Measurements

So I'm having a heck of a time trying to calculate my MM ratios, I'm hoping someone can help. I have a total of 36 sf to fill, 6" deep. The average bag of compost for instance is 30 liters, or they are measured by weight, which doesn't tell me volume. I know Peat Moss is 2cf per bag, but I don't know if that expands. Can someone help me out? I'm all calculatored out. 

Thanks!

When I filled my two 4x4 boxes last year, I kind of flew by the seat of my pants. I bought a bag of vermiculite (4 cu ft) and a bag of peat moss. The peat moss is usually compressed and will expand in volume.  I bought five bags of different composts. I didn't worry too much about the different weights and volumes of the materials in the bags when I bought them.

So then I started the mixing. I mixed up the composts using a bucket to get equal volumes of each type. Then I took a 5 gallon bucket of vermiculite, a five gallon bucket of peat moss (fluffed up) and a 5 gallon bucket of the mixed compost and I mixed those things together on a tarp. I dumped the contents of the tarp into the SFG box and wet that MM down good. Then I repeated the process until I had enough MM in the box. It turned out that I did not have enough materials to fill both boxes so I went out and bought more and repeated the process for the second box.

In the end I had vermiculite, peat moss and mixed composts that I did not use. I stored them for future use. 

Hope that helps.

Thanks TD. I'm trying to source good quantities of vermiculite, I've messaged a couple of garden centers. I don't like the idea of buying too much as I want to keep my cost down. Worse comes to worse i'll make planter boxes.

I found 5 different kinds of compost; shrimp, cattle/steer, sheep, mushroom and fish, but I'll have to go 3 or 4 different stores to get them. 

If you have 36 square feet at 6 inch depth then you need a total volume of 18 cubic feet. So that would be 6 cubic feet of vermiculite, 6 cubic feet of peat moss and 6 cubic feet of the 5 part compost mixture. I purchase vermiculite in 4 cubic feet bags.

trolleydriver wrote:If you have 36 square feet at 6 inch depth then you need a total volume of 18 cubic feet. So that would be 6 cubic feet of vermiculite, 6 cubic feet of peat moss and 6 cubic feet of the 5 part compost mixture. I purchase vermiculite in 4 cubic feet bags.

Or if you don't want to buy another bale sphagnum, top off with compost. That is where the nutrients come from.

Yes, measure by volume.