Which peat moss is, I didnt have luck using coco-coir, I used it once making a big batch of soil and it turned out be washed in seawater with sodium content hundreds of times above normal level.
Yes I’ve heard this as well. Must depends on the source, I’ve never had issues with mushrooms either. I suppose doing a thorough soak and rinse would be a safer bet though.
Yeah EB Stone’s cactus mix seems like a pretty safe bet for a general purpose well-draining mix. You’d need to water them pretty often in summer in my climate. I’d suggest some generous addition of organic or other slow-release fertilizer if you’re planting in straight cactus mix though. Even my cacti and succulents in EB Stone’s cactus mix respond well to a bit of fertilizer every few months and otherwise barely grow. I’ve used osmocote for small cacti and succulents, but mostly I use Espoma garden tone or holly tone in 26 lb bags for everything including avocados and citrus.
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