SMALL-SCALE FARMING

How to make your own potting mix for vegetable starts

It’s more economical and is fun besides

I can’t remember where I first heard this recipe, but it was over a decade ago, and it’s still the best one I know of. If you’re doing lots of starts (as in hundreds), this is much more economical than buying bags of potting mix. This is what we’re using this year at the Eloheh Indigenous Center for Earth Justice.

Ingredients:

• 1 bag Perlite, 4 square feet, preferably “propagation grade”
• 2 bags Worm Castings, 1 square foot each
• 2 blocks, Compressed Coconut Coir, only one size, I’m pretty sure. Might say, “expands to 2.5 cubic feet”

These ingredients are all appropriate for certified organic agriculture.

Coir is the main growing medium here, Perlite is for drainage, and the Worm Castings provide nutrition to the young plants. You can go with one bag of Worm Castings for plants that will spend a very short amount of time in pots before being transplanted out, like Squash (winter, summer, cukes, melons, gourds, etc.).

You can also add fertilizer to this blend. I add an organic complete organic fertilizer to batches of this I’ll be using for needy starts…