Either buy compost for propagation, or you can make it. With homemade you know what’s in there. See possibilities here: having good materials to make your own needs forethought and that you made suitable compost.
Why compost not soil?
Compost has a fine crumb structure, good aeration, decent drainage. Although the soil at Homeacres is great soil, it is dense and wet in cells and pots.
What makes a good mix?! In order of importance:
1 Nutrient density, 2 Good drainage, 3 Holds moisture, 4 Weed free.
I show three possible main ingredients sieved to 4mm,
1 Own compost
2 Worm compost
3 Woodchip compost – must be dry enough to sieve, makes manure difficult
PLUS in small amounts (and why) are soil, perlite/vermiculite, sand, minerals like seaweed powder, wood ash, basalt dust.
00:04 Any new sowings are for trial purposes!
00:38 Multisown radish, 5 seeds per cell
00:54 Result with homemade compost when it’s good
01:39 Dramatic comparison between 2 different composts
02:04 What is digestate ‘compost’
02.31 So-called ‘organic’ compost
02:49 My composts for this video
03:00 Result of sieving homemade compost to 12mm / half inch
04.20 Result of sieving composts to 4mm / 1/6in
04:58 Composts need to be dry for sieving to work
05:58 18 month old compost 4mm
06:25 Three year old wood chip to 4mm
07:07 Worm compost to 4mm, includes a little soil from being on the ground
07:58 How to run worm composting at different scales
09:17 Be creative, according to what you have available
10:10 Amazing weight differences of soil, compost, vermiculite
11:29 Wood ash
11:51 Rockdust from basalt / volcanic
12:38 3 kale plants, 6 months in 2L. pots of different composts
13.15 (spent) Mushroom compost
13:44 Propagation fun
14:16 An easy way to mix ingredients
Children’s Gardening Book https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/no-dig-childrens-gardening-book/
Online propagation lessons, short course https://charlesdowding.co.uk/product/skills-for-growing-online-course-module-2-seeds-sowing-and-planting/
We did more compost trials in the greenhouse last spring https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XnoZ4jvrY5g
And this is one of me How to Propagate https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veevYVUBakA
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