It's a chilly winter morning in Lancaster, California, after a low last night of 29 degrees, and I have all of the supplies I need to do the soil experiment I've been dreaming of!
We're going to start with a few plants of Spinach Bloomsdale that have been growing in the "vietnam" section of the garden, out front, blocked from the chilly winds of the arctic. I have 6 plants, all in slightly amended clay soil, and they have been wildly underperforming since they went in the ground a month or two ago.
They're just not happy in the amended clay soil.
So, the experiment will consist of removing three of the spinach plants from their garden homes, and placing each of the three removed plants in a pot with "special" soil.
Hopefully this experiment will make it very clear which soil mix is superior for growing vegetables. The resulting winning soil will be used to fill my raised beds!
A visitor.... Cute little hooded sparrow.
And now, the soil ingredients......
Top Soil
Vermiculite
Peat Moss
Garden Gourmet Compost
Garden Gourmet ingredients...
Compost
Super Soil Potting Soil
The three pots of soil
Pot #1
Post #2
Pot #3
Pot #1 is a 50/50 mixture of Garden Gourmet compost and Top Soil (plus a couple of trowels of worm castings, a tablespoon of blood meal, and a tablespoon of bone meal)
Pot #2 is a mixture of 1/3 compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 vermiculite. Most online sources say this is THE soil for raised beds, growing amazing vegetables, etc. Oh, I also added a couple of trowels of worm castings, a tablespoon of blood meal, and a tablespoon of bone meal, just like I did with Pot #1.
Pot #3 is commercial Super Soil. I did not add anything else, just super soil.
Now, back to the spinach.
The icey leaves have thawed, and it's time to transplant the spinach plants.
The spinach plants are in their new homes!
Pot #2
Pot #3
Pot #1
Let the experiment begin!!!
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