Adjustments to Mel's Mix

I occasionally have boxes dry out in the off-season. I plan on it taking a day to rehydrate a box before planting. Add and wait; add and wait; etc. Most of my boxes are TTs with weedcloth bottoms so I have immediate feedback as to when to stop adding water.

During the season I water empty squares too, to keep them hydrated. A good learning tool for beginners is to leave one square empty so you can reach to the bottom of the box to check for hydration. The 'finger in the top test' generally does not tell you what you need to know.

Victor,
You certainly did not shake my faith in Mel's Mix. I know how it has performed for me as opposed to my results when I tried to amend my native soil (sand) here on the coast. Mel's Mix wins for sure.
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vnoble wrote:It all started with how hard it was to get peat moss to take water if it was ever allowed to dry out (which we did). It took us a good week of off and on sprinkling to get the MM totally saturated. I was amazed that the water would find channels in the mix and keep going around dry spots rather than soak after hosing it with gallons and gallons of water.

I misunderstood your original question about trying to rehydrate and responded with info on building a new bed instead of rehydrating an existing bed that had dried out. To be honest, I don't think there is an easy way to rehydrate a bed that has dried out, except to proceed slowly, water, wait, water, wait.... and perhaps stir the MM a bit as you add water

vnoble wrote:Growing though the winter is a challenge as the days are short and we do not run the heat high for ideal growth. We got started late while we planned and built our boxes. I encouraged the students to select short season crops so we could get a harvest before christmas. The students got a good lesson on warm season crops and cool season crops as the cool season crops did well and the warm seson crops cucumbers and okra did not do much. They harvested raddishes, lettuce, and chard before Christmas and will harvest turnips and beets after. We will be replanting when we return in January.

We can all take a lesson from your group and the seasonal planting you do in the greenhouse. Cool season vs warm season plants is a great lesson for the kids. Though I don't have a greenhouse (yet) I enjoyed hearing about the poinsettas and bedding plants sold as cash crops.

Here on the coast, we also have a lot of problems growing certain warm weather crops, even in the summer, due to the lack of heat. It is good to hear that the kids crops are growing well now. Sure would like to hear how they progress. Photos would be nice too.



oops, I see Boffer responded to watering the dried out MM while I was still working on this.