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Posted

In reading the good book of Cultivated Palms, the authors mention that alot of palms like a humus rich and well draining soil.  So in my endeavours to find such a soil I searched at HD and Lowe's and found nothing that matches the description.  However, I did find a humus/pete soil mix at Wal-Mart.  But when I opened the bag the mix was a thick mud, too thick for palm roots to survive in such a dense medium.

So my question is where can I find a humus based and well draining soil all in one?

Jeff?  Joseph?  Any ideas?

Thanks

Dave

Jacksonville, FL

Zone 9a

 

First Officer

Air Wisconsin Airlines (USairways Express)

Canadair Regional Jet

Base: ORF

Posted

Dave,

From Wikipedia - In agriculture, "humus" is often used simply to mean mature compost, or natural compost extracted from a forest or other spontaneous source for use to amend soil. The process of "humification" can occur naturally in soil, or in the production of compost.

It would take a lot of compost or humus to amend your landscape soil to create the environment that many palms prefer. One of the benefits of mulch is that it breaks down and improves the soil over time. For potting, I use peat moss, which is humifed sphagnum moss and the humification takes place naturally in bogs. The stuff you found at Wal-Mart would probably work fine; it just needs to be mixed with others stuff such as perlite, sand, etc. Also, if it was wet, I wouldn't buy it. I think there is another thread around here discussing the best mix.

I buy my peat moss in large blocks (6 ft3) from a local nursery. When I run out or don’t feel like mixing much, I buy a professional potting mix from Home Depot. I don’t have a bag around, but I think it contains mostly peat and perlite. It’s a little too humus for palms so I add either top soil (cheap $1 bag from HD) or sand.

Posted

You can mix pine bark nuggets (mulch) into the soil to increase drainage.

Zone 7a/b VA

Posted

(Turtile @ Jul. 08 2007,23:10)

QUOTE
You can mix pine bark nuggets (mulch) into the soil to increase drainage.

Thanks Kathryn.  

Turtle, I do have a bag of pine bark chips although I made the mistake of using them as a layer alone at the bottom of the pot to increase dranige.  Somehow the weight of the soil on top of the bark caused it to smash down and create a seal at the bottom of the pot and I had standing water above the soil. :angry:

But I think next time I'll try mixing the bark in evenly.

Dave.

Jacksonville, FL

Zone 9a

 

First Officer

Air Wisconsin Airlines (USairways Express)

Canadair Regional Jet

Base: ORF

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