vegetable gardening in soilless medium (Request for comments

Hi Everyone,

First time gardener from Ohio need your help. TIA.

I am planning for vegetable plants in a (container) wooden boxes of size 4 foot x 4 foot x 8 inches (=~ 11 cubic foot). Four of these boxes makes 45 cubic foot approximately.

I filled these four boxes with the soil less medium as following:
Coarse Vermiculite – 15 cubic foot
Sphagnum Peat Moss – 15 cubic foot
`Compost kind of` – 15 cubic foot (1 cubic foot each of below)

I have searched 50+ of garden centers locally (zip code: 45040) and couldn't find so called “COMPOST”. For next year I will be preparing my own compost so this question won't arise. But, to begin my first/fresh vegetable garden; in the place of compost I used the following mix. I mixed them *VERY* thorough spending a week.

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Question: is the following mix 'OK' to begin my garden? Am I sort of something here? Am I going to kill the plants with Over dosage? Any other suggestions/ideas to help myself is greatly appreciated.
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My `Compost kind of` - 15 cubic foot is:

1.Mother Nature's – SWEET PEET – Composted soil conditioner – 1 cubic foot
2.Nea's – POSY POWER – Powerful soil booster – 1 cubic foot
3.Premier Horticulture – PRO MIX – Growing mix – 1 cubic foot
4.Nature's Helper – MUSHROOM COMPOST – Organic soil – 1 cubic foot
5.Garden Magic – COMPOST AND MANURE – Peat & Manure – 1 cubic foot
6.Ace – COMPOSTED MANURE – Loosens soil – 1 cubic foot
7.New Plant Life – MUSHROOM COMPOST SOIL – Soil amendment - 1 cubic foot
8.Garden Scape – PEAT HUMUS – Decomposed Organic … - 1 cubic foot
9.Garden Scape – COW MANURE – will not burn – 1 cubic foot
10.Organic Valley – HUMUS – ready to use – 1 cubic foot
11.Organic Valley – COW MANURE PLUS ORGANIC COMPOST – Ready to use – 1 cubic foot
12.Organic Valley – ORGANIC COMPOST PLUS MANURE – Compost & manure – 1 cubic foot
13.Garick – MOO NURE – Organic Compost with Cow Manure – 1 cubic foot
14.Country Stone – COMPOSTED COW MANURE – Soil conditioner – 1 cubic foot
15.Earth Gro – ORGANIC HUMUS AND MANURE – Soil amendment – 1 cubic foot

Thanks & Regards
Ganesh

In detail (if you are still reading this post ;-) ) Assuming the product is what the cover says.

1.Mother Nature's – SWEET PEET – Composted soil conditioner – 1 cubic foot
Organic material made from wood shavings, farm manure & plant fibers
(USCC)

2.Nea's – POSY POWER – Powerful soil booster – 1 cubic foot
All Organic: Horse manure, sphagnum Peat, Brewer's Grain, Gypsum & lime
0.7% 0.45% 1.0%

3.Premier Horticulture – PRO MIX – Growing mix – 1 cubic foot
Compost Enrich (from shrimp, seaweed, softwood bark), Microrise inside, Sphagnum Peat Moss, Peat Humus (OMRI)

4.Nature's Helper – MUSHROOM COMPOST – Organic soil – 1 cubic foot

5.Garden Magic – COMPOST AND MANURE – Peat & Manure – 1 cubic foot
Reed sedge Peat, Manure
0.1% 0.1% 0.1%

6.Ace – COMPOSTED MANURE – Loosens soil – 1 cubic foot
0.5% 0.5% 0.5%

7.New Plant Life – MUSHROOM COMPOST SOIL – Soil amendment - 1 cubic foot

8.Garden Scape – PEAT HUMUS – Decomposed Organic … - 1 cubic foot
A decomposed organic forest peat fiber

9.Garden Scape – COW MANURE – will not burn – 1 cubic foot
1% 1% 1%

10.Organic Valley – HUMUS – ready to use – 1 cubic foot

11.Organic Valley – COW MANURE PLUS ORGANIC COMPOST – Ready to use – 1 cubic foot
0.05% 0.05% 0.05% (USCC)

12.Organic Valley – ORGANIC COMPOST PLUS MANURE – Compost & manure – 1 cubic foot
0.05% 0.05% 0.05%

13.Garick – MOO NURE – Organic Compost with Cow Manure – 1 cubic foot
0.2% 0.2% 0.2% (USCC)

14.Country Stone – COMPOSTED COW MANURE – Soil conditioner – 1 cubic foot
Cow manure, Peat and Humus
0.05% 0.05% 0.05%

15.Earth Gro – ORGANIC HUMUS AND MANURE – Soil amendment – 1 cubic foot
90% organic humus (peat, compost, forest products) and 10% manure
0.05% 0.05% 0.05%

You have the word compost in numbers 4,5,6,7,11,12,13,14 and 15. You really didn't need that many products though. I can't tell you that the plants want burn up.That looks like a lot of cow manure to me.

Looks like you've got a lot of compost there, I probably would stick with just one of those, you definitely don't need all of them. Compost is a generic term that refers to things that have been allowed to decompose a bit so they're in a form where they can help improve your soil, so all your things that you have there are all compost, just they were made from different things.

You may be overanalyzing what plants need in order to thrive and going to unnecessary lengths to provide that for them. If you enjoy coming up with various mixes, who is going to say you shouldn't do it? Only carefully constructed controlled studies would show whether your mix is superior to a simpler one.

Wow! Where in the world did you find all that stuff? Even if it works, I'm not sure you could ever duplicate it again. I am just guessing here because I have never even heard of most of that stuff but I think it will collapse in short order and suffocate your plants for lack of oxygen and drown them from holding too much moisture.

I think I didn't understand the MEL's mix the way its actual intention is.

Based on the book 'square foot gardening' by 'mel bartholomew' (www.squarefootgardening.com) MEL's mix is:
1/3 Peat Moss
1/3 Coarse Vermiculite
1/3 Compost (from Various sources)

Whenever I visited a garden store in the search of 'COMPOST'- I Just bought one bag of whatever is available with them. (to ensure various sources)

The boxes are sitting on the ground just on top of weed protector cloth.

Thanks
Ganesh

Probably all they mean about "various sources" is you don't want all your compost coming from one thing...so don't make it all composted manure, etc. Except for stuff that's straight composted manure, probably most of the other types of compost you bought have a mix of things in them so you're fine.