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No more store bought compost for me


 
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phoenixtropicals
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Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 1207
Location: Mesa Arizona

PostPosted: Sat Dec 31, 2011 1:01 pm    Post subject: No more store bought compost for me Reply with quote

Well, after years of using store bought compost, Nature's Own brand, I finally decided to read the ingredients. It includes Gypsum... what?! While I agree that gypsum is useful in certain situations, sprinkling gypsum constantly around your plants it not good. It's a recipe for salty soil. I wish I had realized that years ago. It explains why I have salt burned some plants to death.

So, I am just going to make my own mulch/compost from now on. The real compost thing with the rotating barrel and fully composting of everything seems a bit too slow and high maintenance for me, so I am going with the "mulch pile" approach. I'll take grass, trimmings etc. and throw them in a pile. To fertilize my most sensitive plants I'll put a very thin layer of some of this green/brown mix around them a little ways from the trunk. I know that green grass clippings are a bit "hot" and can burn plants if piled on so I'll just using them like fertilizer and sprinkle them in and mix them up with the rest of the brown black compost.

Also, the green stuff is actually full of nitrogen so I think I'd be losing some of that N if I fully compost everything.
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mullenium



Joined: 01 Apr 2010
Posts: 192

PostPosted: Sun Jan 01, 2012 10:59 pm    Post subject: omg Reply with quote

gypsum is salty? no wonder my mangos are getting burned!

I used it in my planting mix with all my potted plants as that popular gritty mix floating around on the web calls for gypsum to improve drainage... will the flushing ive been doing help remove that stuff? or do i need to consider other options?

that would explain maybe why the gold nugget mango died.. maybe i had too much gypsum in that pot.

each planter has half a cup of gypsum in the mix

I'm freakin out now Smile
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ajbcirc



Joined: 13 Apr 2011
Posts: 97

PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 1:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Wow. I used to use a a cup every year to neutralize salt per CUBIC YARD.

You may need to consider repotting.

People should be using perlite and not gypsum in their container mixes for drainage. Gypsum is a cheap, but extremely poor substitute.
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phoenixtropicals
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Joined: 06 May 2008
Posts: 1207
Location: Mesa Arizona

PostPosted: Mon Jan 02, 2012 2:23 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Since you've had those mangoes in pots for a while I would imagine that most of the gypsum has washed out by now. It does leach out fairly easily.
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