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.

[Andrew Cumberland]

I knew you'd give him a damn tough run.  Your mix is fairly impressive.  Just check that his is not closer to the brick house - if it is, the reflected heat is burning his toms. 

[Dianne Caswell]

It has been a month since we began the trial of Potting Mediums. All pots were watered with nothing but rain water and fertilised with homemade worm juice made with worm castings. We have been experiencing very hot weather with hot drying winds.

[Lissa]

20.02.16

Not much has changed - bit of leaf die off. The days have been hot and dry and I moved the pots to a sunnier spot.

Toms "Italian Heritage" and strawberries "Sweetheart".

[Lissa]

Toms "Italian Heritage" and strawberries "Sweetheart".  The pots are deep and should accommodate the roots ok.

[Dianne Caswell]

Good to see a different plant being trialed. Strawberries, yum yum.. I will provide the Home Made Gelato.

[Lissa]

Have set up two wicking pots a la Elaine's method of using a pot, making a hole towards the bottom and filling the entire pot with mix.

[Susan]

Ooooh, I'm going to be watching this experiment closely :)  Plus, I get to see all your beautiful plants progressing. 

[Rob Collings]

I cannot use the ground mix I make in a planter, due to the deco granite & crusher dust making it too heavy, nor do I have large amounts of good humus or worm castings to fill my spare planters.

Usually, in planters or pots, I would use Searles Premium over 75% of the time. I always give my food-growing pots and planters a watering of fish tank water at about 1-in-6 waterings and I will continue with this format on the Searles comparison planter and leave the Nutri-Organics planter with tap water only (at the same frequency).

I'm not comparing mixes exactly (the Searles needs the boost for veg growing, it says it on the packet and that's what I've been doing for the past 1 1/2 years), I'm really seeing if the Nutri-Organics is a mix I can use without additives (for the first few months), as I do when I add the NitrateFishTankWater to the Seales, and wish to see if Nutri-O. can produce the same or better results to the planter/pot process I've been running with for a while.

Below - The Seales Premium is the left hand planter and the Nutri-Organics is the right hand planter.

Below - Searles Premium Planter

Below - Nutri-Organics Planter

Both 60 Litre planters have - 

Roma tomato seedling

Carrot seed

Turkish Eggplant seedling

Mustard greens seed

Capsicum seedling

Dwarf Bean seedling

[Lissa]

I was also thinking of getting tomato plants to test my product. Seeing as I do so badly with toms, if they succeed that will be a good indicator.

I have a workshop on this coming weekend but will try to get it up and running on Sunday.

[Andrew Cumberland]

You are giving him a tough run Dianne.  Your compost/coffee mix is actually a very good one.  If his is noticaebly better, then he is doing something very right.