DIARY OF POTTING/GARDEN MEDIUM COMPARISON - ISMAIL'S and YOURS

[Dianne Caswell]

At the January GV at Lissa's we had a guest speaker Ismail Moola, from Nutri-Organics. It was decided that those who purchased his Potting/Garden Medium might like to do a comparison test with the view to seeing which product performs best and fruits with a better tasting product.

It would be good if we could all keep a photo diary here to show the performance results. It would also help if we could each write a little piece about the performance/fertilizing products and methods used/bugs how you fixed the problem/moulds, fungi, wilt, virus/ etc. Don't forget to date your entries.

[Dianne Caswell]

I have decided to put the mix straight into our Compost Bin. Hopefully it will do some good there.

[Lissa]

I'm trusting in Rob's theory about the water holding and subsequent anaerobic problem. If I blend it with existing soil in the bed hopefully it will be alright to use.

[Rob Collings]

I put 2 bags (50 Litres) mixed into the top 100mm of one of the wicking beds around 2 weeks ago. The pepino, okra (base only visible) and shallots were present beforehand. Al the rest were seedlings, the rainbow chard were very tiny and have grown rapidly and one of the eggplants has a fruit forming.

I believe that the raw N.O. mix was holding onto too much water, starving the plants and microbes of oxygen and becoming anaerobic as a result.

[Elaine de Saxe]

Any potting mix never goes to waste! Top up existing pots or just add it to the open garden. I'm always looking for mix with all my bins and so on which sink down continually.

I take it you're not getting a refund on your purchase of dud mix :-\

[Lissa]

I now have the problem of what to do with the two bags of Nutri Organics I have left :/ I spread the stuff out of the wicking pot in a spot where nothing is growing at the moment.

[Lissa]

Ismail's response HERE

Oops! My sincere apologies about this. It means I have to go back to the drawing board. I know my grow mix is very rich in Biota and has a more complete range of nutrients. What I have now come to realise (especially after studying an analysis of Searles Premium mix) is that my mix does not have the plant growth boosters that it has. This is I now realise a deficiency in my mix. (Although there is a caution here – too much booster and plants grow weak and attract insects to attack it). It’s back to the drawing board for me. It will probably take me another couple of months to change the mix , add more growth boosters in balance and trial it out.

I am glad to hear of the water retentive capacity of my mix.

Thanks for the feedback. Every hurdle brings you that much closer to success if you learn from the hurdle. I will now create a mix that is Nutrient rich, biota rich and gives good growth.

Once I have done this and been satisfied with its performance I will replace all the ones that you have bought from me. 

[Lissa]

Not a lot of change. The strawberries are doing better in the Searles.

I have a bottle of Ismail's Nutri Organics Complete Plant Food which I haven't started using yet. If it makes a difference then the question begs why pay $15 for the bag of soil in the first place?

[Andrew Cumberland]

And that is the advantage of independent trials. 

[Rob Collings]

Here are the 2 on the 16/02  Searles premium on Left, Nutri-Organics on Right.

At this stage it seemed that Ismail's mix was water saturated and I removed the bottom tray from the planter. There has been adequate moisture present in the mix just under the fine cane mulch upon checking since tray removal. Searles planter has not recently been holding water post watering (as I'm watering via water can a lot in the current dry conditions).

Here are the 2 on the 29/02  Searles premium on Left, Nutri-Organics on Right.

[Dianne Caswell]

No all the pots are further off the wall than it looks in the photos.