Making soil

[Pond digger]

So; if you had a pile of peat, a pile of sand and a pile of clay, what proportions would you mix them in, to make a good general purpose blend (ignore the nutrient requirement for this exercise)?

 

[PSQ]

 

[Pond digger]

Thanks but I'm not too sure how to read that. Perhaps I'm being thick: not for the first time.

 

[mikep]

Peat, contains nutrients holds water acidic
Sand no nutrients won't hold water acidic
Clay some nutrients holds water neutral .
Peat and sand have a structure sand doesn't.
Mix and match.

 

[milkloss]

Is that by volume or weight?

 

[KMA]

For the sake of your exercise I'd go 2 parts peat, 1 part sand, 1 part clay but you'd need to add lime.

When making up stuff for my planters I found 1 part sand, 1 part clay garden 'soil' (clay) and 2 parts compost felt about right (I garden by feel), then adjust the pH to around 6.5, plus nutrients depending on what I'm trying to grow.

 

[Pond digger]

For the sake of your exercise I'd go 2 parts peat, 1 part sand, 1 part clay but you'd need to add lime.

When making up stuff for my planters I found 1 part sand, 1 part clay garden 'soil' (clay) and 2 parts compost felt about right (I garden by feel), then adjust the pH to around 6.5, plus nutrients depending on what I'm trying to grow.

Thanks for that.

Having had a bit of a google, it seems that loam is 2:2:1- sand, silt, clay and 5-10% organic matter. However this isn't much help in practice, as my ingredients are not pure; so it will be as much a matter of feel/appearance to get the right mix.