Mel Mix Alternative?

I wanted to check if anyone had experience and knowledge using the below mix as an alternative to Mel's Mix, the only reason I am asking is its expensive & hard to find peat moss & vermiculite in large scale in Bangalore.....

I was thinking of mixing

1. Blended Compost
2. Coco Peat
3. Charcoal

would appreciate inputs and work's or doesn't work....

Maddy

k2madhu wrote:I wanted to check if anyone had experience and knowledge using the below mix as an alternative to Mel's Mix, the only reason I am asking is its expensive & hard to find peat moss & vermiculite in large scale in Bangalore.....

I was thinking of mixing

1. Blended Compost
2. Coco Peat
3. Charcoal

would appreciate inputs and work's or doesn't work....

Maddy

What is the charcoal for? The other two ingredients sound fine. I know the recommendation for areas of the world what can't access peat moss and vermiculite is to use 100% compost with as varied an mix as possible. But since coco peat (coir) is an acceptable substitute, I would use it to help fluff up the heavy compost.

In the Philippines, I have seen a compost mix of plant matter and manures plus what they call charcoalized rice hulls. The rice hulls are heated and toasted until they are a dark brown but not turned to ash. They still maintain a crunchy feel and seem to fluff up the compost. The farmer was not planting the sfg way, but adding this mix into the planting area of the rows. They were having some good success.

I am going to be spending 6 months in PI this winter and plan to investigate this more and also build some SFG beds at my winter retreat. But I am also cheating a bit. I shipped some dishes and pots and pans and some western things I don't think I can do without to my friends to furnish my place. Vermiculite makes good packing material. 

Kay

Rice hulls i think are being turned into bio char have seen chicken manure litter that has been processed like that.Depending on what is planted  some rocks could be buried  in the mix where the plant roots are not located and its not a root crop  like egg plant  or cabbage .