potting mix frustration

 hello,
my first gripe - modern potting mix just seems to be useless!! stuff does
not grow in it properly!! (i fully expect my one potted tomato to drop dead
shortly. it's perfectly healthy for now, but with my new set against Modern
Potting Mix, it surely cannot last!!)

my second gripe is that my last batch had mites in it(!!) i was having a bit
of a bad day so i used it anyway, but the cuttings died & when i pulled them
out there were maggoty things in there. (baby mites, i'm assuming.) now i
don't know what to do about the rest of it. i don't want to spread mites. if
i cook it in the oven, will the mix still be any use afterwards? should i
cook it in the oven (or pour boiling water on it) & just dump it & try the
other bag instead? (which, being Modern Potting Mix, won't be any use either
whether it has mites or not <g>. ) or are mites quite all right in small
quantities in a garden?

on the bright side (i've finished griping now ;-) we have two loquat (i
believe) trees, which we've essentially ignored. today i realised one has
some ripe fruit! we ate one - it was fabulous!! so now i feel rather silly
that i never even watered the poor things - not even once - we might have
had more fruit (it only had 5 - ahem). the only, i might add, fruit we'll
probably get from any of our trees this season, as the frost killed off all
the peaches, apples, etc. next year i am going to do my best to ensure
loquats a go go, they're fantastic (and apparently frost proof). and
furthermore, our second crop of willy wagtail babies has just been born (in
the aforementioned loquat tree - it might not have many fruits, but is
producing baby willy wagtails quite well <g>. you'd think with all my willy
wagtail watching, i'd have noticed a few fruits before now, wouldn't you?)
kylie

 Hi Kylie, congrats on the willy wagtail babies!! A huge butcher bird keeps
eating mine...very sad. As for potting mix, the only stuff I've had any luck
with (I even use it for Bonsai plus other stuff of course) is spent mushroom
compost; a bag from Big W is about $8 I think? My modern potting mix is
horrible and won't grow a thing either. Give the mushroom stuff a go. Did
you manage to get hold of my dad?

 
i haven't tried yet! i had this idea of contacting him for some tips after
<hippie solar dude> visits us - well, mainly i'm just very disorganised, i
think! do be sure to tell him not to _wait_ for me <g>. sorry about that.

thanks for the mushroom tip! i've been thinking about getting some after
reading through (parts of) garden len's site, & other sites where people
sing its praises, (& also it is cheap!) i feel a bit more inclined to track
some down now & see what it's like. there's no way it could be worse than
some of the crap i've had recently.
thanks!!
kylie

 

Absolutely! I used some once to mix some bonsai potting mix, and noticed the
change in the trees, so now I use it for everything. See if you can track
down a local mushroom farm as they sell it cheapetr than Big W.

Dad won't mind when you contact him, he's not exactly the most time
conscious person either....probably a better idea to chat to hippie solar
dude about what you want to do first anyway.

 I hate to gloat, but I drive past a mushroom farm every day - I can pick up
spent compost for $32 pm - or $3 per bag - straight out of the growing
room - complete with mushrooms, and more that pop up for the next few days.
But yes, it is fabulous stuff - even makes good mulch.  It dries out quite
quickly if spread over the surface, then breaks down slowly over a few
months - and NO Weeds :-)

Cheers,
Geoff