Charlie wrote in message
...
On Sun, 12 Apr 2009 23:53:36 -0500, "cat daddy"
wrote:

After emptying the pots, I looked at the still incredible soil and
wondered about the conventional wisdom of not re-planting in the same
stuff.
Were nutrients depleted? Would diseases appear? One way to find out......

I did this last year and had fine results with my peppers, cherry
tomatoes and eggplants in pots. I dumped all the "spent" pots, mixed
in a bunch of fresh compost, alfalfa meal, chopped dried leaves,
granulated fish, blood meal, bone meal, epsom salts...kinda of a
sorcerer's mix of what was on hand....waved the wand and danced the
dance and pronounced it fine....and it was. I innoculated later, and
often during the summer, with "Catdaddy's Fire in the Hole Tincture of
Compost" and had the best pot crops yet.

That is great to know about re-using the potting mix. I like the
"sorcerer's mix" concept a lot. Thanks for the reminder on the epsom salt. I
have about 10 lbs. lying around. And, the only other things I want is a bag
of alfalfa meal and one of dried molasses. And, grab a bunch of coffee
grounds regularly. I really added nothing for the Fall tomatoes, and feel a
little extra would be nice this time.

I'm really digging trying new ideas, especially ones that go against
the conventional wisdom.

It has been said, that one must start seedlings in sterile mix, and
yada yada? In Feb I decided I needed to start onions and leeks one
night and had no starting mix, so I used some old miracle grow potting
mix i had cabbaged from somebody's curbside trash. Nary a problem.

Makes one wonder about "conventional wisdom" being all it's cracked up to
be. I don't believe in sterile.....

So, taking the easy way out, I put the stuff back in the pots and
planted
away. I figure I'll make a batch of compost tea to re-innoculate anything
that's missing, and feed with the egg shell/banana peel/molasses slurry
that
I use as a good luck potion and see how it goes......


I really like easy.

If memory serves me correctly, isn't your slurry simply blenderized
ingredients listed above? I would guess in whatever amounts one deems
appropriate. ;-)

Yeah, I should have just called it a smoothie....... I figure the micros
will pick out what they want of whatever I throw in.