wrote in message
...
On Sat, 16 Dec 2006 12:18:30 GMT, "0tterbot" wrote:

hello,
my first gripe - modern potting mix just seems to be useless!! stuff does
not grow in it properly!! (i fully expect my one potted tomato to drop
dead
shortly. it's perfectly healthy for now, but with my new set against
Modern
Potting Mix, it surely cannot last!!)

my second gripe is that my last batch had mites in it(!!) i was having a
bit
of a bad day so i used it anyway, but the cuttings died & when i pulled
them
out there were maggoty things in there. (baby mites, i'm assuming.) now i
don't know what to do about the rest of it. i don't want to spread mites.
if
i cook it in the oven, will the mix still be any use afterwards? should i
cook it in the oven (or pour boiling water on it) & just dump it & try
the
other bag instead? (which, being Modern Potting Mix, won't be any use
either
whether it has mites or not g. ) or are mites quite all right in small
quantities in a garden?

on the bright side (i've finished griping now ;-) we have two loquat (i
believe) trees, which we've essentially ignored. today i realised one has
some ripe fruit! we ate one - it was fabulous!! so now i feel rather
silly
that i never even watered the poor things - not even once - we might have
had more fruit (it only had 5 - ahem). the only, i might add, fruit we'll
probably get from any of our trees this season, as the frost killed off
all
the peaches, apples, etc. next year i am going to do my best to ensure
loquats a go go, they're fantastic (and apparently frost proof). and
furthermore, our second crop of willy wagtail babies has just been born
(in
the aforementioned loquat tree - it might not have many fruits, but is
producing baby willy wagtails quite well g. you'd think with all my
willy
wagtail watching, i'd have noticed a few fruits before now, wouldn't
you?)
kylie


What brand are you buying? If you get the cheap brands as sold by
supermarkets, then expect
problems.

I've found Debco and Amgrow brands to be very good.

the batch with mites (any ideas about that, btw?) is amgrow, funnily enough
:-) not sure if i've ever had debco or not, but it's just that for the last
10 years or so, i haven't been able to get _any_ that's nice, squishy &
loamy like one used to get. i've got it from various sources, including that
made at one of the "resource centres" (or whatever it is they call the tip
these days) in canberra, & it's all the same - full of woodchips with barely
any dirt-type stuff, dry & nasty. the "good" stuff seems no better than
cheapie supermarket stuff i (must have) bought at times. some i used while
at a propogation course at the c.i.t. (like tafe) in canberra, they made
themselves & it was much nicer, i must say. i asked our teacher who
confirmed that the recipe for potting mix has, in her experience, totally
changed in recent times - it's "meant" now to be more of a holding medium
than a soil.

the big problem i have with it atm, as i don't have any potted plants at all
atm (except one tomato) is that i grow seeds in it, & they come up & it's
all good for a while, but then the seedlings just stop growing, but they're
often not big enough to plant out yet. some i have repotted afresh & they
have another go, others i just put out into the garden & hope for the best
despite their tininess. those that live, once in the garden recover
completely & start going gangbusters.

am i doing something wrong?
kylie