Re: [Aroid-l] Limestone Substrates

From: Brian Williams <pugturd at windstream.net> on 2010.10.21 at 00:54:34(21575) This is very interesting. I have been for the last few years put out a sign for fall leaves here at our nursery. People bring tons of leaves every year and I use them to mulch up plants and to make a huge compost pile for soil to use in future beds. This year I had to bring in a number of tender plants into our heated greenhouses. Running low on soil and knowing that the plants would be thrown back in the ground come spring I decided to use a leaf compost mix as I have in years past. These leaves are usually only 1 to 2 years old and are half way to pretty much composted. In years past I found that the plants sitting in these pots of leaves would not produce any new roots and that in most cases would rot. Which has been upsetting to say the least. I have been wondering why and blaming most of it on the cold roots. This year I added 2 bags of lime dust to the mix as well as small Styrofoam pellets. The Styrofoam pellets were found at a local styrofoam recycling center that has a certain type of sytrofoam they cannot recycle which are slightly heaver than normal. These styrofaom pellets are then throw away or are sent to be used in bean bags apparently they have no other use and the recycling center was happy for me to take a ton off of their hands. I found this helps keep my soil very airy and drainage much better and plus they are free and in a sense are being used once again in my beds. I have never thought about really using this soil mix as a potting mix for my collection or prized plants sense I have had multiple problems with it in the past. It has always been used as a very cheep alternative for storing my summer collection for another season. But this year after moving a few plants into this mix and placing them into the greenhouse I have noticed roots already growing out the bottoms of the pots in just a few days time. It makes me wonder with many of these aroids such as Amorphophallus Alocasias and others that grow naturally in small limes stone pockets in leaf litter are getting a taste of home in this mix. I plan to test this further, I still have a lot of questions myself especially over how weedy is this mix and how the soil will act once it really decays in the pots. Still adding the lime dust and styrofoam has made me look at this mix completely different and as having much more potential than I had expected. Plus the total cost for pile 6 feet tall was 6.00 due to the fact I bought the lime in small bags rather than bulk and used the bobcat to mix it up. I will try to write down some ratios as I test the mix further to see what works best. I am a bit worried as it seems a bit to easy for it to work this well. +More _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.