Quote Originally Posted by stinkyattic
No, humus is just a general name for composted plant matter like you would find on the forest floor.
I suspect that humus made from the leaves of deciduous trees is the best; this is just a hunch, but leaf compost is very nice stuff either way.
Rhizome gave a good soil recipe on KDSpecial's latest thread under 'indoor'; I trust his judgement better than my own, but my hunch here is to go heavier on the seaweed stuff and lighter on the cow manure. One thing that a couple fertilizer companies are selling now is soilless mixes that also contain coco fibers as a texturizing component, and I am going to be experimenting with that type of mix in my outdoor container veggies this summer!
Lesse, what else... baking soda would be a pH UP component, and not a great one lol; cider vinegar would be pH down and it actually isn't all that terrible... you're going to want to test the pH of each of the compost components going into your mix anyway just to make sure they are in the right range. Only add the lime if you find that your pH is too low to start with.
Perfect. You gave me the answers I was looking for. I'll ck out KD's thread, and take a gander at that recipie. I meant my ph down was lemon juice (ha ha I get them mixed up...both lemonjuice and baking soda are crap i've found), but I'm going to get cider vinegar, now that you said that. That was a helpful tip and I don't remember it. I'm still repotting this time around, I want to use this mix and get things in order (so I don't mess up the super important ones I want to grow) or start the next try. I verily want to rep you, but alas I cannot so I bow down before thee instead.

I will test my mix before potting. That is something I hadn't thought of or done before-again der. I'll take your advice and try to go heavier on the seaweed/shirimp (no one else has talked about shrimp I wonder how it will do..ooh how exciting) What a day!

Thank you, thank you. I'll post pics later of the whole fiasco.

Stay tuned to see if Bree kills or saves her plants!!

:jointsmile: Bree