BellaOnline Forums Home and Garden Container Gardening Potting Soil (or the lack thereof)

I have to confess =0

I haven't yet bought my worms; my tomatoes are coming along but I haven't had enough sprouts yet to plant more pots.

I am glad you brought this up Judith. I need to know this before I put them in. <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I've decided to put three worms per three gallon pot. It's an arbitrary number: one worm per gallon. For the heat of summer, I'm going to bury the pots up to a few inches from the rim, and since there are holes in the bottom, I hope the worms can leave if they run out of food.

I would go for 6 worms per pot based on an old fishkeeping formula...if you have 6 of a kind, there's an 88% chance of reproduction. If I'm not mistaken, though, worms are hermaphroditic and will consummate regardless of number.

Put a little oatmeal or some table scraps just under the soil and the worms will happily stay in the pot; otherwise, the more adventurous ones will likely find the hole in the bottom of the pots and escape, wild and free.

Burying the pots is a good idea for when it's really hot, but why use pots for food crops if you're going to bury them anyway?

We grew up on my mother's "Organic Gardening" subscription. When we ran out of novels, it was always there to help fill the long summer hours. I'm sure if I looked, I'd find them somewhere, and there wouldn't be a whole lot of difference between then and now. <img src="/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

I want to bury mine (only 1/2 way or so) because I have gophers. So a raised bed with ample chicken wire or container gardening are my two options. Also, burying would keep the roots cooler.

I adore O.G. magazine.

Makes sense. Carry on! <img src="/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Exactly. They are protected from gophers in the pots. But the main reason is that I can leave the containers in my greenhouse while the weather is still cool at my elevation (it was 39 degrees Fahrenheit a couple nights ago), and move the containers back into the greenhouse in the fall. It gets too hot for them in high summer, but using the greenhouse in the shoulder seasons extending my growing season substantially.

So anyway, I put worms into some of the pots, and when I went back to see, two worms in one pot had not bothered to dig in - they just lay there sort of leathery looking. I felt terrible. I've decided not to put any more worms in the pots. For some reason, they just don't seem to like the soil, and I am worried.

A while ago, I posted a topic in the main gardening index
( http://forums.bellaonline.com/showflat.p...=0#Post22866921 ) asking about this potting soil, but have had no replies. Is it proper etiquette to post my question again here in the Container Gardening index? I think this is a better place for it after all.

Hi Judith:

I think you can post the same question in related forums without anyone minding. I surely don't. It's funny, I remember putting in my .2 about that when I visited, but it didn't show up on the board.

Okay, my theory is that the bag of soil was stored near the chemicals, fertilizers, what have you. I seriously doubt that anything beyond what was listed on the label would be included in the mix for a number of reasons. But I do notice that the aromas of garden centers are very tenacious and do tend to permeate the packaging of other products.