Newbie Question about growing mediums

Well I have got to the state where I have NO original soil left to add to my compost
As in, for the past year I have container planted, 50% original soil, and 50% compost from bags mixed up

This may be a serioulsly stupid question
Is it OK just to plant up in compost

Yes I now know the difference between compost and manure

Jack McHammocklashing

 

I plant everything that I am growing on in Multi purpose. I have some variations:

John Innes Seed Compost for starting seeds off (in shallow "pans", or [small] seed trays

Mix 1/3rd (or in some cases 1/2) Perlite for cuttings. I have used this on plants that want good drainage too, but they dry out SO fast in Summer I'm not sure its that good an idea.

I use John Innes No. 3 for long term planting on containers. I find it easier to "wet" than multi purpose, and it doesn't shrink - Multi Purpose (when it dries out) shrinks around the edges and all the water runs down the sides of the root ball :(

That's it. I never put soil in - the stuff out of the bag is sterile, I don't want to introduce weed seeds etc.

All the pots of things being grown on are then planted out, so in effect those N x bags of Multi Purpose all wind up "improving" the veg patch and garden.

 

Thanks all, I think I have got it but I am thick

What I am trying to establish/say, is
I have now reached the stage, where all my original soil/earth from the garden has had so much compost added to it, that basically all my gardening is done on compost, from bedrock up, which also gets a feed of home made compost (eventually) and Horse Manure (aged)(and not on the quarter that is to be used for carrots and onions this year)
Yeah I am thick understanding, What was once orginal palebrown/yellow soft earth, as once a farmers field in 1840, is now Dark brown soft rich stuff,that I have ended up with

Do you need some of God's own original earth for things to succeed, or am I doing OK as I am

Jack McH (I really should have got an education :-)

 

You're not thick Jack, just big boned:WINK1:

I see what you are getting at now.

Soil is a mixture of rock particles/minerals & organic matter.

Compost is mainly just the organic matter.

If you've just got compost the veg may lack some of the minerals that it, and you, need. Hence the feeding of compost grown veg.

Its a simple matter of giving a dressing of the minerals it might lack, thats not hard work, just a sprinkling of Garden Lime or old lime mortar from one of Folly Mons brick cleaning sessions.

Blood Fish & Bone meal is good, along with Rock Dust. Should be somewhere up near you where there are Volcanic Ash deposits. I'll have a look for you when I find my geological map of Scotland

Calcified seaweed is also good, got trace elements in it that will be lacking in compost alone.

 

Blimey Jack, looks like Fife was a Crucible,

http://www.snh.org.uk/publications/on-line/geology/Fife_Tayside/volcanoes.asp

You should have the lot there, lying about on the ground

 

You are OK as you (now) are, but some soil won't hurt either.

 

The local quarry, when you ask to buy rock dust, just gives you a broom and a bag
then laugh at the idiots sweeping all the dust up
They even have a laugh at it in the Pub, "of suited gentlemen from Edinburgh coming to sweep their workplace clean"

Jack McH

 

They are obviously oblivious to the benefits of Rock Dust ...

 

Then you have found the real idiots then Jack I get the same when I offer to sweep up leaves for the neighbours & take them away. They don't know the value of it to a gardener.

 

Excellent read, I live below the east lomond hill on the South side

At least I now know where these one off 2' round boulders come from a bugger to dig out
I was going to the tip tomorrow with several mixed stone boulders dug up two foot down
I think I will just sledge them now and chuck the remains back in my plot

Jack McH