Specialty Gardening: Container Soils: Water Movement and Retention II, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
Hi, Whatsupdoc. I'm not sure where to start to try to help you with the soil you already mixed. Do you have pine bark available to you that looks anything like one of the examples in the picture I'll leave? The soil might be ok in raised beds, but I would have chosen reed/sedge peat for that application instead of sphagnum (Did you choose that type?), and perhaps native soil instead of sand? That's just a guess, since I have no idea what your native soil is like.

I think the soil you mixed will probably be too heavy & water retentive in containers, so we need to add something to lighten it up (add more air to the mix), and the sand could be a problem. Why don't you let me know about the pine bark & we'll go from there?

Take care.

Al