The unsettling settling feeling...

Weedless_ 6/2/2010, 11:30 am

This time the question is about the Mel's mix settling in the boxes.
I filled them pretty good first time around, and now with all the rains going on, the soil has settled in the boxes. There is no way it's 6'' now. Is there a good time to fill them up or it's normal settling?

plb 6/2/2010, 3:39 pm

The book says that when you fill the box you should first fill one third of the box, water it, then fill another third, water it, and finally put in the final layer and water. The watering in stages gets the mix to settle immediately. Did you follow that procedure?

Nurse Grams 6/2/2010, 3:48 pm

I'm not trying to "steal" a post by someone else, but I'm noticing the same thing in my box and in reply to plb's question re: adding the mix in layers and wetting between ... no, I didn't do that. I must have skipped over that detail in my excitement to get started.

My SFG box is filled with kitchen herbs and I'm in West MI (5-b) is there anything I can or should do at this point? Maybe just wait until the end of the season and fix it up then. (Which is what I'll probably do unless I'm strongly advised not to do so)

Thanks and please assist the OP as well.
---Pam
aka Nurse Grams

**WardinWake** 6/2/2010, 4:13 pm

Weedless_in_Atlanta wrote:This time the question is about the Mel's mix settling in the boxes.
I filled them pretty good first time around, and now with all the rains going on, the soil has settled in the boxes. There is no way it's 6'' now. Is there a good time to fill them up or it's normal settling?

Howdy:

What you see is settling that occurs in most new SFG's. As long as you have at least 4 to 4 and 1/2 inches of MM in your box and you have a crop growing wait until you harvest to refill your box. If you harvest one square out of a box go ahead and fill that square to the top and then go ahead and replant that square with the next crop (fall?).

God Bless, Ward and Mary.

Weedless_ 6/2/2010, 4:50 pm

Thanks, I didn't do layering, I missed that part, just like the post above commented Smile

. However, I didn't plant anything for a couple of days after filling, and we had some rains passing the area, so it did settle before I planted, but it keeps settling more. I do however think that I have about 4 inches overall. I'll just keep adding soil whenever possible.

Nurse Grams 6/2/2010, 5:01 pm

Thanks for the advice. I'm going to do the same thing, Weedless In Atlanta... add as I go along.

Live and learn, hey?

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The unsettling settling feeling...

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