Organic Mechanics Container Blend Potting Soil!

The second product we introduced to the Organic Mechanics brand was our Container Blend Potting Soil. Launched in 2008, Container Blend (CB) was built for use in outdoor containers. It has increased drainage as compared to our Premium Blend Potting Soil, making it the natural choice for all your outdoor containers. CB has more aged pine bark and coconut husk fiber...less compost and worm castings...and was formulated for growing perennials, grasses, & woody plants.

We constantly hear reports of people using CB to grow native plants, especially perennials, without having to add fertilizer, yet still experiencing solid growth and flowering. However, if you are like me and jam a lot of small perennials into a giant container, you may want to give the plants a little bit of organic granular fertilizer, or liquid fertilizer like kelp, worm casting tea, or fish emulsion to ensure the container overflows with growth.

We pioneered Organic Mechanics Container Blend while working with The Scott Arboretum of Swarthmore College, www.scottarboretum.org. Their horticulture experts use Container Blend in all the big containers on campus. They add additional slow release fertilizer to get these containers reaching their fullest potential each summer. I love their use of mixed containers, sometimes planting tropicals, annuals, perennials in one big container...love that plant exuberance!

Another difference gardeners will notice in our Container Blend...we replaced the perlite (little white stuff) with rice hulls to make the mix more earth-friendly. These OMRI listed rice hulls are produced in the southern US, parboiled to get rid of weed seed and plant diseases, dried, compressed, and packaged for shipment. Giving these agricultural byproducts new life in our blends helps to lower our carbon footprint and gives the mix a lovely, fluffy texture.

How does using rice hulls make our product more earth-friendly you might ask? Using them reduces the amount of perlite we use. Perlite is a silica ore, mined from the ground, shipped to processing facilities, and "popped like popcorn" by heating the crushed ore to tempertures above 1000 degrees fahrenheit! While rice hulls may not be ideal in all applications, it works wonders in our Container Blend Potting Soil.

Even though we reduced the amount of compost and worm castings in this blend, you will still notice having to water much less as compared to peat-based mixes. Who doesn't love spending less time dragging hose around the garden!?! A story I always tell is from 2009 when my wife and I were out of town for a week in the middle of June. We left without finding someone to babysit our garden...don't know how that slipped my mind since we had about 300 plants in containers at the time...oh, yeah, that's right, its because we were going to get married! But I digress. 9 days out of town, only a passing shower or two, and everything planted in Organic Mechanics made it through...only a few new plants I hadn't yet repotted didn't make it. If you have similar stories from using Organic Mechanics, please share them with us!

Have beautiful containers planted up using Organic Mechanics Container Blend Potting Soil? Please share them on our facebook page, www.facebook.com/organicmechanicsoil

Until next time, get out there and get your hands dirty!

Organic Mechanics Premium Blend Potting Soil - OMRI Listed!

Our Premium Blend Potting Soil began rolling off the line back in 2007. A handful of retailers picked us up and we were born into the world of local, independent garden centers and natural food stores. We have come a long way since then, thanks to all of you who supported Organic Mechanics! We now offer four distinct retail products, Premium Blend Potting Soil, Container Blend Potting Soil, Planting Mix, and Worm Castings. The next few blog posts will cover each of our products in detail, to give gardeners a better understanding of our products and how to use them.
As I was saying, it all started with our Premium Blend Potting Soil. Like all our mixes, Premium Blend (PB) is compost-based. It also contains aged pine bark, worm castings, coconut husk fiber, and perlite. How is PB different than our Container Blend Potting Soil you might ask? They are both potting soils for container gardening, but PB has more compost and more worm castings as compared to Organic Mechanics Container Blend. As a result, PB holds moisture even longer than Container Blend, making PB a perfect choice for houseplants, small windowboxes, hanging baskets, tropicals, or for growing food in containers (tomatoes, peppers, etc, etc).
Using Organic Mechanics Premium Blend Potting Soil for the first time, gardeners will notice having to water about half as much. Can you imagine! Dragging the hose half as much during the heat of summer?! It’s true. The compost and worm castings hold water exceptionally well. Even though PB has excellent moisture retention, the pine bark and coconut fiber create pore space for the all important oxygen to get to plant roots. Just like us, plants need to breathe.
Learning to water properly is a skill worth its weight in gold. Too often, people love their plants to death by over-watering. How can you tell if a plant needs water? Certainly, if it’s wilting, it needs a drink. However, most plants are better off when they do not wilt in-between watering. Until you build up the experience to just know if a plant needs water, the easiest way to check is to use your finger to dig into the soil root ball, about 2-3 inches down. If you feel moisture, the plant is OK. If it is dry to the tip of your finger, it’s time to re-water. Here is a tip on knowing if you are feeling moisture or not. Go to the sink, place a single drop of water on your finger, give a quick shake of your hand, then feel your finger with your thumb. That residual moisture will be similar to what you would feel in the container if the plant was still OK. Check our website for a video on this process! http://www.organicmechanicsoil.com/tv-watering-organic-potting-soil.html

Wondering about fertilizer choices? As with all potting soils, you will want to fertilize if you are growing vegetables or annuals in PB. You don’t want two peppers…you want a dozen peppers, right!?! We recommend organic fertilizers to go along with the exceptional beneficial biology inside each bag. Visit your local independent garden center for the best selection of organic fertilizers and ask them to recommend a brand. I like liquid fish emulsion & worm castings for feeding my plants (and the microbes around their roots!), but Bradfield Organics is a great granular fertilizer for that extra punch to get those plants growing!
Next post…all about Organic Mechanics Container Blend! Until then, get out there and get your hands dirty!