“all purpose” sand will be might next pick up. if not, pea gravel isnt much more expensive.
ya i dont want to have to worry about over watering.
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I use the bags for grafting class participants and they love the ease of transporting their new tree from the greenhouse to their car.
Having said that, they definitely dry out faster in the summer. I also see more mold under pots in wet weather.
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I dont worry about overwatering. Rain is a blessing lol.
The mold and algae used to bother me and I got these pot elevators for it. I was also thinking of aeration underneath.
Yes my fault… i guess im past the ‘perfectly fine’ ratings on things that i purchase for the most part. YMMV on results and maybe mine will be better or worse… but this video is sorta in the ballpark of a fair comparison.
I have a greenhouse locally that sells this stuff, its their house potting mix in all of their seedlings… their plants look amazing and healthy.
When i bought my first bag of it years ago i thought i kinda got ripped off due to how much pine fines were in it… but now that ive had a chance to experiment, I add pine fines to just about everything i grow.
Some places have these locally and i cant tell the difference between either… i guess its marketing for those that dont understand soil conditioner meaning.
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Nice! If it works well for you that’s all that really matters in the end! My Sunshine mix looks like this, must be a little different?
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I love bags, with that said I don’t use them anymore. They dry out instantly so it ends up being more work in the long run, but boy when they are dry are they easy to move.
Lowes has similar bucket to that one @krismoriah for around the same price and they work great. I got some 20 gallon (maybe they were 19 actually) from Walmart for like $7 which is hard to beat. Problem is they become so brittle after a season or two and now I am having to replace them.
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Menards and Home Depot black tubs look identical to me other than the rope color. The lowes one (project source brand) looks similar by pics.
However-
Lowes $11/18 gal
Home Depot. $9/21 gal
Menards $10/17 gal
So looks like each is different specs.
Im gonna get some Home Depot ones next… they sure are handy for a bunch of my projects… even catching rainwater which i do from a few leaky gutters.
Anybody tried lined grow bags? I’ve used non-lined in the past for potatoes and would never do again. Was recently shipped by mistake $300 worth of lined grow bags of various sizes. They definitely look like a far superior product. Will likely give them a try, but my neighbors might get quite a few of them, since I didn’t need any of them.
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Thanks for the idea. I actually got a bunch of these shelves and I stack them as three different heights. I’ve left one out all winter and it’s done beautifully. No rust at all. They also hold up to heavy pots. I used them for display at events. They disassemble into separate shelves pretty easily for transport
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DE doesn’t discriminate with killing insects, so it can be quite harmful to native bees that burrow in the ground and many other native insects. It can also kill springtails and other small critters that play a role in breaking down organic matter and improving soil health. It an even affect amphibians and small mammals. For those reasons, I don’t personally find the benefits outweigh the cons.
It seems like you have some other great amendments like pine bark, worm castings, and potentially wood ash that will probably get you just as far without needing any DE.
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Do you have a source for it being a lasting problem in the outdoor environment?
In plant pots I imagine it gets moist and breaks down the very fine structures almost immediately and wouldn’t pose a threat to many insects
The larger used buckets that I got from the dumpster pile of a local pool service company are still going strong. The flippy plastic handles used on the smaller of the sizes don’t appear to be shot full of a UV stabilizer so they got brittle and are mostly breaking, but the molded in ones are still working well.
I used to source a variety of different sized pickle buckets from fast food restaurants, and they were great for all sorts of purposes.
Drew made some interesting points in the thread below. I didnt see any devil’s advocates in that thread… maybe start a thread of
‘The Disadvantages of Diatomaceous Earth’ ?
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am i a neighbor? 
i wanna seeee!
Well as soon as it is wet It no longer can harm insects. If using as additive no reason anything should die. Just get it wet. Plus it helps keep the dust out of the air. Not much of a negative if you ask me. When it dries it no longer is in crystal form. No longer capable of harming insects as sharp edges have melted.
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I may be answering my own question here but why doesn’t anyone make a pot that flares at the bottom a bit? I get that it would make it harder to re-pot that said plant. However so many taper up, as opposed to taper down some. So many pots are so top heavy that anything planted that can grow taller than 3 ft becomes a constant falling over nightmare. I think a pot heavy weighted at the bottom or with a flared out base would really be desirable. I have two expensive thick pots which I will never use again due to them constantly falling over. Maybe I could put some concrete in the bottom, but I doubt that would help much.
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Isn’t wood ash usually high ph? I’m pretty surprised this worked. Did you do anything special? I have a lot of wood ash…
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It for sure works growing gourds/pumpkins and mexican sunflowers…both were accidents from seeds that somehow made it into my pile…i just let it go all summer and never watered or did anything and we had a brutal drought summer…they did pretty amazing.
As far as rooting things (phosphorus/calcium) it seems to be good stuff?
For my statement of tip rooting… thats all root structure…
Nothing special… my neighbor dumps their ashes in a big pile all winter then takes a small bucket on a tractor and scoops it. The below soil is nasty and rocky and seems devoid of any kind of life or nutrients…at first i was not cool with it but maybe there is minerals and stuff in those rocks.
2023 i had about 40 gallons of wood ash that i didnt know what to do with so i spread it on my orchard floor… kind of like the old timers would lime with a coffee can. The following spring/summer my grasses and clovers seemed to look better to me (darker and more lush)… no science on that just observing.
I made a topic on it but i havent really learned much other than it seems to help things grow here… havent found any drawbacks that i can note.
https://growingfruit.org/t/the-matter-of-wood-ash/66073
Maybe all the ‘facts’ on google are BS? not sure.
I pee on a tote of it that i have and make ‘biochar’ after its laced with nitrogen i mix compost which goes in my garlic and potato soils… my garlic thrives… not sure if it has anything to do with it at all honestly.
Im just putting refuse to use… i have plenty of pee, compost and woodchips and wood ashes.
So im surprised it works myself… it just does without having to google or use science.
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