TY for the warm welcomes

Random thought:  If there are no boxes, why the dogmatic grip on a single formula?  It's difficult to learn anything new if you always follow one set of rules.  It seem to me that "we've always done it that way" (one of my pet peeves!) is what got Mel started on this path.  Have we really reached Nirvana?  That SFG works is well proven.  That nothing can be improved upon, less so.  P.S.  I was never great at catechism, sorry.
   
Keith

Since there hasn't been a single post/response to this, I believe that most of you must have  misunderstood the intent of my "random thought".  I wasn't saying that Mel's Mix wasn't good.  I was however surprised that no one has tried an addition and/or modification that they found to be beneficial.  Maybe they are afraid to "poke the bear"?  I'm certainly convinced that there probably isn't a better place to start the research.  I've just tracked down vendors for my starting lot of Mel's mix, $1000+!  I'm glad only compost is required in the future.  It is the least expensive component, by far.  I'm pretty convinced that the same mix can't be optimum for every crop.  So when I apply successful tweaks or micro-nutrients to individual cells for specific crops, I will let you know.

Keith

Ret EE,  Well, Mel did an excellent job coming up with the formula of Mel's Mix.  His journey started with amending native soil, to using Mel's Mix in raised beds.  The only food plant I can think of that can benefit from "tweaked" MM is the blueberry bush.  It needs an acidic medium so extra fluffed peat moss helps with that.

The hardest aspect of SFG for beginners is that only 6-7" of Mel's Mix is needed to grow 98% of veggies.  For those who grow long carrots or turnips can add a temporary "top hat" to those squares.

There are other ways to garden successfully, but this Forum is a support group for SFG gardeners.

I just witnessed for myself how plants love the MM. I just yanked out 7 Thai Birds Eye chili pepper plants that have been in the ground for more than 6 YEARS and the roots were still in great condition (these plants were pruned as 5 foot tall shrubs). There were no tap roots on any of them, just fine "hairy" roots- the kind you see in healthy plants. None of the plants' root system were deeper than 6 inches in 18 inch deep beds, so I really didn't need to go the entire depth with MM. The vermiculite in the mix was still visible, as it was the course grade. I had used medium grade before and it broke down too fast, so in the long run, it was well worth it to use the course grade. I'm sticking with Mel's system. The only thing I regret not doing was to locate the beds closer to the kitchen, but I have room to spare, so I don't mind wandering off beyond hearing range when my wife's calling for me.

There is a saying, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.  Mel was an engineer and researched and tried a lot of different ways and came up with his Mel’s Mix formulation and square foot gardening ideas so people can grow the most in the least amount of space with great results.  No one is blindly following, we just know it works.  You can make any changes you want in your garden/beds.  This forum though is for square foot gardening  and it could really confuse new people and make it more complicated for them if we don’t help them with what has been shown to work for many decades.

YS and TG,  Thank you for your testimonies!