Soil booster for compost?

phyzical 5/19/2010, 8:53 pm

I am new to SFG and I am looking forward to getting my salsa garden ready to plant. So far I have bought some peat moss, vermiculite, cow manure compost, mushroom compost and manure compost with humus. Do I still need soil boosters? If so, what kind. I cannot find any in my area that are in the book.

Retired Member 1 5/20/2010, 5:12 pm

I loaned my new SFG book out, but can't remember anything about soil boosters. Maybe that is why some of our gardens aren't doing as well as others. What are the names of the soil boosters recommended?

phyzical 5/20/2010, 7:42 pm

I did find a soil amendment made by Monrovia and decided to try it out. Hopefully everything works out ok.

Wyldflower 5/20/2010, 9:52 pm

Hi Phyzical

Maybe I missed something, but it's not in the index, and I just skimmed through my book, and I don't see anything about soil boosters. Are you using the "All New Square Foot Gardening" or are you using the older version of the book? If someone else has the older version, maybe they can shed some light.

Retired Member 1 5/21/2010, 5:24 pm

I have the original book and there's nothing in there about "soil boosters". He mentions several things to improve the soil, primarily through adding compost, and if necessary, peat moss and vermiculite. But nothing about soil boosters. Actually, I've never heard the term before.

phyzical 5/21/2010, 7:19 pm

I have the new book. There is a picture that shows all of the materials he recommends for compost, peat moss, and vermiculite. For the compost materials he shows:
Superior Soil Products worm castings
Superior Soil Products Hen manure compost
Penn Gro mushroom compost
Nature's Needs organic humus
HuMore plant & soil builder
Posy Power soil booster

I had a difficult time finding the last two on the list. I found one place online that sold the HuMore plant & soil builder, but I didn't end up buying it. I found a soil amendment that I decided to try out.

aspiegardner 5/21/2010, 8:05 pm

usually we just use 5 different types of compost, peat moss and vermiculite if you can find it.

Josh created a neat worm tube that would do the castings for you.

Wyldflower 5/22/2010, 12:31 am

I'm sure that Mel didn't mean to make this difficult. Those were just the "five kinds of compost" that he used when doing the photos for the book. As long as you have a variety of sources - I used sheep, cow, humus, mushroom and home-made composts - you should get all the basic nutrients that your garden needs.

If I remember correctly, Mel says "it's not rocket science" .... use what you can find easily, and enjoy the experience... don't stress over not having exactly the brands and types of compost shown.

Good luck!

phyzical 5/22/2010, 2:15 pm

I have used a mixture of various different compost materials and I'm sure it will work out fine. I got everything planted this morning, so now it's time to grow. Soil booster for compost? Icon_biggrin

vanter0109 6/16/2010, 12:24 pm

I am also new to SFGing, and had a difficult time locating 5 different types of compost.

Cow, hen & mushroom were easy enough to find; it seems like every nursey uses those. But I did have a stuggle with the remaining two.

I was able to find free horse manure, but I didn't have a truck & wasn't gonna put that in my car. I was also able to find fish meal, but all the bags had bug holes in them, so I didn't think that was a good idea. I also happened upon bat guanno, which I did get one 10 lb. bag of, but seeing as how that was $38, I drew the line there.

I'm not gonna lie, I did stress slightly...but then I figured I could just suppliment the missing portion with more of the options I was able to find.

phyzical 6/18/2010, 4:58 pm

I just did the best I could with the mix and my garden is now growing very well. My roma tomato plants now have tomatoes on them, the peppers are sprouting, but I'm still waiting on the beefsteak tomatoes to start growing.

Unfortunately I can't stop the storms from coming. One of the storms this past week completely flattened one of my pepper plants. Oh well, at least it was only one.

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getting into the mix of things

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