Anyone use Loam for there outdoor/indoor soil grows?

[kisanth]

I was wondering if loam is OK to use as a growing medium?

I understand that loam is made up of sand, silt and clay with a negligble amount of organic matter, thus it would need to have nutrients amended to it but then again everyone seems to amend Pro mixes anyway.

So, why pay $23 for 3.8 CuFt (in my area) for Pro-Mix BX when you can get a yard of loam for $15-$20 (in my area)? Both need amending.

I think a large bag of Perlite ($20) would be enough for maybe 2 yards of loam. That's 18 CuFt of growing medium for $50-$60 plus the amendments you would normally add.

Thanks in advance for any and all enlightenment,

k.

Conversions:
1 CuFt = 1728 Cu In
3 gal grow bag = 693 Cu In

[kazzy1]

Is the loam sterilized? If not it might have a lot of pathegons.

[resinman]

i have always had a weak root system in the sandy based loam

Holds water well maybe to much


resinman

[kisanth]

kazzy1, thanks for stoppin by, I doubt the loam was sterilized. But I can't imagine the loam having any more pathogens than the rest of mother earth and people plant straight into the ground all time, right?

resinman, nice to see you. I thought water retention might become a problem so I built, a flower box if you will, 8'x12" by 10" tall and filled it with a loam Pro-Mix mixture (3 to 1). So far so good.

My old moms from my E&F table were the first ones to go into the boxes and they wilted (overwater wilted) for the first 4 days then perked right up.

Here's a pic of a box with 5 LUIs in it. This is my first pic upload here @ the new site. Seems a little more difficult than the old CW. Here it goes,

k.

[resinman]

that looks good kisanth



nice pic



so you mixed perilite in there too,,,



resinman

[kisanth]

Thanks resinman. ;)

The Pro-Mix has perlite in it. I can't remember if I added any more, but it's possible.

Here's a pic of a box that's 8'x2' 10" tall that I put a bunch of plants from seed into just to sex them. The mix here was 2 to 1 (loam to Pro-Mix BX). No extra perlite added to this mix, just what was in the Pro-Mix.

k.

[kazzy1]

Ohhhh you are using it outdoors!! of course then you wont have to worry about pathogens. It would work great just like you did adding pro-mix to the loam. By the way pro-mix does have perlite already in the mix :)

[kisanth]

I was thinking for indoor or out. I just happen to be using it outdoors right now though. I know Pro-Mix has perlite but I figured I'd add more since I was adding so much loam to the mix.

So using loam indoors is a no-no due to the pathogens? Unless it's sterilized first?

k.