Best Affordable Soil

[descodave]

Is Sanford’s still the best place to buy good affordable soil? We want soil that’s ready to plant in & won’t need fertilizer for a while; we made some beds using our lava rock, but have very little soil on our property. Thanks for your input!

[terracore]

Is Sanford’s still the best place to buy good affordable soil? We want soil that’s ready to plant in & won’t need fertilizer for a while; we made some beds using our lava rock, but have very little soil on our property. Thanks for your input!

I think that Sanford's and Puna Rock have the same stuff.  I would recommend against getting the Pepeekeo soil on it's own because it's clay like and doesn't drain well.  I did a test on the NPK and it was low in all the nutrients. They have a cinder soil mix (1/2 soil, half cinder) that is better, but it doesn't drain as well as you'd think, is low in nutrients, and not something that won't need fertilizer for awhile.  Better is to get half cinder soil and half of the mac nut compost, and even with that I would add Azomite or some other type of rock dust to it.  Eventually we add rabbit and/or goat manure as well.  Once everything is mixed together and your plants start growing top it all off with 'free' mulch from the dump if you can get it.  I don't remember the specifics any longer but I also tested the pH of both the soil and the cinder soil, and it needed adjustment too.  It's not something you have to worry about right away because the compost, manures, and mulch might help even it out but keep an eye on it or else the plants will have problems with nutrient uptake even if it has plenty of nutrients.

Whatever you're growing make sure you rotate your beds each time and if you do a root crop follow it with something soil nematodes don't like.

[descodave]

Thanks for your thorough reply Terracore. Hey, what is NPK? Also, what do you plant that nematodes don’t like?

[eightfingers2.0]

N = Nitrogen
P = Phosphorus
K = Potassium

There are many different ratios of these depending on each plant needs.

[terracore]

Traditionally, marigolds are grown to combat nematodes. But if you don't want to lose a season's worth of bed space to growing flowers (though since they attract bees are good to grow around plants that need heavy pollination) if you can ballpark identify the type of nematode you have, grow something that they don't like, or a crop that is resistant to that nematode. The last thing you want to do is feed them. There are also chemical solutions to nematodes. They are more of a problem here because we don't have winters to kill them off.

Another good strategy to dealing with soil pests is container gardening. For example if you want to grow a tomato that is susceptible to blight, grow it in a container until it is done and then transfer the container soil to a bed.

[descodave]

Hey, Terracore,
You think we could buy the top soil, add steer manure, & top with compost (from dump) (would that be “nutritious “ for the plants )? We know little, so appreciate the “scientific “ advice!

[kalianna]

I'm not Terracore, but just wanted to make sure that you know you need to add cinders to the mix. Otherwise your plants will drown in a deliciously fertile mix of water-absorbing soils. I use half cinders, half mulch/compost mix.

[terracore]

Hey, Terracore,
      You think we could buy the top soil, add steer manure, & top with compost (from dump) (would that be “nutritious “ for the plants )? We know little, so appreciate the “scientific “ advice!

I don't have any scientific advice, just what we've learned from trial and error.  Speaking from experience, I wouldn't buy the topsoil* on it's own (we tried that once, it's a big mistake).  In order to get sufficient drainage we get the cinder soil and mix it with 1/2 compost.  Steer manure should work if it's the kind I'm used to that is mixed with wood chips, but have never tried that here but would still be in addition to the cinders not in place of.

It would also help if we knew what you were trying to grow?  For example, tomatoes suffer blossom end rot here if the soil isn't fortified with calcium.  Most good tomato fertilizers have added calcium but it's something to think about- no two fertilizers are created equal whether its chemical or natural.

* Although they call it topsoil, I think the "top" was mined a long time ago. They are digging up the clay like soil underneath, which is why there is drainage and nutrient problems with the product. But it's not the lava / cinder only options that can be dug out of the ground in Puna, so it's "top soil".

Your original post said you wanted something "ready to plant in & won’t need fertilizer for a while". Unfortunately such a product is probably only available in a bag, possibly with a name like "Miracle Grow". Local stuff is going to take some mixing and work. We do occasionally buy bagged stuff for seed starting and small containers. When it's spent in 6 months or whatever it gets added to our compost pile and begins a new life.

[descodave]

Thankyou so much, Terracore, you helped us a lot with that last post! Love your idea about dumping spent potting soil into the mulch pile. We will be putting Ceiling Wax Palms in a few beds, Vinca flowers in others , Croatins, bananas, papayas, & white pineapples in other beds.

[terracore]

Most of those will do well in poor soil if they get occasional fertilizer. Pineapples prefer foliar feeding and can practically grow in nothing if you splash some fertilizer on them. Commercial growers feed them heavily with spray so they grow twice as fast and then they artificially induce them to flower so they cut the fruit harvest time in half. The flavor and sweetness of pineapple is heavily influenced by the season that the fruit ripens and is picked, so that need to be planned long ahead of time when its planted if they aren't going to be artificially induced to flower. The only fertilizer our bananas get is whatever we throw on the ground from cleaning animal pens. They are otherwise mostly growing in rock. We don't really fertilize our palms, though we probably should, but we run chicken tractors over their root systems and that seems to be enough. The bananas like that too.