Beginner Gardening: Good Growing Practices - an Overview for Beginners, 1 by tapla

tapla wrote:
The basic recipe for the 5:1:1 mix calls only for garden (dolomitic) lime. It's used as a pH adjuster and as a source of Ca/Mg in almost all commercially prepared soils, too. Because the pH of the gritty mix is considerably higher to start with than the 5:1:1 mix, you would only use gypsum as a Ca source in it (the gritty mix) because it doesn't impact pH measurably. Once you decide on what you want to use insofar as the soil goes, let me know and I'll help you with the best way to go at it, and I'll explain exactly why it's best to take that particular approach. I can go as deep as we need to in explaining, but for now I'll try to keep it simple.

I should say too, that it's not really any more complicated to grow in any of the soils I use, it's just that you're being introduced to concepts that most beginners have never been exposed to or considered before. The same considerations are actually in play for all soils, it's just that most of you have probably never applied them before.

Al