Re: [MittleiderMethodGardening] grow box sawdust
> I, too, have used the pine shavings that are intended for animal bedding, mixed with the coarse sand, in a new grow bed. We got a great harvest.... The bedding/sand broke down nicely over winter...
Teri
Dr M detailed the ferts needed, macro and micro. He allowed roots to seek any micros that were as yet, unknown to science. The Mittleider method can be used in terribly poor "soils," and has been termed, without derision, soil-based hydroponics.
Been even straight hydroponicists hammer the point of needed air! A poor soil could be sand in one case, where everythi g drains away, but in another, a nutrient rich clay allows virtually no air due to clay's fine particles filling all the voids which exclude air, as well as water.(with nutrients,) travel.
I am slightly surprised to bear of pine needles breaking down in a year. Interesting! But many regular soil gardeners (western more than eastern US, due to soil acidity,) use pine needles to lighten soil. Aka, "add air."
With a fine sawdust, I see this as the issue. It can pack and exclude air. Along with vermiculite (which holds water,) and perlite (which holds very little water,) pine needles and some coarser pine shavings can help keep your mix, "light.." Straw (seedless hay,) is sometimes chopped up for mushroom or garden-soil use. For a season, it has some resistance to compaction, so, holds air.
Again, I would suggest making a bucketful of each mix you that want to try, wetting it well and equally... then dumping it and squeezing a handful to the point it almost doesn't drip and adheres together. Open your palm and give it a gentle poke with a finger. If it falls apart to some degree, you may have enough air holding ability. The term is friable or friability if you want to seek it. It indirectly says, this "soil"/medium is not too sticky; it allows air.
I see no reason to exclude chips of wood which are under marble-size, unless they consitute the majority of your mix. Hydroponicists sometimes are poor and use pea gravel with some added medium to hold moisture, like straw or sawdust. Coarse pieces can help keep air voids. They may last years, whereas fine sawdust alone might be glop, in one season.
I would not hand water such a fine mix with coarse droplets from waist height. Even dirt gardeners admit that rain and such watering can eventually compact a soil. This excludes air and reduces waterflow through the "soil-column."
Keep us appraised. Keep a log of your mix in your garden notebook.
BillSF9c
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Posted by: Oowonbs <OOWONBS@Netscape.net>
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